When temperatures reach the mid-70s in the middle of a polar vortex-dominated winter, you go to the zoo, like everybody else. We did on Saturday, and, yep, everybody was there. It was wonderful. The weather was beautiful. Perfect, really. But the treasure of the day was Lily. Lily has been to the Nashville Zoo a few times already, but this was the first time she really had fun. She slept in her car seat in most previous trips. Not this time. We put her at the head of the double-stroller, and she white-knuckled the tray in excitement. If she could speak, she might have said, "Look at this world ahead of me. Ain't it the grandest!" (Yes, I often envision my youngest as a 1920s flapper.) Even though she was in the front of the stroller, she couldn't get front enough. She kept leaning forward, and she kept trying to get more forward. When you're with two young kiddos like we were, you don't expect to see much of the zoo, especially when you're going at th...
For the record, I don't know what Lily does there. I drop her off with the nice ladies. And I go for a run, a steam and a shower. When I return, Lily is asleep in her car seat. When we get home, she'll sleep for another two or three hours. She'll skip lunch for that sleep, she's so exhausted. Like I said, I don't know what she does at the Y, but I can tell you my suspicions. When I drop Lily off at the Y Play day care area, the ladies there (usually three of them at a time) light up. It's like I'm bringing a house of orphaned girls (lacking any real toys to play with) a puppy. They snatched Lily from the car seat and start cooing and giggling and tickling and pinching. And, of course, Lily loves the attention. That's how I leave them, the ladies adoring the baby (Lily is usually the only baby among the older kids, stomping around the place). So my suspicion is the ladies don't stop cooing, and the baby doesn't stop gumming out a smile, duri...