Well...I did it

Many years ago, when I was young, immature, and worked at the mall, I remember seeing parents with their children. There were happy families with kids in strollers. Screaming moms and dads chasing their kids down the mall "You get back here this instant!" And then there were the parents that I believe I called "evil". You see, they were evil because they had put their children into a harness-leash type contraption. I remember thinking to myself "That is so cruel! Why would you want to leash your kid up like a pet?"

I KNOW WHY!!!

We went to the zoo the other day. It was nice and warm and sunny, but not too hot or too sunny. Just perfect weather to go to the zoo. We renewed our zoo pass for the year (had to upgrade to family because Marshy is older now), and headed in to the zoo. We had Marshy in the little umbrella stroller. Of course, this didn't put him at a good enough height to see the animals, so Mike got him out almost immediately.

Marshy did really well. He held our hands...for the most part... at the beginning. We saw the geese (scared Marshy pretty bad), the peacocks (scared him more). We saw the Ghost of the Bayou (white alligator and yes, it freaked Marshy out). We talked to the monkeys for a while. Saw the black bears (had some good memories and laughs). Watched the elephants eat hay from a basket hanging from the roof of the enclosure. We saw the Pallas cat stalking the local songbirds that happened to land in his pen (this was the first time he had ever been awake, and was quite fun to watch). We saw the Lynx out of their enclosure. The tiger who happened to be on a spraying spree (which is why we didn't hang around....I know he's no Liger, but we didn't want a repeat incident!) Then we went into the reptile house. Now, it's not all reptiles. It has birds and snakes and meerkats and porcupines and rabbits and little cats. There are signs everywhere:

"Please don't tap on the glass"

and

"Please keep your voices down"

Needless to say, Marshy broke both these rules. He would run to one enclosure, bang on the windows, and then scream at the top of his lungs while he ran to the next one. Mike and I followed behind saying "Shhh! Don't do that! NAUGHTY!" Our stay at the zoo did not last much longer. We went back outside and put him in his stroller and walked to the exit.

The next day I bought a harness-leash contraption at Wal-Mart for $8.95 (they must be on sale at my Wal-mart because they are more expensive online). It is a monkey backpack, with a pocket and everything. He loves it. I still feel a little bad about the whole restraining him thing, but . . . . At least I don't have to run around after him like those parents I saw at the mall. No more screaming "NO! You stay by mommy!" or "Don't run out into the parking lot!" Those days are over.

THANK GOODNESS!