Wild Things

The word wild has gotten to be a bit cliche these days, no? Let's be honest, most of the time we use the word "wild," we don't mean it. For instance, when someone has "Wild Cherry" something, it is flavored in a science lab and not by a naturally grown fruit. And when one describes another person as a "wild man," they typically mean they are unpredictable or out of control, not that the person has gone native and ceased wearing clothes, taking showers or speaking human languages. Last but not least, Buffalo Wild Wings is fun and tasty, but not wild. I'm pretty sure they aren't even based in Buffalo. Anyway, today, Micah and Mal got their taste of something truly wild.

The twins were invited to their friend Tessa's second birthday party at the Jacksonville Zoo. I took the morning off work to help usher kids around the park and ensure Rachel did not go insane. The first task was not too hard - I came equipped with a double stroller, a Baby Bjorn backpack carrier and two healthy arms to carry kids. However, the second task was not so easy. Rachel was flustered before we even entered the park due to Malorie exploding her dirty diaper all over her fancy yellow bloomers. Thus, every picture you see of mother and daughter, you will notice Mal's diaper showing, and mother wearing an extra worry wrinkle.

Aside from the mess in the Zoo parking lot, our wild adventure went pretty well. Micah and Mal got to see lions, penguins, elephants, snakes and the infamous Jacksonville Jaguars. Malorie even got to feed a giraffe. Micah, for his part, was a crowd favorite all day, eliciting comments from passers by. He spent most of the morning in my arms, sucking his thumb and watching people and animals while wearing his uber-cute zoo outfit. After lunch in one of the zoo gardens, the party ended, and Micah and Mal were both as tired as I have ever seen them. Neither kid made it to the car before falling asleep.

When we got home from the zoo, Rachel and I expected our wild adventure to be over, and in a way it was. In the true meaning of wild, as in exotic animals, things were no longer wild. But the rest of our day would still be wild in that cliched, not really wild way. See both kids had new tricks to debut for us. When we got home from the zoo we laid Mal in her bed to finish her nap. About ten minutes later we heard some noises from in her room, so we opened the door to find our daughter had sat up all by herself in her crib, and was playing. Wild. Then, later in the afternoon, I gave Micah his bottle, and he held it all on his own and ate the entire thing without my help for the first time ever. I may occasionally rally against using the word wild in situations that don't merit use. But, the only word I could think of as my son ate without my aid was "wild." Overused or not, today was wild, I tell you, wild.