Shoes Aren't Food

Thursday’s StrollerFit classes are right across the street from the zoo. So, I know this is going to come as a big shock to ya’ll, but as we were leaving Jayden asked if we could go to the zoo. I said sure, as long as he knew we couldn’t stay too long. My plan was to check out a few animals and then head back home and have lunch here. So, we walked around, we fed the fish, honked at some nesting geese, contemplated feeding the giraffes, but that made Jayden a little anxious so we moved on to the tigers, and then for our last animal we were going to speed walk on over to the lions and then head home. Well to get to the lions from the tigers we have to walk around Africa - the giraffes, rhinos, elephants, and hippos. Jayden asked if we could swing by the hippos real fast and see if they were in their pool. Sure enough they were. The wall around the hippo pool is too high for the kids to see them while sitting in the stroller. So Jayden jumps out, and if Jayden is out then there is no way Willow is going to stay put. So I pick her up and hold her in front of me so she can see the hippos. She stuck her little foot through one of the bars and then kicked around a few times…mostly because she wanted me to let her stand on the wall by herself, but there was no way I was doing that, everybody knows hippos are mean suckers and I’m not letting her fall in…but on one of her kicks she managed to hit the side of one of the bars and her shoe. fell. off. It fell off! Right into the hippo pool! I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh Willow, your shoe!’ The other woman standing there with her kids looks at me a little funny, then looks down at the hippo pool and says, ‘Oh my gosh! Your shoe is in there!’ Duh. Then the hippos start to move. It swims right over to Willow’s pink shoe, nudges it with it’s nose a couple times, then pulls it under the water. Jayden is completely traumatized. He’s keeps saying, ‘Mom, I’m scared! Mom, I’m scared! That hippos has Willow’s shoe! We need to get it back! Mom, get her shoe! I’m scared! The hippo has Willow’s shoe. Now Willow only has one shoe, she needs her other shoes. Bad hippo!’ I’m like, ‘What the heck are you scared of? The hippo? The shoe? The hippo can’t get us and I’m pretty sure Willow’s shoe is toast. Get back in the stroller, we’ve got to go find someone to tell them what happened’ The lady who was standing next to me says, ‘Wow, it’s amazing that hippo knew right away something got thrown in the water’ Ummm, yea, hippos ain’t dumb lady! They like food, look how fat they are! :) I am thinking, where the heck is my camera??? I would of so taken pictures of Willow’s shoe floating around just for the blog and proof of it to hold it over Willow’s head later! :)
So on my way to find a zoo person, Jayden can’t stop talking. He is a total verbal processor (ahem, Grandpa Fireball…..) He keeps talking about it and asking questions and talking and asking, and he talks really fast (I suppose that comes from me, as my mom always used to call me motor mouth). At one point he said, ‘Mom, we need to go get Dad. Dad will come back and sword the hippo and get Willow’s shoe.’ ‘Mom, I need to go get a fishing pole. Then I can get the shoe from the hippo. That is what God told me. God, who lives in my heart, told me to get a fishing pole to get Willow’s shoe back. That’s what I need to do Mom’

So, I finally find someone, tell them that my daughter dropped her shoe in the hippo pool. I had no intention of getting my shoe back, but I didn’t want to read in the headlines about one of the hippos at the zoo dying because they choked on a hot pink sandal. She radios my message in and I hear a lady on the other end say, ‘She dropped WHAT in the hippo pool?’ Oh, how I wanted to say, “ha ha ha, just kidding, April Fools!’ The zoo person tells me on my way out to check with the entrance because if they find my shoe, that’s where they’ll leave it. So, we head off to the bistro so I can get the kids something to eat while we wait to see if the sandal can be retrieved. Jayden still can’t stop talking. He’s talking so much he can’t even eat his chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets, people. Jayden loves chicken nuggets so much, he asks for chicken nuggets for breakfast all the time! I was leaving to go to the store last night and I said, ‘Jayden, anything you want me to get you?’ He says, ‘Just make sure you have some chicken nuggets! That’s all mom, chicken nuggets!’ And now he can’t even manage to calm himself down enough about the shoe to eat some! Jayden stops a lady who is going around cleaning tables and starts saying that hippos aren’t suppose to eat shoes, and that hippo made a sad choice. Of course he’s talking a million miles an hour so she’s having trouble following him. When she looks at me and I clarify that she has indeed heard correctly, a hippo ate Willow’s shoe, she just says, ‘Oh, dear…’ and moves on. Another woman was sitting at a table next to us, cracking up, listening to Jayden’s story. She says, ‘I thought those things only happened to me!’ And then continues to chuckle to herself. Funny, lady, funny.

I wrap up Jayden’s left over nuggets and load the kids up to leave. Jayden, still very concerned about the shoe, asks if we can check the hippo pool one more time and see if we can see it. I’m like, fine, but then we’ve got to go. We see no shoe in the pool and head towards the entrance to see if the shoe made it there. I go up to one of the windows and say, “Um, yes, my daughter is the one who lost her shoe in the hippo pool. They told me to check here to see if you were able to get it.” The lady sitting at the window just looks at me like I am pulling an April Fools joke on her. But then another woman comes up behind her and says, ‘Oh yes! They were able to get it!’ She holds up Willow’s shoe just barely touching it with her thumb and index finger and says, ‘I’d probably wash this, the trainers had to tell the hippo to spit it out!’ Oh. My. Gosh. Nasty! I’d wash that shoe even if the hippo didn’t eat it, have you ever seen hippo water?????

So, the shoe is totally intact, a few stains that I’ll see if I can get out in the wash. But of course, I ran into the woman from the bistro on my way out to the parking lot. She goes, ‘Did you get your shoe back?’ I’m like, ‘Oh yea, the hippo had to spit it out.’ She just starts laughing again and I turn around and speed walk the kids out to the car. :)



And now for you…the story in Jayden’s words…just so you have an idea of the intensity and speed at which he was talking and asking questions…