The Amazon River Exhibit

You know, every now and then you have experiences as a mother that are so outrageous you are not sure whether to share them or not.  Part of you wants to tell people just for the sheer shock of it, but the other part of you wants to just bury the cold, hard truth and never reveal the true adventures of real life motherhood.  Well, a few days ago I had just one of these experiences, and I guess you can tell which of the above options I decided to choose.

 

It all started with a harmless visit to the Phoenix Zoo.  I'm not sure what would possess me to take the kids anywhere in the triple digit heat, but being the accommodating mother that I am, I finally obliged the kids and we made the trip. 

 

The first twenty minutes were pretty uneventful, strolling past some tropical birds and a few large land tortoises. 

 

Then, at the Amazon River Exhibit, all the fun really began.  As part of their exhibit they have a big tank of Amazon River fish--aka man eating piranhas!  The two older kids and I were quite interested in the tank, and as I sat reading them the sign on the front of the tank, I was totally oblivious to the two younger kids who were scaling the rock wall on the side of the tank.  Totally oblivious, until Emma started screaming that two-year-old Mason had fallen into the tank!  At first I thought she was joking, but then I looked over and saw little Mason, slowly sinking into the murky water.  I screamed! Then I quickly scaled the rock wall myself and despite my lifting restrictions, somehow managed to safely fish Mason out of the tank!  For a good ten minutes we all sat there on the ground in shock.  Then, as I turned back to the Amazon River Exhibit sign, I suddenly burst out laughing.  What a disaster!  And what a misfortune that in all the shock I didn't think to pause and snap a once in a lifetime photo of Mason trying to take a swim in the treacherous zoo exhibit!  I did snap this photo of him looking rather filthy after I pulled him out though.

 Truthfully though, the moss and the zoo river slime on him were nothing compared to the smell he absorbed from his ten second dip!   It was almost sickening!  And embarrassing to say the least!  Still, we had driven for a half an hour and paid a fortune to get into the zoo. I wasn't about to turn around and go home.  So, I did the next best thing.  I had him climb into a little zoo fountain about a hundred yards from the tank.  Everyone stared at him, but he happily splashed around in the fountain and when nobody was looking, I took out the baby wash in my bag and soaped him down as well as I could.  Then we proceeded to visit the rest of the zoos many other exhibits. 

Before long, we came upon the zoo's splash pad, and after some initial hesitation, I simply decided to let the kids have a go at it in their clothes.  Mason was already soaked, and to be honest, another good washing wouldn't hurt his grime imbedded clothes.

It was another moment when I had to ignore the stares of other self righteous parents, but hey, it's like I said, sometimes real life motherhood isn't as glamorous as good old Leave it to Beaver and Donna Reed made it out to be.  Oh well, what would life be without a little adventure.  And how many kids, after all, can claim that they took a swim in the Amazon River Exhibit! Now that's worth a few dirty looks and a little parenting persecution!