Did you ever have one of those days?

Today was it for me.

The boys are sick, colds, with coughs. So we've been avoiding our normal group activities, OT, Music Class, etc. in an effort not to infect the rest of the world. In not doing our normally scheduled activities, that leaves a few extra mornings that need to be filled with activities. This week we've been to the Aquarium, Quail Botanical Gardens, The Zoo and we've even spent a morning wandering the horse trails.

Today I wasn't really sure what to do, I just knew we had to get out and do something. I woke up feeling sub par, my throat was a bit scratchy, and my ribs hurt. I'm sure I got kicked or something but I'm really not sure how they got hurt I just know it's hard to take deep breaths. So knowing all of these things, it makes perfect sense to head to the Zoo.

The only downside to the Zoo is that there aren't a lot of places to let the boys out to walk, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting them out to tire them out. (But being that they are both a bit under the weather it's not a bad choice.) I guess the other downside is that this means I spend most of the day pushing around 53 pounds of baby, 35 pounds of stroller, and a couple of pounds of miscellaneous stuff, like lunch. That's close to a hundred pounds! Granted it rolls, but no matter how you look at it, rolling 100 pounds up hill, is a chore. Plus along the way, you have to stop and look at what ever is along the path. That means starting up hill from a dead stop. About half way though our morning I decided that I would NOT come home and run on my elliptical, this "hill workout" was more than enough.

The boys enjoyed their ride, we got out a bit at the Children's Zoo, and then settled down for lunch. This is where a nice day turned.

I went to the snack stand window, asked them to heat up Ryan's meal of choice, Dino Bites, and I was met with resistance. "HUH?" Now, I've been going to the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park for at least a year now. Once, maybe twice a week. And for the last nine months, I've had someone in a snack stand heat up Ryan's Dino Bites. And for the last nine months I've only had one encounter where they refused, I then walked a few steps to the next stand and they obliged. This time I was told no way, no how, impossible, health code, microwave settings, rules, blah, blah, blah. I then pointed to my adorable boys and said, "Just last week, right here, I had these heated up, Friday! Never ever had any problems, now how am I supposed to feed my children???"

Well the unyielding inflexible nice lady gave us 4 chicken tenders for Ryan to eat but absolutely refused to heat up ours. Many of you are aware that Ryan is a picky eater. He really only consistently eats Dino Bites and sweet potato fries. And he is a brand snob. He'll eat other Dino Bites, but he does have his favorite brand and that brand he eats with gusto.

We sat down to eat, Ryan took one bite of these chicken tenders, chewed it for a while and spat it out on the floor. He looked at me and signed chicken and said "bok, bok". Of course I said "right in front of you honey" And with all his earnestness, Ryan looked at me and said "NNNO" tossed half of his chicken on the ground and repeated, "NNNO" With no alternative, I told him "Eat your chicken honey!" (I also lectured him on not throwing his food on the floor) Then the crying shrieking began. and it continued. and continued. Here is the point where if I was a mom of a singleton, we would have left immediately. But as I was desperately trying to get Evan to eat his lunch, Ryan sat and shrieked. All I could do was suggest to him that it was all right, and he had a perfectly good lunch in front of him and all the crying in the world wasn't going to change that chicken into something he'd eat.

It was a miserable lunch. People looking at us must have shook their heads and thought what is wrong with that mother and why can't she control her child. I did get sympathetic looks from a mother of twin three year old girls, but I was too busy trying to regain control to notice disdain or other.

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The icing on the cake of this day, I made my fajitas for dinner, sat down, took a bite, the salsa had gone bad. Argh!!!

All is not lost, I just finished a bowl of sunshine.