Tragic Sandwich

Tag: zoo

  • Anatomy of a Birthday Weekend

    Or, What We Did On Our Birthday Vacation

    Thursday (our birthday weekends start early, by necessity)

    • Tour a school that we might want Baguette to attend next year.
    • Decide that we do not want Baguette to attend that school (it seems like a very good school–just not what we want for her).
    • Clean the house.
    • Clean the patio and back yard.
    • Go to speech therapy and music therapy.
    • Go to Costco and buy food and birthday cake.
    • Clean the house.
    • Make items for party games.

    Friday

    • Clean the house.
    • Clean the back yard.
    • Do some work that needs to be done even if I am on vacation.
    • Clean the house.
    • Clean the back yard.
    • Clean the patio.
    • Welcome grandparents and great-aunt, who are visiting from out of town.
    • Go out to dinner.
    • Clean the house.
    • Make party favors.

    Saturday

    • Make party favors.
    • Clean the house.
    • Clean the patio.
    • Make signs for food.
    • Clean the house.
    • Clean the patio.
    • Locate the Happy Birthday banner we bought two years ago.
    • Put up the Happy Birthday banner.
    • Locate more tape for the Happy Birthday banner.
    • Make the salad.
    • Put the Happy Birthday banner back up.
    • Welcome guests. Realize again that we have invited a really large number of people.
    • Abandon hope of keeping the Happy Birthday banner up.
    • Make sure parents and children are enjoying themselves.
    • Call the pizza parlor and confirm that the pizza is actually going to be delivered.
    • Make sure that Baguette has the chance to find some quiet time.
    • Put out the pizza, salad, and signs for the food.
    • Realize that I have left another parent supervising Baguette in the front yard for far longer than is reasonable.
    • Ask Baguette if she wants pizza. (“No thank you.”)
    • Ask Baguette if she wants macaroni and cheese. (“Yes.”)
    • Bring a chair we took outside for the party back inside, because Baguette wants to eat at the table in the breakfast nook like she always does, not at the table on the patio where her friends are.
    • Make sure everyone gets food.
    • Eat one slice of pizza and some salad.
    • Realize that, in spite of all the cleaning, the living room still contains a case of baby wipes and a 3-pack of contact lens solution.
    • Decide not to care.
    • Bring out the cake and put candles on it.
    • Try to light the candles.
    • Try to light the candles.
    • Try to light the candles.
    • Try to light one candle, which is the most that we may be able to keep lit with the breeze.
    • Abandon hope of lighting the candles.
    • Serve the cake.
    • Encourage Baguette to say “thank you for coming to my party” to as many children as possible.
    • Say goodbye to everyone.
    • Try to get Baguette to nap.
    • Abandon hope of getting Baguette to nap.
    • Regroup with grandparents and great-aunt when they come back from their hotels for dinner.
    • Order Chinese food.
    • Eat Chinese food (adults) and macaroni and cheese (Baguette).
    • Open presents from grandparents and great-aunt.
    • Accept that the most enticing part of presents is the paper, which tears interestingly and can be draped as a fetching hat.
    • Say goodnight to grandparents and great-aunt.

    Sunday

    • Have morning meltdown (Baguette, with collateral damage to Mr. Sandwich’s hearing).
    • Regroup with grandparents and great-aunt.
    • Caravan to 7-11 for coffee.
    • Caravan to L.A. Zoo, because it is the weekend and therefore we go to the L.A. Zoo.
    • Look at zoo animals.
    • Get in line for lunch.
    • Take Baguette for a walk, because the line is too long. (Mr. Sandwich)
    • Realize that Baguette is screaming, and Mr. Sandwich is waving energetically from outside the cafeteria.
    • Take Baguette and try to comfort her.
    • Realize that 5 feet away, a zoo docent is holding a small constrictor.
    • Consider one’s pathological fear of snakes.
    • Ask Baguette if she wants to touch a snake.
    • Confirm with Baguette that she wants to touch a snake.
    • Hold Baguette while she touches the snake.
    • Wash Baguette’s hands.
    • Eat lunch.
    • Leave zoo.
    • After Baguette falls asleep in the car, take advantage of the situation to trim her fingernails while Mr. Sandwich runs into the hardware store.
    • Go home and let Baguette unwind.
    • Make brownies for Baguette to take to day care the next day for her actual birthday.
    • Watch Baguette start to spool up again when grandparents and great-aunt rejoin us for dinner.
    • Try to prevent meltdown.
    • Fail.
    • Take Baguette into her room, comfort her, and tell her that she can take time to calm down, but that we will be in the living room so she doesn’t feel abandoned.
    • Give Baguette iPad when she asks for it. (Mr. Sandwich)
    • Be grateful that, this time, the iPad helps her come out of the meltdown instead of exacerbating it, because there is no predicting.
    • Send grandparents out for In-N-Out.
    • Welcome Baguette when she comes back to the living room, feeling better.
    • Feed Baguette one of her favorite noodle dishes.
    • Tell Baguette that we will be on patio, and that she can come out when she wants to.
    • Eat In-N-Out while Baguette plays with party games on back lawn.
    • Say goodbye to grandparents and great-aunt, who are returning to respective homes on Monday.
    • Give Baguette a bath.
    • Open a few gifts for Baguette and talk to her about what they are and which of her friends gave them to her.
    • Write thank-you notes to those friends.
    • Wrangle Baguette into bed.
    • Sleep fitfully.

    Monday

    • Put brownies in car.
    • Take thank-you notes to day care, along with party favor for one guest who didn’t get one.
    • Give brownies to teacher.
    • Realize that Baguette would still really prefer to have some quiet time.
    • Recognize that at this point there is nothing to be done about that.
    • Drop off thank-you notes.
    • Wonder how ABA will go tonight.
    • Wonder how birthday phone call with aunt and uncle will go tonight.
    • Wonder if Baguette will catch stomach bug that is running rampant through her school.
    • Think about how, at this rate, it will take several days to open Baguette’s presents.
    • Go to work.
    • Really, really intend to write the rest of the thank-you notes.

    Little girl in chair, covering face with "Happy Birthday" balloon

  • Baguette, of Late

    The last six weeks have been pretty incredible. Toward the end of December, both Baguette’s day care and our workplace closed for the holidays. At the same time, her evening ABA therapist got married and took a few weeks off. We did schedule one session with the therapist who goes to her daycare, but for the most part it was a real break for all of us.

    We’ve discovered that these breaks are very important. Routine lets Baguette learn new skills; the breaks are when she shows us what she can do. And when this break ended, she kept going. Here is a not even remotely exhaustive list of the new things we’re seeing from her.

    • She answered a question with a specific response: When Rockin’ Elmo said, “What do you want to do now?” she answered, “Run on the grass.”
    • She didn’t just quote, but imitated the “how do you wrap a present” segment from the Elmo’s World about birthdays.
    • On New Year’s Eve, she let Bestie watch videos with her on the iPad.
    • One day, after several viewings of a “Happy Halloween” Sesame Street compilation on YouTube, she came up behind us when we were in another room and said “Boo!”
    • One evening, she said, “Want carry you.” Then she jumped up into my arms and yelled, “Whee!”
    • Another evening, before bed, she sang first the first two lines of her favorite lullaby by herself.
    • She played with her Connect Four game and took turns with her stuffed lion.
    • When coloring, she enhanced a drawing of an elephant to show it spraying water with its trunk.
    • This morning, she used her Sesame Street-inspired gift-wrapping skills to help wrap Bestie’s birthday present.
    • At the zoo:

      • * “The elephant is eating the carrots”
      * “Look, an elephant”
      * “I see a lion”

    • After climbing and playing on the elephant statue at the zoo playground, she ran back, hugged it, and said “I love you. I love you.”

    small girl sitting on statue of elephant

    To a lot of people, these developments may not sound like much. But for Baguette, and for us, they’re huge.

    She’s communicating in ways she never has before. She’s expressing a complexity of thought that is new. She’s interacting in ways that we haven’t seen.

    Because not only will she let the lion take turns at Connect Four, but when she completed a task at day care and her teacher asked her if she wanted to pick a friend to jump with, she walked up to one of the little boys in her class and held out her hands to him.

    It’s hard to know who was happiest about this–us, her teacher, or the little boy, who apparently was overjoyed that the girl who talks to no one had picked him out of the group. But probably the answer is that we were happiest. Because we know what it took her to get here.

  • Summer in Santa Barbara

    I wish we could spend the whole summer in Santa Barbara, but I really can’t complain about having a week there. While Kauai is our top vacation spot, it’s a little out of our reach right now. Three plane tickets are expensive, and Mr. Sandwich and I agree that Baguette is not yet ready for the flight experience.

    Fortunately, Santa Barbara is only about an hour and 15 minutes away by car (if traffic isn’t bad, which it often is). So for the last four summers, we’ve gone to Santa Barbara for our vacation. We prefer to rent a condo or other place to stay, and have had mixed success with that based on budget and timing (year 1–Motel 6; year 2–studio which I mistakenly thought had a kitchen; year 3–Homewood Suites in Oxnard, which was further away but a terrific place to stay; year 4–cottage behind the owner’s house, and dingdingding I think we have a winner).

    As on prior visits, we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo (three times), destroyed sandcastles and splashed at Leadbetter Beach (twice), visited the ducks and the elaborate playscape at Alice Keck Park and the adjacent Alameda Plaza, and drove out to Ballard to see Sicilian donkeys at Seein’ Spots Farm.

    Elephants

    DCIM113SPORT

    Ducks

    Playground1

    Playground2

    Donkey

    Because we had a kitchen, we ate breakfast in the cottage most days. While I like to go out to breakfast, I don’t like to have to go out to breakfast. We did get pancakes once at Garret’s Old Fashion, which is becoming a must-do on our Santa Barbara trips, but most mornings I was really happy with my toast and sunflower seed butter accompanied by yogurt and berries.

    We did tend to eat lunch and dinner out, although even then we brought home leftovers that covered a few more meals. The standout new-to-us place was Eureka! In addition to excellent burgers, they had an array of beers and whiskeys.

    By the way, in the past we’ve looked for bookstores in Santa Barbara. Apparently my previous Google searches failed miserably, because it turns out that there’s been an amazing one in our go-to neighborhood the whole time. It’s an independent store, and it’s got a children’s section that is large enough to be a separate children’s bookstore. So if you’re ever in Santa Barbara, stop by Chaucer’s Bookstore. You won’t be sorry.

    Chaucer's Bookstore in Santa Barbara

    And of course, we also paid a visit to McConnell’s.

    McConnels

    In the end, Baguette didn’t want to leave Santa Barbara–and, truth be told, neither did we.

  • Santa Barbara Sojourn

    Santa Barbara – what’s not to love?
    Every girl needs a jaunty hat. Even if it’s her mother’s.
    Exhibits were made to be climbed.
    Whee!
    A girl after my own heart–when I was trying online dating, my full ad title was “Mary Jane Watson Seeks Peter Parker; No Green Goblins Need Apply.”
    Time for a run (so, also a girl after her Daddy’s own heart).
    BEACCCHHHH!
    Photo by Mr. Sandwich
    Giraffes enjoy being hand-fed romaine lettuce, and Baguette enjoys hand-feeding romaine lettuce to giraffes. Win-win!
    Who needs a straw cup?
    Never go in against a Sicilian donkey when grooming is on the line!
    Baguette’s first time on the carousel. Mommy’s first time not riding a horse.
    Finally! The beach!
    We are not sure when the beach became so important to her life. This is her third trip ever.

  • Beach Blanket Baguette, Part 1

    It’s been a long time since the Sandwiches had a real vacation–and, technically speaking, this was Baguette’s first. Yes, we’ve gone out of town to visit family, but we’ve also stayed with them, so there’s been a bit of a safety net. After some discussion (consisting in early stages of “Hey, did you want to go somewhere this summer?”) and some rudimentary budgeting (consisting largely of “It costs how much to fly to Kauai this year?”), we settled on Santa Barbara.

    Next up: Where to stay. Unfortunately, the condos in our price range were not available in our date range, which meant that we needed to find a hotel. Motel 6 to the rescue! I’ve never stayed in a Microtel, but this is what I’ve imagined those are like: tiny, with the basics (although this room does have a surprisingly large bathroom, all things considered). But it’s clean and mostly in our price range, so here we are. And on the whole, it’s been a good base of operations. So what have we done from this base?

    The Santa Barbara Zoo is just off the 101, close to the ocean, and home to the first capybara I’ve ever seen. Unless you count the ROUSes from The Princess Bride, of course.

    Bridlewood Estate Winery features not just a few racehorses, but also one of the few chardonnays I’ve actually enjoyed. I’m not a big wine drinker (or drinker of anything, really, other than water), and I don’t tend to like wines that are too dry. This one wasn’t, so I bought three bottles. Baguette of course drinks no wine at all, and she’s a little afraid of racehorses, but that didn’t stop her from calling out “Wicket!” in an attempt to get their attention. (On this trip, we learned that Baguette thinks all animals–and some humans–are her dog.)

    One late afternoon, we went to Hendry’s Beach (that’s the local name–the “real” name is Arroyo Burro Beach). This is Santa Barbara’s dog beach, and there were dogs as far as the eye could see. Baguette wanted to run after each one of them, but was easily distracted by the ocean–she loved the waves and the sand, and had a wonderful time on Baby’s First Beach Trip.

    At the heart of town, Stearns Wharf is home to the Ty Warner Sea Center, where Baguette touched a shark and was delighted to find any number of fish, sea stars, and otters which are apparently named “Wicket.”

    Mr. Sandwich and I found the dioramas of elk, bears, birds, and newts at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to be delightfully old-school–although upon reflection we realized that neither of us has been in a natural history museum since perhaps the early 1980s, with the result that we don’t have the slightest sense of what is new-fangled in this field. It’s possible that the process of reinterpretation has passed right by this subset of museum management, and it’s also possible that modernity has passed us by, since I actually said “new-fangled” out loud today.

    Santa Barbara is home to two wading pools; we went to the one at West Beach. Since Baguette loves the pool (a recent discovery that has helped us conquer her fear and loathing of all things bath), we thought that an 18-inch-deep one might be just her speed. She had a wonderful time, although her big discovery was the tiny shower (a place to rinse feet, for those of us taller than an elf). One can only speculate about possible changes to her opinion of normal-sized showers.

    For a change of scene, we spent a couple of late-afternoon hours at Shoreline Park, stretched along the clifftop overlooking the ocean. You know you’re in an upscale park when people are grilling not hot dogs, but lobster. Speaking of lobster, you’d think by now I’d know enough to put on sunblock. Apparently I spent so much time worrying about whether I’d applied enough to Baguette that I neglected to remember that even the English think I’m pale. Now I have an odd assortment of gradated tan lines along my arms, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to peel soon.

    Fortunately for my sunburn, our last activity (on the way out of town) was the Santa Barbara Greek Festival in Oak Park. Oak Park is very shady, with lots of trees–it is aptly named. We thought the festival sounded like fun, and we were pretty sure Baguette would enjoy it. She loves music and dancing, and we were pretty sure a Greek festival would offer her that entertainment. And indeed it did! She just has no idea she was there, because she fell asleep and stayed out the entire time we were there. But while she missed the festival, she also stayed asleep for nearly the entire drive home. And much as we enjoyed our vacation, it is good to be home.

  • Virtual Zoos

    Whaddaya think? Yea or nay?