June 27, 2008

Hello again! Just a short post tonight because it's late and we've had a pretty manic day! We were up and out early this morning to go on Charlie's playschool outing to the Zoo Farm Park. The weather wasn't what we'd have chosen - misty drizzle alternating with pretty heavy rain - but we were lucky in that it rained mostly when we were indoors!
Charlie had a great day - I think the bus ride with all his friends was almost as much fun as the end destination, as far as he was concerned! He and his fellow mischief-makers nabbed the back seat of the bus there and back, so much fun was had by all!
He really enjoyed seeing all the animals, but was particularly taken by the small animals which were available to be held. We've promised him a guinea pig or two once he's had his heart fixed next time, and he spent a good 40 minutes sitting with a guinea pig on his lap - 'Just practising Mum, for when I get mine!'. He was so gentle with it, and was so happy just to sit talking to it and stroking it.
Here's a picture of him with 'Scratchy' (name chosen by Charlie, because the girl handing out the animals didn't know any names!)... and he's decided that if he gets two guinea pigs of his own, he wants to call them 'Scritchy-Scratchy' and 'Scratchy-Scritchy' - Scritchy and Scratchy for short! (PS If you look hard at the end of his right eyebrow, you can make out what's left of the bruise he got at the party last weekend! - Pete's been calling him Bruiser all week!)
As well as getting hands-on with the small animals, he also went on a tractor ride, fed some baby lambs, met some giraffes, zebras and rhinos and really enoyed himself in the enormous indoor playbarn.
The only slight mishap during the day was when he climbed through a big tube on a climbing frame which was full of rainwater and soaked his trousers from waist to ankle. Doh.
I stopped carrying spare sets of clothes around with us several years ago, so we wasted a good half hour with Charlie sitting in the bathroom wrapped in my coat, while I frantically tried to dry his trousers under a singularly ineffective hand dryer! Hey ho - at least he thought it was funny!
Not long now until we head off to the sun - Charlie's really excited about the whole idea, and has been practising saying 'Hola' and 'Adios', in between counting how many days are left until he goes on the plane!