Breakfast with the Peacocks

Last night Tim suggested that we take the kids to Tim Horton's to get doughnuts for breakfast.  I wasn't entirely receptive to this idea at first.  Our usual protocol for morning is thus:

Durham gets up at 5:30am, Mama feeds him and rocks him back to sleep.

Mama goes back to bed at 6 am.

Ainsley gets up at 7am.

Mama punches Daddy in the arm and says, "Ainsley is up.  Go make sure she doesn't pee her pants."

Daddy gets up at 7:03 am and immediately goes into his bathroom to relieve himself.  Ainsley could be urinating all over herself and the carpet at this point.

But who am I to talk?  Because by 7:06 I'm already back asleep while Tim gets Ainsley to the potty and situated with breakfast.  

Going to Tim Horton's would throw a monkey wrench into my sleeping in plan.  Tim suggested we take our doughnuts to the park even.

Sleeping in or taking my children to the park with doughnuts?  I can't be a heartless mother, so I agreed.  

Morning came.  Durham and I were up at 5 am rocking and sleepily drinking a bottle.  I went back to bed for an hour and Ainsley was up.  Alrighty, time to go!

No need to shower as we were going swimming later that morning.  We just cleaned ourselves up a bit, packed up a light bag of supplies (those mothers of you understand that a light bag of supplies is still half the house), and we left the house.    

Ainsley was upset about the whole situation from the beginning.  She wanted a CHOCOLATE POPTART.  She insisted that doughnuts were yucky.  Now this child has had doughnuts before.  She loves them.  Especially doughnuts with sprinkles.  Mary, Mary Quite Contrary would have none of these shenanigans though.  We packed a spare chocolate poptart just in case and headed to Timmy Ho's. 

Let's rock!  

Coffee, chocolate milk, doughnuts, apples, and yogurt were all purchased.  I attempted to hide myself from the view of the girl at the drive-thru window.  I knew she would know me as "that pregnant lady who always pays in Canadian quarters, half dollars, and Susan B. Anthony coins".  This really isn't what I'd like to be known for in my community, and I'm trying to make a change.  In fact, in this case, I wasn't pregnant and we paid with actual paper money.  High class all the way today.

We headed down to the park by the river.  After parking, we decided that instead of picnicking by the river, we should go up and around the hotel to see the peacocks.  So we put the kids in the double stroller and hoofed it up the hill and around the hotel.  

This is how she acts with no caffeine whatsoever.  

Even Durham is tired out by the sheer energy of Ainsley.

We ate our breakfast in a pavilion near the peacocks before venturing close to view the poor, trapped creatures.  At first, Ainsley didn't even notice the peacocks.  There were pigeons and chickens inside the fence, and they seemed to be the most exciting to her.  

Showing off her sprinkled doughnut.
She abandoned the chocolate poptart idea
upon seeing this lovely little taste of heaven.

She talked to them.  She asked them questions.  She ran around the fence trying to catch a small sparrow-finch-random-ordinary type bird.  She fed them.  It was magical.  

"They like me!"

We then decided to take a walk over the wooden bridge.  We saw water.  Boats.  Trees.  Utter excitement for a two-year-old.  

"I stand on the side now Daddy.  I a big girl."

A short walk back, and we were ready to go home.  We took a very circuitous route as to tire them out for a possible morning nap.  

Durham cooperated immediately.  Ainsley motor-mouthed her way through town and cursed us as we pulled into the driveway.  "I don't want to go here!"

Tim and I negotiated with one another about who we would each carry in.  I got the baby, carried Durham in, and napped the morning away snuggled in with my little man.  

Tim sat in the living room listening to Ainsley talk nonstop and dress up in every princess costume she owns. 

It was a good morning.