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What a day! I had many ideas for today. I thought i’d go full photographer and that I would get some really good shots for my home family album and maybe one or two to share here since I never do.

Lets start from the beginning.

So it was my sons Nolan’s birthday! (Also shared with my now 15 year old dog, Milo but he’s old and content with his peanut butter pancake, fresh pet food and a nap) He turned two. In my mind we’d have a big breakfast, because you know that makes for a happy boy. Then get ready, head to the zoo, make it all the way around the zoo. Have lunch, I was hoping he’d stay up in the car so he could nap at home. So that when we’d gotten back I could finish wrapping some more presents. After he blissfully wakens up from his snooze. We’d have dinner, open gifts, play of course and have cake! Of course getting really nice snapshots along the way for his baby book.

This is how it went.

So I wake up before my alarm which was great. I figured I’d just get up and get going because if anything I could have the bags with snacks and everything ready to go. I was looking in the fridge and noticed a bottle of strawberry milk, a light bulb went off and I’d substitute that for regular milk in his pancakes and he’d love it. I was pretty excited. So I get the bacon going and the pancake batter ready. I even put some red food coloring to make them really pop which I never do but figured for today only. I realize it’s still a little too early and decide to finish up some things first. That’s when I hear it, the hysterics! I’m thinking OH NO! Let’s not start the day off like this! So upon investigation, turns out his dad had the audacity to change his diaper first thing in the morning and not give him pants to put back on. Once he melted down for a good 5 minutes a fresh pair of pants were put on him and he immediately regained composure.

Once the pants crisis was tamed a little and Nolan was up and delegating. I figured this was a perfect time for his pancakes. I make the pancakes and even give him a place setting. Well, that place setting really bit me because he wanted to wear it on his head, wanted no food, and even turned his nose to bacon! All he wanted to do was go outside and play. So, knowing his zoo history I figured I won’t fight him on this. This was the battle and the zoo was the war and I wanted to be prepared.

Getting everyone dressed and ready, having all bags packed went surprisingly smoothly. Nolan approved of his outfit, we were ready to go. We even got out of here at a great time.

We get to the zoo and its chaos. The parking is never really terrible since they tend to have a lot of parking but the opened a special stonehenge exhibit at the museum that packed the museums shared parking lot. Also, you have to watch where you park since some areas don’t have very visible lines and the will ticket you. So we park the farthest we’ve ever parked before with a ton of school buses. I figured no big deal because 1. At least we had a spot. 2. I was convinced my boyfriend was going to just give up and turn around had we not found our spot. 3. It was the last spot in that area. So we unload, make sure we have everything and now the fun was to begin!

We get into the park, bypass the line since we have passes and for some reason every single time we head for primates. Now, I have nothing against the primate area but I feel like its a bad omen for us. We tend to ONLY ever make it to that area before the show that is Nolan goes full Nolan. So as prophesized the show has begun. We make it out of the exhibit and there is just swarms of schools. Which is to be expected but never like this! He’s walking around looking at a couple animals while eating a snack. I’m thinking this is great, at least he wont be cranky and he’s behaving. We get to the elephants and they have redone the enclosure. They have a bench of a whopping two steps. My boyfriend says he needs a break so we sit down. Nolan’s playing on these steps and having a blast. We sit for about 10 minutes, get a couple pictures and both say how good he is being. We decide to map a route to the kids area so he can have fun with kids his own age since the kids walking around the zoo were either a lot older or newborns.

Well, surprisingly he through the biggest fit known to man. He kept trying to run back to the steps! I wish he knew what was waiting for him at the children’s zoo. They probably have four steps and baby goats! Once the fixation on the steps began all was lost. I got him to calm down but we stupidly and amateurishly led him right to the coy pond. Oh what a mistake that was. The giant coy were popping out, it was green and he was SO mad he couldn’t jump into that pond. When I set him down to give my back a break I thought he’d cannonball. So I picked him up he took off my sunglasses, laughed, and seemed in good spirits. Nope, he wanted down to take the glasses to the fish. He dropped them on the wrangle to get him away from the pond and one lens broke and the rim. I really liked those glasses too. At this point, my feet hurt, back hurt. He will not stop crying we decide to traek back to the car with all the zoo watching. I seriously thought he was going to have an asthma attack and he doesn’t even have asthma! We get back to the car he kicks his shoes off, then is beyond upset that his shoes are off. So I’m awkwardly trying to put his shoes back. That pacifies him I give him a snack and after five minutes he is in the back babbling and giggling.

I’m going over it in my head and I’ll take the zoo as a win because when he doesn’t want to walk anymore or be picked up he generally lays on the ground and he only did that once. The waterworks, I…. expected them. He had fun. So in the car of course he nods off which at that point I’m all for. I figured he’d finished the nap at home. Nope, bright-eyed and ready to go. We pick up lunch on the way back and he wouldn’t eat a bite. So breakfast and lunch were a fail. A couple of hours pass so we can all decompress. We open all his gifts and he found a piece of garland to play with from somewhere and had no interest. He did like throwing the paper. After about 10 minutes he did investigate and found some toys he liked. He hears a lot of “wow”. By this time is dark out, the adults are tired, he had some salmon for dinner. Time for him to go to bed. I think he had fun. He won’t remember, but we sure will.

Happy Birthday, Nolan and Milo, we’ll get ’em next year!

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INGREDIENTS

• 1.5c Strawberry Milk
• 1tsp White Vinegar
• 3tsp Baking Powder
• 1tsp Salt
• 1Tb Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 3Tb Butter, melted
• 2c Flour
• 1Tb vanilla
• 3Tb Sprinkles
• 3 drops Red Food Coloring

DIRECTIONS

• WET INGREDIENTS: Combine vinegar and milk and let sit separately for 5 minutes. Once dry ingredient are prepared add in butter, eggs, and vanilla but don’t let sit it sit with the milk too long.
• DRY INGREDIENTS: Combine baking powder, flour, sugar, salt and sprinkles.
• COMBINE: Whisk both wet and dry ingredients separately. Pour wet ingredients into dry, whisk till incorporated but do not over mix. Once combined drop in droplets of food coloring and stir.
• REST: Always let pancake batter rest for 10 minutes before cooking.
• COOK: Heat a pan to medium heat, butter the pan and drop in 2-3 Tb of pancake batter. Once pancakes start to bubble flip and cook for about another minutes. Add more butter to the pan and continue till all batter is used.

Tips

• If your pancake pan is smoking its too hot and will burn your butter and pancakes
• You can add a little oil to butter to get crispier pancakes
• If a batch gets away from you and burns rinse pan first or else you’ll have flakes of burnt bits in pancakes.
• **DISCLAIMER: Not Nolan Approved**