Animals at the Park.

While we were in Southern California, we took Mugga to the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. It was extremely hot that day, I think it was close to 100 degrees. When we arrived, there were actually paramedics on scene. I heard someone tell their kid that some child must have gotten too close to the lions, but I think the ambulance in the enterance was for heat stroke causes. The boy looked really scared though.

I of course, was paranoid Mug was going to burn in the hot sun or get dehydrated. I lathered sunscreen on her every 45 minutes or so and made sure her sippy cup was filled with cool drinks. It was so hot, despite her love for animals, I think her favorite part of the park was playing kiddie-sized water park:

{Mug with her Auntie Juan}

The elephants, giraffes and monkeys were all exciting for Mugga. But by the end of the day, she was a pretty tired, grumpy and hot. So was I. On the tramp ride back to the parking lot, she was telling everyone on the tram about her discomfort. In other words, she did a lot of screaming.

One lady sitting in front of Axel and Mug turned her head slightly towards the sound of my daughter and snarled, "Cool it!"

I was sitting further away, so I didn't hear exactly what she said till Axel told me later. I did hear the meanness in her voice and I shot back with a sharp, "Hey!" I then complimented Mug till we reached our stop, saying what a good girl she's been and how great she's been the whole trip.

The mean lady made no other remarks but I was furious. Here we are, leaving a family friendly attraction and some woman snapped at my child. Axel was pretty shocked too. He was much too polite to say anything, but I know he wanted too. Since moving away from California, I think we lost some of our edge.

Walking back to our car, here are a few things I had wished I had said:

"You cool it!"

"Don't talk to my child that way you animal!"

Or, I would have talked to my girl directly (in a very loud voice so that the mean lady could hear):

"Mug, that woman may not realize how rude she was right now. She may be tired after a long day walking in the hot sun around smelly animals with her own loud grandchildren. She's probably gotten too much sun and not enough water. She probably doesn't realize you are not even two years old, and you've had a long day too."

A little more passive aggressive, but with tons of sarcasm. I've never had someone snap at my child before, and I was caught off guard.

I don't expect everyone to love my little girl, but I guess I was naive with the amount of kindness people show towards children. Man, I'm still furious.