Runaway Bride

If you didn't read Eleanor's first experience holding a ladybug, let me sum it up for you. She wanted to hold it. I dropped it in her hand before she could have second thoughts. Much screaming and crying commenced. A few days later, she wanted to hold it. I started (slowly this time) to put it in her hand. She quickly pulled back, saying she didn't want to hold it. I told her I was going inside. She said she wanted to hold it. She finally held it and enjoyed it.

Yesterday, I took the girls to the zoo while Grant was in class at PSU. We went into the lorikeet section. As with all the other animals in the zoo, Eleanor kept telling me she wanted to pet one. I repeated to her the rules that we aren't allowed to pet them; if they land on us, we can hold them, but we can't pet them. So, she changed her tune. "I want to hold one, Mommy." I didn't have any cash to buy the juice cups to feed them, so we had a bit of a hard time convincing them. One of the zoo workers suggested that Eleanor hold her hand out to the birds without sticking out a finger (which would have looked too yummy). She got pretty close, but the birds weren't interested.

This one got close, but it flew away right after the picture.

Then, another woman who was ready to leave offered us what was left of her juice cup. Eleanor enjoyed feeding it to the birds until they kept taking it from her. Then, the zoo worker showed me a way to trick the birds into thinking there was juice in the cup (since it was empty by then), and get them to land on your arm. I did it a few times to show Eleanor how. It worked like a charm. Eleanor said she wanted to hold a bird, so I handed her the cup and showed her how to hold her arm. She got right next to a bird, and just as the bird was about to step onto her arm, she dropped the cup and quickly pulled back her arm, saying "I don't want to." I asked her a few times if she was sure, and I asked her if she was ready to go. She said she was, so we left. As soon as we had our hands washed and were outside the doors, Eleanor said, "But I want to hold a bird." I told her she could try the next time we came to the zoo.

When I told Grant the story on the way home, he just laughed, shook his head, and said, "Someday, that girl is going to leave someone at the altar." He said the whole family would be gathered at the temple for her to marry some guy, and she would change her mind and back out of the whole thing. We both laughed. We'll see if we're still laughing when it actually happens.