"Daddy look!" Aza said running up to jump on the fence of the tiger enclosure.
I ran up after her yanking her down
"Aza, look at that sign. It says do not climb on the fence. You do not climb on any of the fences, got it?"
"Yes daddy," she said not looking into my eyes.
"Baby I just want you to stay safe okay?"
She nodded yes.
"Now what did you want to show me?" I asked picking her up so she could see better.
She pointed to the tiger that was playing with a ball.
"It's like a kitten," she said giggling.
"You know what we need baby girl?" I said kissing her cheek.
"A KITTEN!" She said excitedly.
I chuckled and shook my head. "No silly, we need to take pictures. You and I don't have any pictures together yet."
She nodded enthusiastically. I got my phone out and went to position the camera.
"No daddy let me do it. I know the best angles" she said holding her hand out for the phone.
"Of course I should have known" I said giving it to her.
She snapped a cute pic to her liking and handed my phone back.
"Aza come on look over here!" Ben said calling her.
She jumped down from my arms, and pulled my hand to run after him.
That's how the rest of the day went. Going from animal to animal.
All the kids had fallen into their head space.
"What's Camryns head space?" I asked AJ. I knew Ben's was 4-6. I'd been around him since he started living with Sam and Amarie.
"She's normally older. Around 7. Sometimes she slips younger to about 3. She's a terror when she does," he said laughing with the last part.
"Oh man so is Aza. Let's hope the girls never become terrors together" I said.
"Man this is just like old times"
"Yea we had a lot of fun with our subs. And I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with these two. You know they're like sisters right?"
"Yea Camryn talked about her all the time. Told me all kinds of stories about the fun they used to have. It would be a crime to not keep them together as much as possible."
"So what's Aza's space?" He asked.
"2-4. Sometimes as old as 5. But its still new to her too. She was more 5 in the beginning. Now she acts more 2-3 most of the time. She's only been with me about 2 months now. I mean I grew up knowing her her whole life, but it wasn't romantic. Remember my friend Alex? That was her older brother."
"Oh that guy you used to bring to the clubs? What happened to him?"
"He was in an accident and didnt make it." I couldn't bring myself to get into details. He was my lifelong friend. The brother I never had. I missed him so much.
"Daddy! Look it's penguin time!" Camryn said grabbing AJ.
He followed behind her.
Aza was already in with Amarie and Ben. She saw me and came up, a smile from ear to ear.
"Daddy look! You can stick your hand in the water and touch them if you're patient enough. Will you lift me up and help me pwease?"
"Of course baby, and good manners"
I picked her up, and took her close to the rim. An instructor stood nearby helping.
"I did it daddy!" Aza said not caring who heard. I didn't care either. I wasn't ashamed of our relationship. I just dared someone to make a rude remark.
The instructor smiled, "You're an adorable little girl. You remind me of my little girl," she said.
Ada blushed and went back petting a penguin.
We spent about 30 minutes at the penguin house. All the littles were having too much fun petting the penguins.
"Come on guys we need to leave. Let's get some lunch," Amarie said.
They all protested whining no.
"Yes now say goodbye to the penguins," Amarie said.
They all sadly said goodbye then left.
"Hey Thomas can Camryn walk with you two? I need to do something real quick. But I'll catch up at the food court."
"Yea that's fine" I said to AJ taking Camryn's hand from his.
Camryn looked up at me. "You know this is weird right? Aza and I used to annoy you and Alex and now you're Aza's daddy. Can I call you uncle?"
I laughed remembering how mad Alex and I got at the girls for disturbing our games or whatever.
"Yea you're right, you guys did like to bug us. It's funny looking back at it now, but we were young and thought it was the end of the world," I said laughing. "And yes you can call me uncle Thomas."
Just then Ben ran up attacking my leg. "He's my uncle Thomas too!" He said giggling. Camryn attached herself to my other leg. Aza giggled at them both.
"Whoa I wanna play on the Thomas jungle gym too!" AJ said attacking my back.
Everyone burst out laughing. Then we went and ordered our food.
"I want chicken nuggets daddy!" Aza whispered in my ear.
"Of course you do. You are a chicken nugget," I said teasing her.
We went to sit to wait for the food to come.
"Daddy where did you go?" Camryn asked.
"I got a surprise for you guys. If you're good during lunch I'll let you have it," AJ replied.
"For all of us?" Ben asked.
"Yes Ben. You, Aza, and Camryn. As long as your mommy and daddy are okay with it."
All the littles squealed excitedly and started talking.
Amarie and I nodded to AJ that it would be okay.
He got his bag out and told the littles to close their eyes.
He set down a little stuffed penguin in front of each of them. Each one was a little different.
"Okay open your eyes" he said.
All the littles cooed and awed.
"Thank you!" They shouted.
"You're welcome. They represent the penguin you guys played with back at the house. Whichever one you played with most that's the penguin I got you."
"Look Daddy! Isn't it cute!" Aza said showing me.
"It's adorable," I agreed.
Just then food came.
After eating Camryn and Ben ran off to play in the water fountain.
"You gonna go play Aza bug?" I asked her.
She shook her head no and climbed onto my lap.
"I wat you daddy"
Her toddler speech and clinginess let me know she was about 2.
"Lets go potty real quick, then you can cuddle up to me," I said carrying her to the family restroom.
I was worried she would have an accident like last time we went out so I tried to be proactive about it.
She went pee and then immediately wanted me to hold her again.
Getting back to the table Aza curled up and rested her head on my chest. She closed her eyes and dozed a little.
"She's so sweet like that," Amarie commented. "I miss seeing her, but I know shes happy to be with her daddy. She loves you so much Thomas."
"Thank you Amarie. Unfortunately she'll be back with you in a week. This vacation is going by so fast. I'm gonna miss her," I replied.
"You two really do have a great bond," Amarie replied.
"So do you and Ben. And Sam," I said chuckling.
We rested for about 30 more minutes then decided we should get going to look at more animals.
Aza was still sleeping so I shifted her to where her head lay on my shoulder.
As we approached another animal habitat I tried to wake her up.
"Aza we're looking at more animals now. We're at the polar bear house. Want to wake up and look?"
She shook her head no and kept her eyes closed. I figured pushing her to wake up would be a bad move. I still tried at every animal we came across.
Then finally we got to the elephants.
"Hey Aza. You're gonna wanna wake up for this one. They're you're favorite"
She shot up and looked. Squealing and jumping in my arms at seeing the elephants.
She was in heaven when she found out she could feed them and touch them.
I gave the instructor money and he put a small handful of fruit.
"Elephants eat fruit?" She asked in awe.
"Yes. They love it. They also love plants, roots, grasses, tree bark, bushes, and twigs" the instructor explained. "They can find all that other stuff in their enclosure, but not fruit so we let guests feed it to them."
"How do I feed it to them?" Aza asked.
"You're gonna hold out the fruit steady, when an elephant is near. Then the elephant will use its trunk to grab it and put it in its mouth. If you're really nice too, the elephant might let you pet him/her."
Aza grabbed my hand and hand me lift her up so she was higher up on the fence. And elephant came by her.
"Daddy I'm scared to," she said.
I put my hand on her's. "Don't be scared baby. They wouldn't let you do this if it wasn't safe. Now here hold your hand out steady," I said as a elephant came right up to us.
"AJ, can you take our picture?" I asked handing him my phone.
He got it just in time as the elephant took food from her hand. Aza broke out into giggles.
"You guys gotta do it!" She said turning to all of us.
The elephant stuck around. Aza gently reached out to stroke it's trunk.
"Ahh I see you found Gina. She's our mommy elephant. She likes you little one," the instructor said.
Aza beamed with pride.
"Are elephants your favorite?" He continued asking her. She nodded yes. "They're my little girls favorite too."
Just then Gina the elephant turned and walked away.
Aza looked like she was about to cry. "Why she leave?" She whined.
"She needed to get back to her baby. See? Watch her walk out there to check on him. Just like your daddy needs to check up on you sometimes."
She still looked sad, but cooed when she saw the baby elephant emerge to meet its mother.
We spent a little more time there, then I had to tell her it was time to leave.
She sadly waved bye.
"Thank you for not throwing a fit baby. You've been so good today," I said kissing her nose.
She smiled at my praise.
"Daddy is this a cg/l place?" She asked curiously.
"No why baby?"
"Two instructors today commented about their littles and that I reminded them of them so I just wondered."
"Like I said, more people than not in this town are into it."
We started walking to the exit.
Aza got down and walked with Camryn and Ben. They all laughed and talked about all the animals they saw.
Of course we couldn't get out without passing through the gift shop.
"Can we please get something?" They all begged in one form or another.
We agreed to let them look.
Amarie and I decided we would each buy the kids something, since AJ had.
I got them a stuffed elephant, and Amarie got them a stuffed tiger. That way each little had a stuffie of their favorite animal from today.
"Daddy can I have a t-shirt? And a cup? And this book on elephants?" Aza asked.
I nodded yes, "you've been very good today, so yes baby. Go pick out the ones you want."
She squealed in delight and got her stuff then we went to pay.