The same thing again, only different.

Earlier this week I wrote a blog post about my toddler wearing me out by doing nothing at all.  “Nothing at all” meant “ignoring me” until I used up all my energy arguing with and dragging around a three-year-old.  My wife came home from a long day of work and I promptly passed out on the couch.

It happened again yesterday.  Only differently.

The temperature spiked here yesterday, resulting in a very warm and sunny day.  My son doesn’t have preschool on Wednesdays, so at the suggestion of another parent at his school, we went to the zoo.  He loves animals and was very excited at the prospect of seeing so many of them.  We arrived at the zoo, and that’s when his second attack on my energy levels began.

It wasn’t like earlier, where he was passive-aggressive to the point of exhaustion.  This was a fatigue born of pure enthusiasm and curiosity, coupled with the unrelenting heat of a very sunny day.  He spent all of five seconds at each animal exhibit before proclaiming “let’s try another animal!”  Which meant I had to sometimes chase him around a zoo, making sure he didn’t run into other kids or slip through low fences.  And when he wasn’t running around he wanted to go up on my shoulders, which always warms my heart until I realize there’s a forty pound human squirming on my neck and shoulders.  When it came time for lunch all the benches in the shade were occupied, so we sat in the blazing sun, which is its own brand of tiring.  He made the usual protests when it was time to leave, but I can’t fault him for that.

By the time it was all said and done, my energy levels were depleted.  My wife came home from a long day of work and I promptly passed out on the couch.  It happened again.