Chapter 13: Ariana's special Day
With school work piling up and Ariana at daycare both Alex and Mitchie felt like they hadn't been able to spend as much time with Ariana as they wanted. Yes, they had weekends and nights together but they didn't have any real one on one time together. So when December had approached Alex and Mitchie planned to take Ariana on a day where it was just the three of them having a great time as a family while Ariana got to do something she loved.
So that December 14th, a week before the Russo-Torres's and Reid's were going to head to the cabin yet again for the winter holidays, Alex and Mitchie were taking Ariana to Reptile Kingdom.
Over the last couple months Ariana had become fascinated with reptiles and amphibians, alligators, frogs and turtles in particular. She had even gotten a stuffed turtle for her birthday earlier that year that she had just loved. So when they had decided to take Ariana for her special day they knew that the Reptile Kingdom would be right up her ally. They had told Ariana a week in advance about their plans and all she talked about was seeing all the Alligators, Frogs, turtles, snakes and every other reptile she could think of. With all of the talk about seeing the reptiles (especially the morning they were actually going), Alex knew it was going to be an amazing day.
"Honey, come on we gotta do your hair." Alex said getting the hair brush and elastics out from the bathroom drawer. To fit the activities of the day Ariana was wearing a shirt with a crocodile and Alligator with the saying "Later Alligator, In a while crocodile" and a pair of jeans.
"Do you want an Alligator tail today?" Alex asked as she began to brush Ariana's hair.
"No! Want ponytails" Ariana replied.
"But if you have an Alligator tail you might get to pet the Alligators." Alex reasoned. Wanting a chance to play with the alligators Ariana let her mother do her hair.
"Ow mama, that hurts." Ariana complained as her mother pulled her hair as she brushed it.
"I'm sorry honey but your hair is a little tangled." Alex said trying to be as gentle as she could be. As far as Alex was concerned like her personality, Ariana's hair was crazy and always needed to be done because she was always all over the place.
"So what do you wanna see today?" Alex asked as she twisted the elastic around the end of the braid she had completed.
"Turtles! And froggies! And Aldergators! And snakes!" Ariana replied happily. Alex giggled as she kissed the top of Ariana's head and let her down off the chair.
"Well if you wanna go see them we gotta get ready." Alex said as Ariana bolted for the front door to get her winter boots on. The little girl got her boots on in a flash and patiently waited patiently for her mothers to do the same, but soon realized her mothers were not ready yet.
"Mama! Mommy lets go!" Ariana said impatiently as she tried to do up her winter jacket.
"Just a second honey, Mommy's still packing the bag." Mitchie said as she put Ariana's juice cup and a few snacks in the bag for the trip.
"Okay, now we can go." Mitchie said as Ariana twisted the door handle and raced out the door. The drive to Reptile Kingdom was about an hour and a half long, so Mitchie made sure to pack some toys for Ariana to make sure she didn't get bored on the way.
"We there yet?" Ariana asked.
"Almost honey, just a few more minutes." Alex replied. The little girl continued to look out the window in anticipation until they pulled up to their destination.
"Were here!" Ariana shrieked excitedly. Alex helped Ariana out of her car seat and the three year old took both Mitchie and Alex's hands and headed in. As soon as they got to the first exhibit, the alligators, Ariana's face broke out into a huge smile.
"Aldergators!" she exclaimed as Mitchie lifted Ariana up while Alex had the camera in hand, determined to take as many pictures as possible that day.
"He's cute." Ariana added pointing to one of the Alligators in the pit.
"Mama, I have my camera?" Ariana asked. Alex took out Ariana's Kidizoom camera (a birthday present from Alex's parents) and handed it to Ariana.
"Smile Aldergator!" Ariana giggled as she pushed the button and took the picture. Alex and Mitchie giggled as the little girl continued to admire the large reptile and take picture after picture.
"We take him home?" Ariana asked after she was done with her camera.
"I don't think we can honey, he's too big." Alex said. The little girls face fell a bit but it quickly turned back to a smile as soon as they reached the next reptiles on the list: two huge Galapagos Tortoises.
"Look at those Ari, they're huge!" Mitchie said
"You could probably ride on one of them." Ariana continued to watch the tortoises and at one point began to laugh.
"He's lookin' at me." The little girl giggled pointing to the closer tortoise.
"Hi turtle!"
After taking a few pictures the girls headed into the next room where there were smaller turtles on display.
"Look mommy! Baby turtles!" Ariana said as she started looking around the room. As she looked around at the turtles she kept looking at one turtle that was happily swimming around in the water and looking around.
"He's wondering where you are honey." Alex said as she watched her daughter and the turtle.
"I right here! I right here!" Ariana said to the turtle to make sure he knew where she was. Alex and Mitchie watched Ariana race around the room to see all the turtles and before they left the turtles Ariana went up to her favourite one, which she had ended up calling "Squirt" and told him she loved him before they made their way to the frogs.
"Look at those cute little ones Ari." Alex said pointing out the little green frogs.
"Are they the babies?" Ariana asked.
"I don't know they might be." Alex answered.
"They the babies." Ariana said matter of factly.
"Oh Ari, look at that one he's a blue-ish purple." Mitchie pointed out a small frog that was climbing on a leaf.
"I like blue." Ariana smiled as she eyed the frog carefully. One of the workers, Devin, saw how interested Ariana was in all of the animals and he asked Mitchie and Alex if Ariana wanted to see some other animals. Knowing Ariana would get a kick out of it they agreed and the worker brought out Iggy, the iguana.
"You want to pet him?" Devin asked. Ariana smiled and nodded as Devin knelt down to Ariana's level and she lightly pet Iggy.
"He feel funny." Ariana giggled. Along with Iggy, Devin brought out Brutus, the miniature Alligator.
"Aldergator!" Ariana squealed, wanting nothing more than to run up and hug the small reptile.
"I think you just made her day." Alex commented as she saw her daughter's eyes immediately light up.
" Mommy you right, I get to play with aldergator!" Ariana squealed remembering her mother's words earlier that morning.
"See, I told you if you got an alligator tail you could play with them." Alex smiled.
"Do you wanna pet Brutus?" Devin asked. Without hesitation Ariana nodded and walked over. After making sure Brutus's mouth was clamped shut Devin let Ariana pet the small alligator.
"Can I hug him?" Ariana asked causing the three adults to chuckle.
"I don't think so honey, he might bite." Alex said.
"But he nice, he don't bite." Ariana insisted as she continued to run her hand on Brutus's back gently,not believing that the little reptile she was petting could be dangerous at all. They thanked Devin for letting Ariana pet the reptiles and they continued on their way.
"I hungry." Ariana complained. Alex took a look at her watch and realized it was just passed lunch time.
"Okay, let's go get some lunch and we'll keep looking around." Alex said as the three girls headed to the little restaurant near the entrance of the building. After ordering burgers and chicken nuggets (the chicken nuggets were all in shapes of reptiles to keep with the theme) the girls sat down and enjoyed lunch
"You having fun baby?" Alex asked as she took a bite of her burger.
"Yeah, lotsa fun." The little girl smiled. After lunch was done Ariana was more than ready to start looking around again. When they entered the area containing the spiders Ariana got a little scared, spiders were probably the only thing in the entire building Ariana didn't like so they quickly made their way through the room and onto the next.
"Spiders are ucky." Ariana commented as they left the room making a face that had Alex and Mitchie in hysterics. For the next hour and a half the three girls continued to look around the large building and before they left Alex had one more thing up her sleeve
"Wanna go to the gift shop and pick two things out Ari?" Alex asked.
"I get to pick?" Ariana asked as a smile grew on her face.
"Yep, you get to pick." Alex smiled as they entered the gift shop. Ariana started looking around and the first thing she came across was the shirts. There was a pink shirt with the name of the building on the top and bottom and a lizard in between the words.
"I want that one!" Ariana said pointing to the shirt. After Alex picked out Ariana's size(Alex got it in a size bigger so she could continue to wear it for a while) she continued to look around the store for the second thing she wanted. As she made her way over to the stuffed animals Ariana looked through the bin of reptiles and amphibians.
"Look mama a lizard." Ariana said pulling out a red stuffed lizard from the bin. Just as she was about to say she wanted the lizard Ariana spotted a stuffed frog and let the lizard go.
"I want him!" Ariana declared taking the stuffed animal and carrying it with her to the cash register. About half an hour later Ariana was getting tired. Ariana was already asleep by the time Alex had carried her to the car an hour later after thanking the workers for letting them join them for the day. Alex placed the new stuffed animal and t-shirt beside Ariana and leaned over to kiss her forehead before closing the door and getting into the car and heading off.
"I think she had fun," Alex said as she was pulling out of the parking lot.
Mitchie was flipping through the pictures Alex had captured on the digital camera, a grin upon her face.
"Yeah, hahah look at this one Lex." Mitchie giggled as they pulled up to the stop light. The picture was of Ariana's reaction when Devin brought out the little Alligator, her eyes wide and a huge smile on her face. Alex let out a giggle and continued on their way home. When they had reached the apartment an hour or so later Alex picked up Ariana from her car seat and as they made their way into the apartment Ariana woke up
"Hey sleepy head." Alex said as she unlocked the door to the apartment.
"You have fun today?" The three year old nodded as best as she could while resting her head on her mothers shoulder.
"Where my frog?" Ariana asked looking around trying to find it. Mitchie pulled the frog from under her arms and handed it to Ariana. Although Alex didn't want Ariana to miss out on dinner (by now it was nearing 7) it was obvious the little girl was tired from all the day's activities so after getting their jackets and shoes off Alex brought Ariana to her room and changed her into her Pyjama's.
"Night honey." Alex said kissing her daughters forehead as Ariana cuddled into her sheets with her new stuffed animal. As Alex closed the door and Ariana mumbled a goodnight Alex knew one thing
They definitely had to do this again.
Hey y'all what's up? So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I got the idea from watching Jon and Kate plus 8 when Alexis went to the reptile museum and I thought it'd be cool to do the same with Ari.
R&R see y'all Wednesday =D