Saturday, February 27, 2010

Out of Africa

I picked up Peter at the airport today and thought, 'man, why does he look so freakin' happy?'. Because he missed hanging out with his cool-ass Papa so much? Because he was so glad to be reunited with his awesome family? No. It was this damned hyena!

See, unlike normal passengers, Peter actually listened to the flight announcements. One of them must have warned that it is illegal to bring animals back from Africa. Peter is normally a 'follow-the-rules' kinda guy. If the sign says not to eat ice-cream on the bus, he would rather let his melt and drip all over the floor before taking a lick. Yes, this happened once.

Apparently, Mr. Straight Arrow loved his stuffed animal so much that he decided to break the law and immediately stuffed the baby hyena into his coat. When it came time to go through customs, he started sweating as profusely as five-year olds can. No, damn it - nothing to declare! Can I go now?

After successfully smuggling baby hyena through customs, Peter the criminal moved on to choking his siblings.



Peter the safari dude was only gone for a week, so after an hour or so, the novelty of his homecoming had worn off. Tom is just a baby, though, so he spent the rest of the morning pointing at his long lost playmate and shouting 'Opa!'.


Opa thought it was cute the first two hundred times, but after that, he just wanted to catch up on current events. As Opa perused the funny section, the comical trio bonded.

Eventually we left Grams and Opa to deal with jet lag and the aftermath of three hyper boys. We took the animals to a museum park, where David and Tom decided to show Peter how much they missed him by breakdancing on marble slabs.



To top off the afternoon, we went to the river to have a second homecoming with non-family members.

At one point, Peter definitely showed signs of fatigue. To combat the lag of Peter's jet, Kika and Sami hatched the great idea of going for ice-cream. Their plan worked, and Peter the bunny was energized once again. It was a short charge.

Unlike the energizer bunny, Peter did not keep going and going. We rounded up the tuckered animals and headed back to the zoo. Sluggish Pete and Wound-up Dave put on their pajamas and brushed their teeth. I tucked in David below and snuggled Peter under his covers on the top bunk bed.

One or two beers later, I heard a loud 'whooof-thunk', followed by David's gleeful laughter. I knew that could only mean one thing and took off running. As expected, I found Peter face down on the bedroom floor with David chuckling on the sidelines.

At some point, Mother Nature must have called sleepy Pete, who answered his bowels by trying to climb down the ladder of his bunk bed. I use the word 'try' because instead of his normal graceful descent, he did a nose-plant on the ground from the top rung of his ladder. Damn that nature woman!

I eventually got David to stop giggling and tried comforting Peter with another Papa-snuggle to get him to sleep. In the end, was it cool-ass me that calmed him down? Or maybe just being back home with his awesome family? No. It was his damned hyena, which he demanded to have before he would stop his incessant snivelling. Whatever, I am so calling customs on your ass in the morning.
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Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: As I saw Mama again.
David: When Peter he come home from Africa and he not eat by a lion.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: As I fell down from my bed and hurt my nose.
David: When Tom he cried like a baby.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: To play a game with you and maybe Mama.
David: Play aminals with Peter.

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