Zoo Hour

There is a sacred time frame in every parent's home when it is not a good time to visit or phone (and I'm not talking about early on a Saturday morning when all I want to do is sleep in on the only day I can)... that time my friends is between 4pm - 6pm on week nights (or maybe I could even extend it until 7:30pm) and it is called 'Zoo Hour'.

For some very strange reason, between these specific hours, little innocent children (and husbands) turn into crazy/strange/tearful/funny/weird people... and utter chaos seems to reign.

Today was no different than the others - although some days can be completely different (does that even make sense?).

Zoo Hour today was all about Miss 2 running around the house being a "Super Ero", Miss 5 making 'open' and 'shut' signs for her door, which of course led on to slammed doors and screaming and shouting when others (namely 'Miss Super Ero') weren't allowed to go into her room because the 'shut' sign was up... never mind that 'Miss Super Ero' can't even read.

It was also about Dad teaching the boys how to... hmmmmm, how can I put this politely... make squelching noises under their armpits... which lead to boys taking tops off, roars of laughter, girls crying because they wanted to know how to make the noises with their armpits.. and Miss 5 proclaiming sadly, "at least when I go to Heaven one day I will know how"!

Of course, after dinner (when mother's like me dream of a quiet progression to bath, story and bed)... Father's dream of a massive pile up and wrestling session in the dining room.

And as I often warn (being the kill-joy that I am), it always ends with someone in tears. And once again, I was right.

So there you have it - Zoo Hour... welcome to our world (if you dare).