As you can imagine being the sibling of a cancer child can be tough. Blaise often asks to play a board game or have me do different things with him. Most of the time it doesn’t end up happening because there just isn’t enough time. I let him stay up until almost 9 pm one night last week just so we could talk and hang out together once the others were down. Of course he was tired the next day.
When the note came home for a school excursion to Featherdale Wildlife Park I decided to volunteer to be a parent helper. I was very grateful that I was chosen as one of the helpers and got to go. Blaise was super excited when I told him two weeks before hand that I got to go. He very much looked forward to mum taking a day off just for him. I made Luke take the day off work (he still got a few hours in once we got home plus he is often working late on the lap top so I didn’t feel too bad about it) to look after Ethan and Vienna. It was the day after his triple chemo so I didn’t feel good about leaving Ethan with someone else. Plus I could be with Blaise and not feel guilty or worried about Ethan being with a friend or extended family member.
So on Friday I went to Featherdale and supervised a group of 7 children. 2 very intelligent girls who wanted to learn and talk about all the animals and 5 boys who were so mixed in their listening skills, attention span, ability to follow directions and stay with the group. It was 39 degrees so I don’t need to point out how hot we were. Thankfully I know Featherdale really well as we have taken the children there numerous times over the years. When we arrived we entered the park via a different entrance to what the public use. So I decided to take my group to the normal entrance and work our way around the park from the beginning.
There was a Chinese boy in my group who has only been in Australia for a year. He is an animal lover. It became immediately apparent that he had never seen these animals in his life. Within the first minute he and one other boy chased after a bush turkey across a large open area with me vainly trailing behind trying to get them to stop harassing the poor animal. Eventually the animal flew over a fence to safety, much to the boys disappointment. They had a blast though and couldn’t understand why I had a look of dismay and a plea to not chase any more animals. The rest of the day pretty much ended up like this. The girls, Blaise and one other boy would want to learn and talk about the animals and the other 3 boys would always want to be moving on to the next thing or chasing an animal or looking at something else.
We managed to see all the animals and learn a few exciting things. I got schooled by an 8 year old girl several times over (how are some kids just so smart?)! I enjoyed showing the children how an Emu’s eyelid closes from bottom to top instead of the other way round. We got very up close and personal when one Emu kept sticking his head all the way over the fence right into our faces. He earned a few screams from one girl which of course made the boys laugh. One of our favourites was the albino peacock who showed us the full glory of his feathers. I taught the children what an albino was – there were some albino kangaroos as well.
I do have a few cool photos from the day but I’m mindful of not posting photos without permission from the parents of the other children. I loved being with all of the children. Blaise has such a wonderful class and teacher this year. Most importantly Blaise had an AWESOME day. He was over the moon that I spent the whole day with him. He knows that daddy doesn’t make the decision to not go to work lightly so he knew that was something that dad did for him too. It went a long with Blaise. I took Blaise home with me after the bus got back to school. He even held my hand as we walked home. We were so content in each others company that we walked hand in hand in the stinking hot weather laughing and joking about the events of the day. We went straight for the ice blocks once we had said hello to Ethan and Vienna!
I don’t know how school teachers do that day after day. Granted children are extra excited on excursions but I tend to think teaching is a tough gig. This is what I felt ready for by the end of the day: