Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday was Tuesday, and I had the bright idea to take the kids to the zoo.  We love the zoo and spend a lot of time there; I thought it would be a good way to kill some time.  Ideal zoo weather (in my opinion) is slightly overcast and a little cooler.  Tuesday's weather was sunny, hot, and humid, so my expectations for the day weren't so high.  Basically, I thought I could get a couple of Diet Coke refills in my nifty Member's Free Refill cup and let Abbey play around looking at some of her favorite animals.

We spent most of the time looking at the farm animals, because she is a bit obsessed with the farm right now.  She loved that the cow kept going in and out of the farm and drinking its water.  I'll spare you the details of what else the cow was doing in its water (thankfully Abbey's eagle eyes were elsewhere, so I didn't have to explain the bathroom habits of cows to her.)

Both kids were troopers for most of the day.  We drank tons of water - well, they drank tons of water; I drank my weight in Diet Coke.  Between the sticky weather and the dust and dirt of the zoo, they did a great job.  There was a small incident that started with Abbey refusing to share an ice cream cone with me.  It ended with me pushing the stroller as quickly as safety allowed towards the exit and thanking the stars that we were close to our air conditioned car at that point.  To end on a positive note, she definitely has strong opinions and the lungs to back them up!

There was one other incident involving a mom who completely encroached on Abbey's space at the drinking fountain and actually physically moved her aside at one point. I said, "Excuse me?" in a very pointed manner (which earned me a dirty look and a huff), but in retrospect I think I should have done more. Confrontation is so difficult for me, but I want my kids to learn that they have the right to stick up for themselves. Abbey waited her turn patiently and shouldn't have been made to feel as though she was in the way. How should I have handled that?