Elvis The Crocodile's Tooth

This moment would have to be one of my favourite from lockdown for a few reasons.

1. Alexander wrote his first letter - sounding out words, forming letters correctly.

2. Alexander got a letter back from Ranger Dan for the Reptile Park.

3. Alexander got a tooth from Elvis the crocodile.

4. The Reptile Park went above and beyond to get Alexander his tooth. They were so patient and understanding of the situation.

I have touched on this in previous posts but I did feel that it was so important and special to have it's own post.

During lockdown home learning Alexander learnt about animals at the Reptile Park, including Elvis the crocodile. At the end of that week I asked Alexander if he wanted to send a letter to Ranger Dan. To my surprise he said yes. So we sat down, he sounded out his words and he wrote a beautiful letter to Ranger Dan.

We sent it off to Ranger Dan with some photos of the learning Alexander did, a picture that Alexander drew of Elvis and a letter from me thanking the Reptile Park for the online videos and live steams that they did. I didn't expect that we'd get a letter back but thought there was no harm in trying.

In September Alexander received a letter from the Reptile Park. We were so so excited! Ranger Dan wrote back to him!

We then got even more excited when we saw this hand written note from Dan on the back.

What?? A tooth from Elvis the crocodile. That's so cool! I checked in the envelope and saw that it must have fallen out.

Alexander went from being so excited to being so sad. I gave him a hug and explained that I would email Ranger Dan to see if by any chance he had another Elvis tooth. Who knows? It couldn't hurt to ask. 

After a few weeks I hadn't received a reply so I sent another email to them asking if they had received my initial email. They kindly responded and said they passed the email onto Ranger Dan and he would hopefully get back in touch soon.

A few weeks later Alexander and I headed to the Reptile Park for his Mini Kid2Keeper program. We had a lovely day, said hi to Elvis and wanted to say hi to Ranger Dan but we didn't see him. As we were leaving Alexander asked me again about Elvis' tooth. I decided to be brave and ask at reception. The lady we spoke to was lovely. I explained that Alexander had sent Ranger Dan a letter during lockdown, Ranger Dan kindly replied to him and included a tooth from Elvis but unfortunately it had fallen out. She was beautiful and said that Ranger Dan and her had just been talking about Alexander and the letter and that he hadn't forgotten. She said that Ranger Dan worked Sunday to Thursdays and would love to meet Alexander. We decided that we would come on a Thursday.

On the 25th November we headed to the Reptile Park with Anne and Flynnie. Alexander had been in a crafty mood in the morning and made some glitter stickers and he decided because one was a snake, he'd like to give it to Ranger Dan. He also wrote a note on the paper bag.

We wandered around the park looking at real (and pretend) animals which the boys enjoyed.

A real lizard on a pretend lizard

Must have photo with the koala

It was a real surprise to see in the Komodo dragon exhibition, a giant kangaroo lying on the ground (in the shade). So big!!

We hadn't seen Ranger Dan so as we left we asked at reception if Ranger Dan was in. The lady said she would go and check then came back out with something in her hand. She said to Alexander that Dan was really sorry but he needed to be in an important meeting but that he wanted Alexander to have this, and she gave him one of Elvis' teeth. Alexander was so excited. He then tried to work out where the tooth would go on the pretend crocodile in the reception area.

Wowee! A real crocodile tooth from Elvis! So very cool and special

He was so excited to show everyone at home what a special gift he has gotten from the Reptile Park!