Motivated by an invitation from my friend, Tammy, the girls and I went to the zoo today and spent fun, quality time exploring together. Because of schedules and conflict of interest among too many toddlers, we only met up with Tammy at the Critter Encounters petting zoo & the African Savannah, but it was still a highlight of my day to have nice, adult conversation!
We started out on Bamboo Trail and visited the cougar, bongo, & Guenon-Monkey-Creature. The girls were getting restless in the double stroller so we scooted over to the petting zoo section where they had a blast running, petting goats & watching alpaca's poop. Ellie made friends fast (with kids & animals) and shouted to everyone who would listen, "My Mimi has goatees like these!" She brushed all the goats' hair and Saedi cheered from a distance. Saed would venture close to the animals, touch their fur, scream, and run away. Then she'd go back and do it again. Little Tease!
Then, it was off to find some tigers! Since breakfast, Ellie said she was most excited to see the tigers. Fortunately, two baby tigers were out when we went by the exhibit, and the giant cats played happily together putting on a nice show. El was even interested in the mini lesson of the tiger skull that was presented.
After tigers & alligators we went to the Unseen New World of turtles, snakes, and & spiders. Surprising for me, this was the highlight exhibit for the girls. They went to and from each glass exhibit ooooing and ahhhing over the creatures. Ellie wanted to know the low-down of each snake & spider. Saedi was fascinated by the fish & didn't know how to express herself so she started signing bird and making her snorting noise for pig. Then, Saed would go up to the turtle cage trying to decide if she should try to touch him. She finally built up enough courage but was startled by the concept of a clear, glass cage that he was in. Whenever the turtle swam towards her she screamed and ran away. Ellie's favorite animal of the day was the giant Anaconda snake curled up in the bottom or a water-filled ravine. She was enamored over the size of the beast and kept saying, "Isn't it creepy, Mom!"
We ended our adventure visiting the giraffes & elephants. The girls were starting to get tired and hungry & Ellie threw a mini-tantrum, where I actually spanked her in public. Red-faced and not looking anyone in the eye, I turn to get moving and Saedi is sitting lazily in the stroller playing peek-a-boo with Ellie's sunglasses and looking like Elton John. I couldn't help but laugh at good-old-Saed-Saed for lightening my intense moments with El. Finally, were were off to Festival Field where we devoured our packed peanut butter sandwiches, had one more look at the monkeys and then a 45 min drive home with two zonked-out girls and one tired Momma.
2 comments:
It's so fun to see their personalities shining through! I bet it's fun that they are getting to the age where you can go places and explore together!!
I can so relate to the signing the bird and the pig grunt. We did signing with Kendall too. She never could get it that a turtle didn't make noises, she would make stange ones up for them. :) She loves the snakes and fish too. Must be a kid thing, well.. I like them all but the spiders...ewww...can't even look at them. I am a monkey girl myself. Could sit there all day watching just them. Will be Jane Goodall in my next life! Glad ya'll had fun. I need to take Kendall before it starts getting really hot.
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