It all began with a little preparation:
That's Lily reading books to Frazier in our living room while watching her zoo animals movie. She's already a multi-tasker, and (like her mother) understands the importance of proper research. Once she was armed with facts, had explored the possibilities, had an idea of what was coming, and had been properly psyched up by her family, the big day arrived...
That is Lily at the zoo's entrance. She was, clearly, still a little nervous about the whole thing. I've mentioned before how important it is that life meet her expectations. If she doesn't know what to do, then my daughter is likely to sit back and not participate. She also gets easily overwhelmed by things and activity that are out of our normal routine. These were my two biggest concerns with this zoo adventure: (1) that she'd sit back and not participate and (2) that she'd be overwhelmed and we'd have to leave immediately.
At the recommendation of a friend and because we knew the penguins would be a hit (she read the book Busy, Busy Penguins on the way from the hotel to the zoo), we started in the aquarium. As expected, the penguins were a huge hit, and we watched them play and dive for a bit. Then it was on to that part in the aquarium where it's the biggest fish tank, and you walk through a tunnel underneath/through it and sharks and stingrays and other fish are swimming all around and above you. She lasted about 4 seconds in her stroller, then wanted to be held, stated (through tears) that she was all done, and demanded a plug (aka paci). I feared it really was over!
But then we got to tanks like this one:
Smaller fish in bright colors that did not swim over her head seemed to do the trick and she settled down... though she kept a very tight hold on her blanket and teddy bear. After the aquarium, which, all in all was a success, we headed to the giraffes. She'd been talking about seeing giraffes for 2 days! It was bound to be a favorite, right?
Let me pause here and say how glad I am that I read a really great article (that I now cannot find the link to... shoulda pinned it!) that talked about how children between the ages of 2 and 4 don't always understand boundaries. I mean things like literal fences. So when they see the dog on the other side of the fence (that the dog clearly cannot get through) the child is still likely to be scared. This is because they don't have a frame of reference for the reality of fences. The article also mentioned holes in the ground and how some children may imagine that the hole will keep expanding and swallow them up. It's a sort of catastrophizing instinct before the temporal lobe in the brain is fully developed. Isn't that cool?!? So when your toddler freaks out about something they are scared of, it's up to us as parents to show them the reality, the boundary, and to gently and patiently calm their fears. This was all very helpful background for me to have as we entered the giraffe house...
You'll notice the shocked and terrified look on teddy's face. He was so scared he couldn't even look! It took a little coaxing and explaining, and she did have to be held all the way through the giraffe house, but Lily did enjoy the mommy and baby giraffe we got to see.
I think every parent knows that the best thing about taking your child to the zoo isn't the things you get to see at the zoo, but rather seeing your child experience them all. For Chase and I that was certainly true, and a highlight of the day was the sea lion training show that we stumbled upon. Lily stood in her stroller to see over the edge, and one of the trainers and sea lions were right in front of her most of the time.
She stood on her tip toes and leaned as far as she could over the railing to get as close as possible. She pointed, laughed, and wanted us to experience the whole thing along with her. She'd say, "Look, Mom! He got it!" and giggle and repeat until I agreed with her. She'd point to the sea lion swimming and jumping across the lagoon and say, "Look, Dad!"
By mid-morning she'd warmed up to the idea of seeing animals from the safety of the fences. And by after lunch, she wanted to, "Go see 'em," at every exhibit. By that, she meant she wanted to hop the fence, break through the glass and actually interact with the animals. Thankfully Chase and I are still strong enough to physically restrain her, but it was much to her chagrin...
We all learned a few new animals and words. Did you know a Bongo is an actual animal? I didn't take a picture of one, but it's kind of like a cross between a zebra and an antelope. And I should mention that seeing the antelope was funny, because Lily called them, "Cantelope." :)
She enjoyed the Aviary, and because there weren't many people in the exhibit with us, she was brave and ran ahead...
The gorilla house was exciting, because monkeys and gorillas are fun to watch. We stayed by some of the monkeys for a while, then moved on to the gorillas who were hilarious. They'd just gotten fed. (We actually got lucky and most of the animals we saw either were being fed or had just been fed when we visited them, so almost everything was active when we went by.) The gorillas all sat with their backs to the glass at different points along the windows and were just eating. It was like they didn't want to give us the satisfaction of seeing their fronts while they ate!
Being this close to a gorilla was ok for Lily as long as the gorilla's back was turned. He glanced over his shoulder at us and teddy got a neck-lock and we had to move on.
We stopped in the petting zoo, but all there was to pet really was goats, so we didn't stay too long. There were bunnies there too, but we couldn't pet them, which was a real disappointment since she could always pet my sister's rabbits. We tried for a family photo as we headed out of the petting zoo, but this was the best we got:
Chase and I made a "wrong turn" when heading from the petting zoo back to the rain forest, which was our last stop before heading home. We ended up walking the entire HUGE loop around the zoo rather than walking about 1/4 of it, taking the elevator up the hill, and ending up at the rain forest. It wore all three of us out, and while we did go through the rain forest, it was a quick buzz-through kind of job.
As we headed home, we learned that my grandpa had ended up in the hospital for some testing, so we stopped by and saw him, my grandma, and my aunt. I'm very pleased to report that all is well, and it was so nice to have an excuse to stop in and say a quick hello.
About 10 minutes after we left the hospital, this was what the back seat looked like:
She was so tired that she fell asleep with her hand still in her snack container! Teddy was bushed, and thank heavens for lots of blankets! I propped her up in a more comfy position, and she slept for an hour and a half on the ride home.
There were only 3 disappointments today
- That Grandpa had to get tests done
- That there were no elephants at the zoo
- That the cake mix doctoring recipe that I tried on cupcakes when I got home totally failed
However, all 3 disappointments are set to be good news
- Grandpa is well and heading home in the morning
- The zoo is building a new, state of the art elephant habitat (so says their "master plan" on their website)
- I'll make cupcakes using the box's instructions tomorrow and they'll turn out perfectly
What a great way to celebrate Lily's last day of being 1!
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