Zoo Trip

Thursday was the last sunny day of the year, so I decided to do a little outing with the boys after school.  I suggested either a pumpkin patch or the zoo.  We went to the zoo less than two weeks ago, but Buddy loves it so he strongly voted for that option.  So that's what we did.  Not surprisingly, nobody was there.  Nobody was there the other week we went either.  In fact, nobody is ever there when we go late in the afternoon.  It's so nice because we can stand around for as long as the kids want to watch the animals without being rushed by other kids that want to get up close too.  The animals must know when the crowds are light because they were all out and very active.  Buddy was so excited to be there.  He was frantic -- like it was the first time he had ever been to the zoo.  He looooooooves animals. 

We hung out in the otter and beaver area for about 40 minutes. First, Buddy realized that the river otter was willing to play with him, so for ten minutes he ran back and forth as fast as he could racing the otter.  When Buddy would stop running the otter would stop swimming.  It was interesting because sometimes the otter would show off and do a flip and Buddy would win.  Other times the otter would swim quickly and beat Buddy.  Sambo thought this was hilarious (and actually thanked God for helping Buddy think of this fun 'game' when he said his prayers later that night).  A few people wandering through the exhibit stopped to watch.  I couldn't tell if they were amused or perplexed over this kid running back and forth in front of the glass.  

Sidenote:  G is really mad I don't have a smart phone so I could have recorded this game.  It's true, it probably would have went viral like the video of the lion trying to attack a baby through the glass at this same zoo. 

While we were in that area, Buddy struck up a conversation with a 65-ish year old man there by himself.  After their conversation droned on for awhile, I texted G telling him I really hope Buddy gets married and has kids someday so he doesn't have to go to the zoo by himself to talk to random kids about animals.  Buddy and the man discussed beavers then frogs for 30 minutes.  It was slightly creepy, but I was standing there the whole time, so I wasn't really worried.  It was more awkward, I guess you'd say.  After we finally ditched him, we ran into him again at the monkeys and even Buddy mentioned he was tired of talking to him, which is saying something.  I had no idea Buddy ever could tire of talking about animals.

While in the monkeys we watched a male and female monkey hugging and kissing each other.  Buddy was convinced they were mating.  I told him they weren't, but he couldn't be convinced.  Later that night when Sambo was telling daddy about this he kept saying how "cute it is when monkeys mate."  I asked him if he knew what that meant.  He said yes, it's when they have babies.  Fortunately/unfortunately my kids know way to much about this topic, thanks to their interest in the life cycle of animals.

Slightly related:  Whenever we go to the bats exhibit I have to stand just outside because I'm terrified of them.  As the kids were walking out to rejoin me Buddy said, "I don't know why you are scared of bats. They are actually really cute.  Haven't you ever been on a romantic date with dad, or your high school boyfriend, what's his name, R***?  And didn't you see birds flying around in the night sky? Well those are actually bats and not birds."

The one complaint I have about the zoo is they make the railings too high for little kids to see over, so my kids always climb up to see.  As Buddy was climbing over the fence to the bear habitat which had a bear wandering around 15 feet from the railing Buddy said, "I'm really glad they tame these black bears."