Trip to the Zoo

Chance took his first trip to the zoo on Friday. Cam likes to joke that I should have left him in the monkey house.

We went with my friend Kim and her son Matthew, who is 4 months old. Also a friend of Kim's came along, with her 6 month old daughter in tow. When we all met at the agreed upon spot, the two women stated that they had been up at 5 and 6. I almost felt shameful admitting that I had gotten up around 8, and Chance woke up after I had taken a shower. I was quick to point out that it wasn't always this way!

Our first stop was to the hippo tank. But the hippoes were outside. Once outside, we figured out that the hippoes weren't doing much, outside. Then we saw the giraffes. There was a baby giraffe born a few months ago. Let me tell you, that guy is huge! He was running around his pen. He approached us and then panicked and took off again. Chance seemed to be watching him run, that was cool. The reason we haven't taken him to the zoo is that we didn't think he'd be interested in watching animals.

The next exhibit was the lion cage. Two lions were laying together in a sunbeam, bathing each other. Cute. Then a second pair of lions, a male and a female, started pacing around their fence enclosure. I wheeled Chance up closer so he could see them through a part in the tall grass. The female stopped right in front of us and stared at Chance. Chance stared back at the lioness. The male continued on his patrol, to the opposite side of the pen. Then the lions started to growl and give short loud calls. This was pretty facinating, and us mothers were impressed. Then we checked on the babies. Matthew was asleep. The little girl was watching people go by. Chance was wide eyed staring at the lioness, who was still 2 feet away from us, with a horrified expression on his face. I wheeled him away before he started to cry. It was a good 2 minutes before his expression changed.

So we visited the apes, and the elephants, where we stopped for a nursing break. Well, the other two moms nursed, Chance drank formula from a sippy cup and toddled around with a cracker. It was the first time I hadn't nursed him in the morning, and I felt a little strange not joining the other moms. Chance didn't seem to mind.

We took a stroll through the Canadian animal section of the zoo after back-tracking from the elephants as Kim noticed that Matthew had kicked off his shoe. I bet the number of kids clothes, hats, soothers, etc. found at the zoo at the end of the day is staggering. Never mind trying to break your kid's pacifier habit...take a soother away from a cougar and watch the temper tantrum, haha!
























Here is Chance enjoying his lunch. It was not until I snapped this picture that I realized we were in front of the Grizzly Bear cage. Extra Mom Points for parading a food-smeared toddler thirty feet in front of a snoozing Grizzly.

All in all it was an excellent day at the zoo. The weather was fantastic and we managed to avoid a lot of crowds by being there early. I think we'll hold off on another trip until Chance is a bit older, I can't wait to hear him say "Look Mommy, the hippo is pooping!!!".