Tuesday, April 28, 2009

You'll see lots of animals, when you're at the zoo...

...Monkeys, zebras, elephants, lions, tigers too.
You'll hear lots of animals, making different sounds.
Roaring, singing, trumpeting, giggling all around.
Animals, animals, animals, from places near and far.
They make their home right in the zoo, where each one is a star!

To those of you who know this song, because your baby has the same zoo toy (F*isher P*rice) that Evie does: I'm sorry that this song will now be stuck in your head for hours. Actually, I'm not really that sorry. The toy I'm referring to is right next to Evie in this picture:

This toy is one of Evie's absolute favorites because she has figured out how to press the buttons and make it "sing," and she can take the elephant, giraffe, penguin and monkey figures off and play with them separately. (The elephant is in the foreground of the above photo). She plays with this toy A LOT. It plays 5 songs. I know them all by heart, in order.

The first song (lyrics above!) has been torturing Evie and me for three months now with promises of the wonders that await her at THE ZOO. She finally got to visit our zoo for the first time today! Did it live up to her expectations? She did get to see monkeys, elephants and a sleeping tiger, but no lions or zebras because getting to the Africa area of the zoo requires a heckuva long walk. Another day.

Evie's reaction to the monkeys, elephants and tiger? Blank stare. She did enjoy the macaws, lorikeets and cranes, however, because they made awesome bird noises that captivated her attention. I guess J and I should think about getting a canary for her birthday? Or not.

She also seemed interested in the sea lions because we happened to walk up to them when they were being trained for their zoo show, so they were moving around a lot and doing interesting things.

Other than the birds and the sea lions, her favorite attraction at the zoo was the herd of kindergartners on a field trip that my friend (who met me there for the morning with her 4-year-old son and twin daughters who are Evie's age) and I had to navigate with our strollers for the first half an hour, until we took a fortuitous turn and lost them for the rest of the visit. Evie seems to love watching older kids walk, play, talk, etc. I wish I knew what she were thinking as she stares at them with an expression of puzzlement, admiration and envy.

All in all, it was a successful first trip. It only took 25 minutes in light traffic to drive each way, parking was free and close, the admission process was straightforward with no line, the weather was pleasant and Evie was angelic. She even took a nice morning nap in her stroller:

Here's what's under the hat:
She melts my heart. Hopefully we'll have some more nice weather and I'll be able to convince more of my friends to venture to THE ZOO with us. I owe Evie some penguins, lions, zebras and alligators.

10 comments:

  1. I love the zoo! And I love Evie's dress! She always has the cutest clothes!
    About your comment on my blog... British Chris may die in Missouri without the ocean, he's a yachty, and Im not sure he would survive in the (gasp) interior states... but he is handy, no doubt. And he's bored out of his skull and just appears, working mainly for food and beer (owning a restaurant helps big time there!)

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  2. Sounds like a wonderful day! I cannot wait to take Payton to the zoo (although sometimes I feel like I live in one already). I am sure he will love it, but I always get a little sad at the zoo because of they way the animals must live. But I try to look at it like this: by learning about these exotic animals people are more likely to want to preserve endangered species and fund efforts to protect them... so it is sort of a utilitarian approach to sacrifice a few to save many. But, I still tear up sometimes when I see the cages.

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  3. Sounds like a great day! I love the zoo. Love Evie's shoes, by the way. I saw your twitter update. That's so cool that she is crawling...

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  4. Come here to San Diego, I'll take Evie to our awesome zoo, and you can organize my new closet:)

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  5. It's always thrilling to see our little one's reaction to animals. Evie looked adorable as usual!

    We took our twins to the zoo when they were very young too. There were also a lot of blank stares...lol. We have tried to go at least once every year. As a matter of fact, we just went to a zoo an hour away this past Saturday. It was a new zoo to us, we are all so happy we went. They have an attached beautiful garden that all of us enjoyed very much. Oh yea, the weather was perfect!

    Thanks for your comment on my blog. I hope something will come up soon.

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  6. Those are super-cute pictures.

    I appreciate your comment on my post! I felt bad posting something that I think other wonderful bloggers might view as an attack (it wasn't meant that way), and your response was extremely gracious. I hadn't thought about the "caught in a trap" idea at all. Frankly, I don't see why an IF mommy shouldn't have permission to talk about how IF affects her experience as a mommy (I assume that it does; I feel sure it would in my case). Maybe to non-IFers, that would seem wrong, but IFers would understand that, I think. Maybe part of the challenge is having a mixed audience? I just got the first inkling today that somebody might ever read me who isn't IF. I don't feel I have a lot to offer in that direction!

    Anyway, I guess because of how I see IF blogging - different from the sort of facebook-update world, where it's all either upbeat or very sympathetic complaining (and a lot of the blogosphere is similar) - more of a whole-person, bad-with-the-good - I think I relate more to people who, even if usually happy, obviously are not always. (I admit I didn't know what to make of Yaya until her one recent "I have bad times" post. I was a new reader, so I didn't understand that, and I really didn't "get" her.) This might also be a personality trait with me. IRL, I don't feel I know people if I've never seen them suffer. It doesn't seem real to me. So, anyway, that was meant to be a short comment and it's not. I enjoy your blog and I will keep reading. (And in fairness, your blog is and has always been advertised as a blog about a baby. So, can't fault you for misleading advertising!)

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  7. Guess the animals were boring her! ;)


    I find myself humming the latest theme song of desire for the kids I nanny for while I'm cleaning!

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  8. I can't hear well enough to make out the words to the other four songs that are on our Grandson's Fisher Price Zoo. I'd hoped they'd be posted online but...when I typed in the first lyrics, your site poped up. You're Correct...The tunes are catchy and he plays with this thing so much that I hear it in my sleep. Just don't know what they're saying.

    Jeharkreader@comcast.net

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  9. The giraffes are tall and yellow. This one is such a nice fellow!

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