Zoo

Today we went on this year's first trip to the zoo.  We plan to go again before the end of the summer.  Last year Ellie looked like this:

This year Ellie is older and much more independent.  She didn't want to stand by the wall, so this year Ellie looks like this:

We were fairly certain she was most looking forward to seeing a monkey, as that seems to be her favorite animal of late.  Actually, she says "monkey" whenever she wants to watch The Lion King or Kung Fu Panda.  She'll point them out in books, too.  Ellie was not disappointed and got to see several varieties.  The spider monkeys performed the best for her and one went right up to the glass.  That thrilled her beyond words and kept touching the glass trying to pet the monkey.  There were others that we saw, including the one carrying a stuffed animal toy while swinging around.  The only one Eliana was not so fond of was the orangutan.  When we got the that one and pointed it out sitting in the corner Ellie looked at it and then started backing away with her hand outstretched.  She didn't turn away from it, but she did seem less nervous after she had a hold of my hand.

We were also able to see the new baby elephant, Zuri.  At first I didn't notice the baby there, but once I got the stroller parked she was right there.  Ellie was entranced.  It was nice that they were eating right then and she was able to watch them moving around.  She didn't want to leave them behind when it was time to move on to the next exhibit.  I just feel relieved for the mama elephant.  Last time we were at the zoo she was pregnant.  Seeing as elephants are pregnant for about two years, it must have been a relief to get that calf out.  I'm only six months pregnant and getting sick of the sore back.  But maybe I would feel better if I was always on all fours.  Hmm.

More staring at monkeys.

Last year we were rained out of the bird show.  We were excited to see it this year.  The show did not disappoint.  It was kitchy in some places, but that's part of the fun.  Ellie didn't pay a lot of attention to the birds because she couldn't always see them very well.  It was still cool to watch them soar down.  My favorite part was when they recognized Memorial Day and all those who are serving or have served int he armed forces.  That was when they dropped the flag open and brought out the bald eagle.  That was really great to see.  They also had donation boxes out at the end of the show for people to contribute.  Any contribution was given to the bird and the bird put it in the box.  Five dollars got you a picture up close to the birds.  We stuck with the dollar and let Ellie hand it to the bird.  I think she liked it.

It wasn't too long after the show ended that we got ready to go home.  There's a playground at the zoo (I didn't know that) and Eliana really enjoyed the seesaw toy.  She kept saying "again, again!" whenever we stopped it moving.

The last exhibit we stopped at was the burrow exhibit.  I'm not too sure how Ellie felt about sticking her head up in the hole, but she really loved it when I did it when she was on the outside.

There was also a stop at the reptile exhibit before the bird show, but I declined to go inside.  I knew it would be stinky and I needed to sit down.  I'm a little sad I didn't go in because that's also where the rodents are.  I guess those were Eliana's favorite part.  Eric said she was mesmerized by a certain variety of squirrel (I think she was last year, too) that kept jumping around in circle.  We'll be going again later this summer and I'll follow her inside then.

It was a great day and Ellie has now been napping from it for over three hours.  I guess I'll wake her up before she gets too ornery and won't go to bed tonight.