first zoo trip of the year

even though the temperature said 9 (degrees), it was sunny and i decided that madelyn and i would try a trip to the zoo. we both needed to go somewhere to stretch our legs and i didn't really want to spend any money if i could help it. i figured the worst case was that it would be too cold and we would head out for "plan b".

madelyn was SO excited to be at the zoo! as soon as we pulled into the parking lot she started with repeating, "yea, zoo"! she practically ran to the entrance and started saying "penguin" as soon as we got inside (that is the first animal you can see). she remembered everything about the zoo and would get frustrated when the way we usually went was either closed for maintenance or was not cleared of snow. in the picture she is giving an enthusiastic "zoo" near the penguins.

surprisingly there were quite a few people there. any time madelyn would see someone outside the exhibits, no matter how far away they were, she would call out "hi" really loudly and wave. there were a few elementary school groups there that thought she was pretty funny and yelled "hi" back.

what was fun today was finding out how many new words she had for the things we saw today. and then being able to talk to her about it all later this afternoon. after we saw the birds madelyn started asking for the lions. i had not planned on seeing the lions because it is kind of a long walk outside and i was trying to limit our outside time. i decided that we would see how she was doing after the monkeys and the fish/reptiles. after we left the fish/reptiles madelyn was still asking for the lions. she was practically crying because she thought i was going to wrong way to the lions when i tried to take a shorter path instead of the longer route we normally take.

when we got to the big cats pavilion madelyn ran in calling out to the "cheetahs". she was just screaming "hi, cheetahs" over and over. i could hardly pull her away so that she could see the much requested lions. and she still had to go back and see the "cheetahs" one more time before we could leave.

another highlight of our visit to the zoo were the chimpanzees. they were particularly feisty today! normally we don't see much movement from them, but today one of them was running around pushing a crate along the floor. madelyn loved this and kept calling to the chimp to "come" and "run". this chimp was just running all over and chasing the other chimps. when she finally gave up on the chimp running any more, she enjoyed her snack on a bench in front of the orangutans. she liked watching the baby orangutan climb all over and play with a plastic swimming pool. this came up when she was telling dad about her day. he was a little confused when she told him that the monkey was in the pool, but i confirmed that it was indeed true.

we were at the zoo for about 2-1/2 hours and did the trip without a stroller. i only carried her twice during some of the longer outdoor stretches to try and keep the exposure to a minimum. towards the end she did start to get upset from being tired and hungry - like crying and saying "no" to everything i offered her. once we got in the car she was still in a "no" kind of mood. sometimes when she is fussy in the car i just have to let her hold my hand and that is good enough for peace. she fell asleep in the car, without any lunch, and slept for a little over 3 hours. i am so lucky.

it was really nice to get some fresh air. even if it was really cold fresh air. and the walking was really nice too. madelyn has been asking to go outside for a walk a lot lately.

lastly, i couldn't resist taking a picture of madelyn reading several books at the same time while wearing her "book worm" shirt. she brought them out from her room one at a time and set up on the coffee table to 'read'.

love.