Happy Father’s Day 2007!

Happy Father’s Day to all the Daddies out there. I hope today was filled with love and laughter and lots of fattening food.

Yesterday we said to hell with birthday parties and family drama and headed up to Cleveland to go to the zoo. Baby had been there before, but she didn’t remember. So, it was a treat to watch her face as she saw all of her favorite animals live and up close.

At the zoo

The first thing we went to see were the zebras. Now, I love zebras. I don’t know, there’s just something about the stripes that gets me all giddy. And Baby has inherited that from me, I think. I held her up on the fence to see them and she tried to climb over! She thought she could just hop on over and go for a ride. Poor kid. When we wanted to go look at something else she didn’t want to leave. We soon found out this was going to be a theme throughout the day.

The next thing we went to see were the giraffes. Currently Baby is in a giraffe phase. Unlike other little girls her age, she doesn’t like dolls. She likes little animal action figures. We get them at Tractor Supply. And we always have to get a Daddy, Mommy, and Baby. Anyway, she’s been playing with her giraffes a lot lately, so she almost lost her mind when she saw real live giraffes. It was absolutely adorable. She started talking to them and laughing. One of them was licking a telephone pole not very far from us and she started telling him he’d better stop or he was going to get sick. Hilarious.

Baby sees giraffes up close for the first time. Look at that smile!

You can’t tell, but the front most giraffe is licking the pole.

Next we saw a dance demonstration by the African Soul International. Baby was enthralled when the kids started dancing. Unfortunately she has no rhythm. It was definitely an awesome show, though. I had goose pimples watching those children dance. I used to dance, back in the day…But that’s a story for another time.

Then we went to the new dinosaur exhibit. They have animated not-quite life like dinosaurs that roar and move their eyes and creepy shit like that. They had a velociraptor that would spit water on unsuspecting passersby. That about sent Baby over the edge. Then he roared. Oops! She was ready to high tail it out of there. Luckily I convinced her that they were just big toys like her Gloria Penguin (from “Happy Feet”) doll. “Ok,” she says “let’s take it home now.” Ha! Um, no, honey, I’m pretty sure that won’t fit in the house. Anyway, she ended up deciding they were all characters from “Land Before Time”- another theme soon to be repeated. At the end of the exhibit was, of course, a gift shop that we had to pass through to exit. Those sneaky bastards. Our very first souvenir was purchased.

Baby is talking to Tasha.

So, we moved on to go see the Northern Trek. We saw reindeer (”Rudolph!”) and some kind of deer (”Bambi and Mother!”). We stayed and watched the seals perform tricks and ask the polar bear what was wrong (she was concerned because one was just pacing back and forth). It was funny, because the fact that none of these animals answered her didn’t seem to phase her at all. I know that there were penguins there, but we somehow missed them. I’m pretty sure that Baby didn’t notice. Anyway, this is where we acquired the pink balloon and my hat.

Baby is strolling happily past the reindeer.

Off we went to find the tigers (”Tigger’s sleepy, huh, Mama.”) and some bears (”Little Bear”). She got a kick out of some kind of monkeys on Monkey Island, but she was willing to leave them when it was time.

Baby and a monkey statue. She didn’t like it.

We caught the tram to go up to the Primate house. She wasn’t too very impressed with the chimps. They were just lounging around staring at us. She loved the squirrel monkeys and some other kind of monkey because they were chasing each other around and banging against the glass. She got a little reaction from one when she started throwing a fit (she wanted to go buy a toy). Then we saw the gorillas. I don’t know what it was about them, but she was completely fascinated. She decided she wanted to stay with them and live. “They love me,” she declared. I told her, ok, but Mama can’t stay and that was the end of that. Two chimps and a gorilla were the souvenirs acquired from that exhibit.

We took the deck walk down to the Australian Walkabout. Here we walked down a path and about a million red kangaroos and wallabies were roaming free. There were a couple of mamas with joeys in their pouches. Before this Baby had no idea that kangaroos carried their babies that way and she was absolutely enchanted. There was one joey that was hanging out with his mama and Baby decided he was Roo (from “Pooh”) and darted under the rope so she could catch him. Amazingly, the little guy wasn’t the slightest bit upset that she was coming for him. I’m pretty sure he was going to play with her. Luckily, I caught her before she could do any damage.

You can’t tell but this is the ‘roo family, with the joey in front staring at us. Probably sending Baby signals to come play, the little scamp.

Outside of the walkabout is a little train depot and animal contact area (aka petting zoo). There was a water tower that was providing a misty shower for those of us that were overheated. Baby and I played in that for a while, then we went to the contact area. They had a couple of goats, donkeys, a miniature horse (aren’t those “ponies”?), and some camels. And they were offering camel rides. Oh, yes, Baby and I got up on that smelly beast and had us a ride. My normally timid child, who doesn’t even like riding the horses on the merry-go-round, wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. In fact, she wanted to go again! It was adorable. She did talk to the camel as we were being led around the circle, but I couldn’t catch what she was saying. I’m pretty sure she was inviting it to come live in our garage.

On the way out we picked up a toy kangaroo with a joey in her pouch. Cha-ching!

Next we saw the lions. She wasn’t overly impressed, though. They, too, were sleeping. Then we stopped at the plaza and got some snacks. Baby happily fed the begging gulls all of her fries. When on particularly demanding little punk squawked at her she said “What’s wrong with you? You hungry or something?” She held out a fry and the gull happily snatched it straight from her fingers. I told her they were like dogs with feathers (begging and all that). She contemplated that and decided that was ok. “He’s like Otie,” she declared as she went running after one. Of course her demands of “Here! Here, birdie! You sit!” went unheeded. At least she tried though, right?

Last we went to see the elephants. Or, as Baby says, the “heffalumps”. She decided they were ugly and needed a bath and wanted to know which one was Lumpy. They were pretty dusty, so it’s no wonder she wasn’t thrilled. I think she would have thought differently had one of them trumpeted. Oh well, maybe next time.

It was close to 7 (closing time) so we were headed out. TheMan wanted to buy Baby a stuffed animal, because he’s decided that should be a tradition. He went into the gift shop and came out with a kangaroo (the first one wasn’t stuffed). Unfortunately the kangaroo had a pouch but no joey. Baby was pissed. “I don’t like it. Where’s his baby?” TheMan tried to explain that there was no baby with it, but our own baby was having none of it. She took the kangaroo and flung it on the floor. She was more than content with the smaller, plastic one that did have a joey in her pouch. The stuffed roo has now found a home on the shelf with other stuffed toys.

And that was our adventure on my little angel’s 3rd birthday.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Related Posts