Birthday Zoo Trip

On Evie's actual birthday, she and I took a special trip to the zoo while Todd was at work. The day started with birthday cake and milk for breakfast. Then Evie had another bath with her duckies, and we hurried to get out the door and to the zoo. The journey to the zoo ended well, although there was initially some confusion on how to get there since Denver streets still don't make complete sense to me. When we finally got there, we headed straight for the lion exhibit, which is right in front of the doors. There were two "daddy lions;" one was lying down while the other stalked around in the shadow of the rocks. Evie couldn't really see either of them very well because of how they blended in to their surroundings, but she was very excited to see the giant lion poster in front of the glass! We moved on to the Feline House so we could look at the other giant cats. All that I could see, though, was a leopard lying in the shade, and two of the tigers lounging way at the other end of their enclosure.

I don't know if they were the parents or two of the cubs, and I don't know where the other four tigers were, but it didn't really matter because Evie couldn't quite see them anyway. She really tried hard though; even squinting her eyes and peering over at where I was pointing. I think she was a little disappointed that she couldn't see what I was telling her about.

Next, we hurried over to the giraffes, and for the very first time, Evie saw them! In fact, she was quite excited and kept pointing at them and yelling loudly so that she could be sure that I'd noticed her new discovery.

I'm into the third trimester of this pregnancy now, so I can't walk for as long or as far as usual, especially without Todd there to help me by pushing the stroller or carrying Evie up to the glass of different exhibits. However, I wanted Evie to have a good experience during our zoo trip, so I hurried back the way we'd come so we could hopefully catch a glimpse of the elephants and check in on the monkeys and little shrews that had so captivated Evie during our last trip. On our way past the lions, we saw that the first "daddy lion" was still sitting in his same spot, but the second one was out in the sunshine, pacing in a big circle. Evie was thrilled! She finally got the chance to see her favorite animals in person, and her glee was so exciting to see. I made sure to get a video of her exuberance with the last of my camera's available memory:

After the lions, we walked past the cheetah and the kangaroos. The cheetah never moved, but Evie very enthusiastically pointed out to me the rocks and tree-trunks in the exhibit. In front of the kangaroos, I was very surprised and impressed, because they were both lying on their backs and I figured Evie wouldn't be able to see them, but she pointed right at both of them over and over again to show me the new critters she'd found.
We hurried to the elephant exhibit, but they've finally been moved to their new huge home, along with all of the other pachyderms, apparently, and are getting acclimated to their new surroundings so that the general populace can see them on June 1st. I was a little sad we couldn't see the elephants, but I'm excited to go see the huge new exhibit in June; it looks like it will be a third of the total size of the zoo!
Moving right along, we went to see the monkeys. Evie still couldn't make out some of the monkeys that were sleeping on tree branches, but she was a lot more aware than last time, and even pointed one out to me that I hadn't noticed!
One of the monkeys shared a cage with the giant anteater. The monkey slept the whole time, but the giant anteater kept marching around the perimeter of the cage as if he was a sentry. Evie kept looking for the monkey up in the tree until the anteater passed right in front of us so close that we could have touched it if the glass hadn't been in the way. He startled her, and her eyes started following him while he paced around his circuit. I was a little disappointed with the shrews this time. I remembered there being lots of them scurrying around the floors of the lemur exhibits last time, and this time I only saw a couple. Also, the golden lion tamarins that were so energetic last time were all sleeping on their tree branches. Apparently it was naptime for the monkeys! At least Evie noticed them this time, but it took her a lot longer to see the shrews because she kept looking up instead of down. Just like with the anteater, it took one of them coming right up to the glass to get her startled attention.
Next we moved to the great apes and saw the triangular exhibit that housed the family of orangutans. The "mommy monkey" was taking a nap in the far corner, and the baby was in the corner adjacent to us and was busy playing with her straw bed. The giant log playground in the middle made it hard for Evie to see her, though. The "daddy monkey" was sitting directly in front of the window next to us and was busy picking his nose. Apparently this was of no interest to Evie, because her gaze moved right past him in an effort to find something more interesting. Then, he suddenly turned his head towards us, cupped his hands over the tops of his eyes to shut out glare, and stared through the glass directly at the oblivious Evie. I'm not going to lie, that look was a little bit creepy. So...inhuman. I know, that's stupid since he obviously isn't human. But it still concerned me a little. I tried to make the best of it, though. "Look, Evie!" I said, "The daddy monkey is trying to wish you a Happy Birthday!" "Or he's plotting a way to eat you, one of the two" was the thought that I didn't vocalize. She still didn't deign to acknowledge his presence and we were getting a crowd around the glass anyway, so I picked her up and carried her over to the gorillas, who were nice and boring. About this point, I could tell that the munchkin was getting a little hungry and tired, and I was too, so we left the primates and found a nice bench to sit on. Evie had a lunch made up of one of the last of her jarred purees, and a sippy cup full of whole milk. I just sat and rested my hips. Then, we walked through the gift shop on our way out, with Evie pointing out all of the interesting things that she saw and me gaping at the exorbitant prices of everything.

Although it was short, the trip to the zoo was a success! So many of the animals seemed to go out of their way to make the birthday trip pleasant for Evie and I was so proud of my big one-year-old girl!