Girl's Day Out

We had a brief but fabulous glimpse into spring earlier this week. Since it was a Wednesday, and I'm home on Wednesdays, we decided to take a trip to the Zoo. But first we had a few errands to run, including a 6-month cleaning for me at the dentist. GG came with me on my last trip as well, but she was just 11 months then and totally content to sit in her stroller and hang out. Errrrrrrr, not the case these days. I strapped her in to her stroller, grabbed a few toys and the magic black box, and said a little prayer. At first she did great! Watching her video (now known as "watch wo-wo") was like putting a brick wall between her and her surroundings. Until the hygienist tilted me back and started the initial teeth-check, at which point I heard a super sad little kitten whine, and turned to find Genevieve staring at me with huge saucer eyes filled with giant tears, and the full on bottom lip quiver to boot. Obviously she was terrified at what was happening to mama, but it never occurred to me until that moment how it must look to see someone get their teeth cleaned. Fortunately the hygienist was also a young mom and together we talked about how much the cleaning tickled and mama is so lucky to have clean teeth, and isn't this just fun?? The dentist came in to do the final check and asked me what G and I planned to do that afternoon. I mentioned that I was hoping to take her to the Zoo, which caused the dentist to ask, "You're the second person who's said that. What's the big deal at the Zoo today?". The hygienist and I replied in unison, "Gotta get out of the house!". She and I are now BFF.

I received my clean bill of dental health and we loaded back up and headed home. After a couple midday hours of tempestuous toddler behavior she finally went down for a snooze. Indeed, after she woke up, we headed to the Zoo. But first I had to grab a few shots of this little munchkin whose nap turned her from cranky tot to happy camper:

fluffing her post-nap curls


and yes, that's a new 'do she's sporting. only took two or three separate attempts to get it even.


can't get this pic to rotate correctly...but still had to post


snuggling with teddy

So finally we made it to the Zoo, which is funny since it's only about 10 minutes away. This was the first time G has gone since she's really been able to identify animals and surroundings. She was pretty taken with the wildlife...but even more impressed with the other kid's rides.

super impressed with the elephants, until she spotted a kid being pushed in a fancy bike thing. she was immediately impressed. guess i know what's on the 'garage sale hunt' list for this summer.


showing me the giraffes


ummmmm, how thick is that glass again?


a "rowr!"

Incidentally, there was a boy lion and a girl lion in the enclosure at the time we were there. He was licking her which I pointed out to Genevieve. This oddball dude standing next to me felt compelled to interject, "Yeah, he's got something else on his mind." Insert fake laugh, move on down the line. Dude appeared again and announced that we had just missed a mating session. So I said something about teaching the kids young, and tried to move away again. He popped up AGAIN to show me a picture he had taken of the act on his phone. Hey, congratulations on being 12. By now I was convinced that this dude was the decoy for someone to reach into my diaper bag and steal my wallet or something, but soon realized that no, he was not that clever. Just some mid-20's guy hanging out at the zoo on a Wednesday afternoon. Totally normal.

That was the end of the Big Cat exhibit.

We strolled around a bit more until it was time for daddy to come home, then headed home. All in all it was a fun day and I am excited to spend plenty of time with the animals this summer (sans nutball guys with nothing better to do, that is).