This Time with Animals

A few days ago I posted about our trip through the vehicle zoo. Well, today for the first time in nearly a year Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, and I took a trip a zoo with a more classic theme, Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo (otherwise known as "Meltdown Central" - we arrived in the afternoon after nap time, however many children were obviously not so fortunate).

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It had animals.

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A large variety of animals, many of which litter the pages of our ever expanding toddler library. A year ago when we last visited much was lost on our son and we spent much of our compressed time there in an indoor play area. Fun, but not worth the small fortune we forked over to get in. But today it was a different story. Lukas is much more mobile now, and was able to pick out many of the different species of animals as we approached them. The excitement level was palpable as we were able to get up close and personal with the likes of Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh My!).

The Gorilla exhibit was especially fascinating as there was a 2 year old little guy who we watched interact lovingly with its mother. He didn't set a very good example however, as there were three "no-no" incidents: little gorilla tried to bite his mother, little gorilla threw a stick at another member of his family, and little gorilla picked his nose and ate it. We explained to our own little monkey that this was very bad behavior. You take advantage of a learning opportunity when it presents itself.

The hungry tiger was also a hit as it paced back and forth and growled loudly, causing Lukas to proclaim to the obvious amusement of the gathered crowd: "It's BIG! Like Daddy!" The Columbus Monkeys held promise due to the fact that Lukas carries around an almost identical stuffed monkey, but they just sat huddled in a tree without moving as our son waved his stuffed toy back and forth in their general direction. They obviously were not amused.

Another disappointment lay in the fact that there was no Polar Bear exhibit, which was one animal Lukas mentioned over and again that he wanted to see. This interest was most likely due to his recent fascination with the Eric Carl book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?". The thought crossed my mind that we could take him to see a brown polar bear, but Mrs. LIAYF didn't think that a very good idea. So we just focused on the other animals, which seemed to work just fine.

On the ride home, when Mrs. LIAYF asked Lukas which animal out of all he had seen he liked best, he responded:

"The Polar Bear!"