Last week, we took Amita to the zoo for the first time. We figured with all the animal sounds she's been making lately, this would be the perfect place to practice them. We had scheduled the day about a month in advance... And of course, it was also the only day last week that it rained! But we went anyway... and we spent a whole lot of time in the monkey house waiting for the downpour to subside. That was perfectly fine with Amita; she was awestruck by all the different monkeys! Plus, she got to make her monkey sounds (ah ah ah) around a million times!!
The weather ended up being great - it kept the crowds to a minimum and it kept me from getting too hot (no small feat lately!). As soon as the rain was done, all the big animals came out to play. We saw bears out and moving around; lions pacing; zebras grazing and running; even tigers wrestling just like our orange cats at home!! But more fun than watching all the animals was watching Amita's reaction to each animal. She loved calling out sounds and watching them move. We had a wonderful day and are looking forward to going back again soon.
Here's Amita with Dad. She couldn't take her eyes off the monkey cage!
One of the "Rafiki" monkeys that we watched. Some elementary aged kids on a tour with the YMCA were very entertained by these monkeys' butts!
Relaxing with Mama and watching the bonobo monkeys. There was even a baby monkey that we could see riding on top of his parents. They carried him around on their tummies and backs... just like I'll be doing with our new little one in my sling come November!
Getting up close to the tigers. Amita's tiny roar was no match for this guy!
These Muppet toys were mine many years ago. They still haven't lost their appeal on a new generation. The hardest thing for Amita is that she wanted to hold them all at the same time... she couldn't bear to put even one down!
