It's All Happening At the Zoo

We went to the zoo today. And so yes, we've officially become one of those families that loads everyone into the car on a beautiful sunny day and goes off to fill up parking lots with other families and spend ridiculous amounts of money on lemonade and what have you while rubbing elbows with other families peering at animals who tend to hide in the shade whenever possible.

But I kid, because really, it wasn't all that bad. In the first place, the animals were pretty cool. The hippo sashayed its considerable bulk across its pen to a big puddle of mud, snuffling his nose into it while debating whether or not to do a big belly flop. (This of course had me thinking of the classic Sandra Boynton book "But Not the Hippopotamus": 'She just doesn't know...should she stay...should she go?') The flop didn't happen, at least not while we were watching, since 5 minutes of looking at hippo butt was quite enough for the lot of us and we moved on.

The rhinos paced majestically across their area to random logs in order to gnaw the bark off of them, while the giraffes and zebras strutted and preened as if they actually enjoyed being objects of attention. The elephant, during a show, had a good time spraying water out of its trunk on observers who got too close, and the sea lion seemed to enjoy swimming laps around its pool. Granted, the kangaroos lay off in a corner as if they were waiting for nightfall, and the polar bear looked like he wanted nothing more than to be inside either eating or sleeping, but most of the animals seemed fairly content with their lot in life. And of course there were all these educational placards noting how the zoo was helping these animals to survive extinction and reproduce and stuff, which is all a good thing. And if just one kid, impressed by the animals he sees, decides not to grow up and hurt any animals later on, the zoo will have served its purpose in my book.

This was Jack's second trip to the zoo, and he was only about eight months old the first time, plus his parents were both in the process of getting sick, plus for one reason or another the bulk of the trip was spent looking at 23 slightly different varieties of monkeys. So it could be said that his initial exposure to the place wasn't particularly memorable.

This time, although we were on our own - we'd been led around by more zoo-familiar friends the first time - and tended to stumble around aimlessly with little idea where we were going, we managed to see all the big animals, and Jack was somewhat more into it. He made the appropriate noises ("Wow!") and pointed at the rhinos, hippo, elephant, and zebras, and whether his "Wow"s were out of excitement or because it was just a word he felt like using today, it made us feel like he was enjoying himself. He spent most of his time in our arms or on our hip, which made it a near certainty I'd be bringing the backpack carrier next time.

It was April 9th in Colorado, which of course meant it was in the 70s and, in the sun, felt about 10 degrees warmer. I went to use the restroom at one point at the back of the "Tropical Birds" building, which seemed to be about 100 degrees and made me glad I don't live in the tropics. Jack was well sunscreened and wearing his hat ("Hat!" he said), while Emily and I slogged about somewhat glad that about 2 hours of zoo-time would probably be Jack's limit; when he started getting a little cranky around about that time, we realized we were right. We spent $14 on chicken tenders and fries that tired Jack refused to eat, Emily didn't get to enjoy because she was holding Jack, and I didn't get to enjoy because I had to wolf down what I could before we all hustled off to the car. Jack was half-asleep by the time we'd strapped him in, and then it was a dangerous trek through a parking lot crammed with people, strollers, kids, and wagons - roughly 2, 2, and 1 per family of the latter three items, by my count.

I did not see any high school or college age kids at the zoo - the latter in part because it was before noon on a Sunday, but that probably wasn't the only reason. I didn't see any people without small kids period, a grouping which of course included us.

So yeah, it was one of those crystal-clear moments when you realize you're a family. And with Jack clinging to my shoulder and pointing at the hippo and saying "Wow," well, that was pretty okay with me.