Trial by Fire Parenting: Episode 71: My day at the zoo

Ok class, time for everyone to talk about what we did over April vacation. Dan, let's start with you. What did you do over your Spring break? If this were real and I really was an 8-year-old again the story that I would tell from this week would be about our family trip to the zoo.

Much like our 1-year-old daughter, the trip to the zoo was my very first, and you could argue that I was more excited than she was about it. *I should note here that my mother claims I have been to the zoo on multiple occasions, but these trips seemingly took place when I was about 6-years-old, thus I have no recollection of the events of those days. I have been to petting zoos and aquariums, but for all intents and purposes, I'm calling this my first trip to the zoo.

I am a big fan of animals in general. I think they are funny and entertaining. I like to imagine what their personalities would be like and I enjoy watching them run around and fight and play. Now that I spend so much time with Av, I like them even more. She loves animals, too, and her reactions to them are priceless. She yells, points, makes animal noises and growls. Just the mere excitement I know she feels is enough to keep me entertained. This doesn't just go for live animals, either. When I was a kid I had hundreds of stuffed, toy friends. I always thought it was cool when I found a new animal that I didn't have yet. Av appears to be the same way. She loves seeing stuffed friends at the store and every morning starts with hugs for all of the friends at the house. In just 14 months we have collected so many that Monica has placed a moratorium on bringing more home. And that is a difficult rule to adhere to.

All of this means that a trip to the zoo was bound to be a big hit for everyone involved. With Monica home this week we decided that now was as good a time as any to take a day trip to Stoneham, and set out Thursday morning with a sack full of snacks and smiles on our faces. Personally, I was so excited about the zoo that I couldn't stop thinking about it while I was at work Wednesday night. When we got there the first thing I did was tear open the guide and start directing everyone to where we should go first. I was like a little kid.

For her part, Av loved the zoo. Most animals were referred to as "kitty," but we did get her to make some monkey noises and witnessed a hysterical attempt to make a sheep noise, which really just kind of came out sounding like something in between a growl and a smoker's cough. There was also a lot of pointing and yelling "wooooowwwww!"

Here you see some of my award-winning photography as her and Monica explored the wonderful world of flamingos.

The flamingos were part of a larger wild bird exhibit, something that I was not really all that in to, although there were some cool looking creatures in there. My problem with the bird room was that a few of the birds were allowed for some reason to fly free around the room, triggering one of my many irrational fears- that is being trapped inside with a bird. Terrified, I was forced to walk through the wild bird room, and I really just tried to keep my head down and hope that I wasn't buzzed by some exotic sparrow. Monica compared the situation to being in the Lowe's garden center when a bird gets trapped inside. She was right, it was just like that, and that is terrifying.

Other than the birds, the zoo that we went to seemed to specialize in smaller animals from around the world, although there were some black bears, cougars and a jaguar in the mix. Mostly, though, we saw a lot of tiny exotic guys like meerkats, porcupine, a fox, a wolf and a linx. There were also some mountain goats chillin' on some rocks nearby, sandwiched in between the wolf and the snow leopard, which seemed like a cruel taunt to both the predators and the prey.

Above you will see my un-combed hair and stupid dad jeans showing Av what I felt was the most disappointing exhibit, the monkeys. In all there were four types of monkeys at the zoo, but none of them did a damn thing. There were no tricks, no banana eating, poop flinging or fly-eating. There were no big gorillas or apes, just smaller tree-climbing guys, and all any of them did was sit around and look at us. Above you see the two monkeys that Av loved the most. These guys got a "woooooowwww" AND their very own monkey noises, so I suppose it was not a disappointment for all of us.

All in all the zoo trip was a great time. It was a nice day, there were plenty of animals and, most importantly, there were plenty of funny baby exploring and discovery moments. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed my "first" zoo experience, but I did start to feel bad for the animals after a while, especially the cougar who kept pacing around his area like he wanted to go for a run, but there wasn't nearly enough room for him. I think in the future I would like to attend a larger zoo, perhaps one with a lion or a giraffe.

Ever see a giraffe give birth?