A Zoo Experience

Fall is here! I am overjoyed. Usually I savor ever last drop of the warm weather, but this year I find myself looking forward to some crisp weather. I suspect that part of this is due to extra body heat associated with carrying around a small little person. Whatever the cause, bring on the fall crispiness.

While enjoying the lovely weather recently, we took Gideon and some of my visiting family to the local zoo. It's small but sweet, and I was excited to give Gideon the opportunity to see that the animals we read about every day are actually real. It turns out, they must seem REALLY real to him - as common as trees, maybe - because he didn't seem to care, even when he could clearly see the animal. (Seeing the animal only occured when they were big and in motion...it helped when they were brightly colored as well. So, most of the time he probably wondered why we were staring at trees or cages). The only animal to get a really excited reaction out of him was the leopard, and I'm pretty sure that is because it was pacing like David does, not because it was a leopard. Gideon gets excited about pacing these days. I was hoping for some reaction to indicate that the zoo was a cool thing to do, but I have been reminded of the truth that the best gifts for babies are the simplest things in life - like walks without animals, in keeping with such other fun simplicities as cardboard boxes. At least I enjoyed the zoo!