We Went to the Zoo! (Yes, Again!)

Last week we used Aunt Meaghan's visit to make another zoo run. I was interested to see how Harper would do. When we went in Wisconsin, in April, she wasn't too interested in most of the animals. Meaghan and I were pleasantly surprised by Harper's excitement toward the animals. The Cincinnati Zoo is laid out very differently from the one in Milwaukee. It wasn't as crowed, there weren't as many other kids all over, and Harper was five weeks older this time. I'm not sure what made the difference, but she loved it. She tried to say the names of many of the animals, and used the words, "wow!" and, "big!" more than once. It also helped that we were there pretty early in the day, which may be a more active time for many of the animals.

Here's Harper and Aunt Meaghan in front of some elephants.

Here's Harper giving a drink to an elephant statue. That was one of many things that cracked us right up! She offered the sippy cup to the end of the elephant's trunk; not totally accurate, but not a bad idea either.

Once we were inside, Manatee Springs was one of Harper's favorite parts of the trip. She thought the Manatees were big fish, and greatly enjoyed them. If you look closely at her face in this photo, she was clearly unsure about the intentions of the large manatee statue. Being suspicious of large "fish" probably isn't a bad instinct.

Aside from the manatees, the elephants, polar bears, and the giraffe were probably Harper's favorite animals. We also enjoyed a close encounter with a peacock. We rounded out the day nicely with Harper's first train ride. She wasn't sure about staying on Aunt Meaghan's lap until the train got going. Once we were moving she enjoyed waving to the people watching, and saying, "Wee!"

It was great to be at the zoo and even better to spend the day with Aunt Meaghan. I'm sure it won't be the last visit for any of us!