Monday, September 22, 2014

Riding a Lion and Feeding a Giraffe

This past weekend we hung out with the animals at the Baltimore Zoo along with our friends who are able to get tickets through his work (thank you so much Arthur and Kristina!).  Their daughter, Lillian, is 4 months younger than Noelle, and it was so fun seeing how much the two of them enjoyed seeing the animals!

When Noelle came down the stairs on Saturday morning, I told her that we were going to the zoo- and she was ready to leave right then!  I told her we still had a little while until we needed to leave and that daddy and Jonah were still sleeping.  But she just kept saying "Get dressed" and "Go!"  Luke and I were really curious what was going through her head, and what exactly she knew about a zoo.  My mom took her back when she was probably not even a year old, and the only other thing we have at home about the zoo is her book about Curious George going to the zoo.

Noelle sitting on the lion

Eventually we headed out the door and got to the zoo right as it was opening.  We met up with our friends, and headed down the path to see the animals.  Noelle loved seeing the big tortoise and did her turtle dance (she dances to a little song that one of her books plays for the turtle sound-hilarious!).  (I also won't go in to detail about what the tortoises were doing when we walked past them later- but as one mom explained to her child, "they're making babies.)

tortoise and rhino

It was fun going into the aviary and having the birds flying and walking around us.  One white bird sat on the railing of the walkway and sort of snapped at people as they walked by.  The girls had fun watching the cheetah pace back and forth, and make his purring/growling sounds, while we parents joked that he wanted to eat them. We headed over to the giraffe, and the girls got to feed him some leaves!  It was pretty cool being that close to the giraffe, and he certainly knew what to do and sucked those leaves right down.

watching the cheetah // feeding Caesar the giraffe

The rest of the group went to say hi to the lions and stop by some other exhibits while I sat and fed Jonah, and when I met back up with them, we watched the elephants for a little while.  The girls ran around that area for a bit, and now that they are getting older, it's fun to actually see them interact with each other.  Noelle even forced Lillian to hold hands with her- no idea where she gets that from!

forced hand holding did not last long

We grabbed some lunch, and then the girls rode on the carousel- which Noelle threw a fit about having to wait to do, and then about having to get off after the ride was over.  The last stop was the farmyard for a little bit, but Jonah was starting to get really fussy (the little stinker had been awake for close to 5 hours by then!) so we made a speedy departure for the car. 

howdy cowgirl // brushing the goats

Luke and I hadn't been to the Baltimore Zoo since we were kids, so it was fun to go back, and even more fun seeing it through Noelle's eyes.

No comments:

Post a Comment