Monday, August 27, 2007

First Trip to the Zoo

Sidamo and I took our first trip to the Denver Zoo today with my friend Sara-lou and the sweet little girl she nannies for. My philosophical/ethical feelings on the zoo are still being formed (I like the conservation aspect, but it's tempered by the clear injustice of forcing polar bears to live in Denver. In August. In other words, in 100-degree heat, pretty darn close to the sun.). But Sidamo seemed to enjoy it, and I guess that counts for something.

Actually, truth be told, he seemed completely underwhelmed when we first got there. He was hanging out in his stroller, leaning back, starting to fade. We were standing maybe 10 feet away from zebras, and he didn't react at all. A Golden Retriever would have elicited more excitement. Hell, the cars in the parking lot each got an individual mention, but the zebras? Eh.

Then I pulled out his animal picture book, which we read about 10 times a day, and pointed out the zebra-zebra connection, and the light bulb went off. From that point forward, he'd flip through the book like a take-out menu and make his requests. We couldn't always honor them (no pigs at the zoo, believe it or not), but at least it kept him engaged.

The start of the "things that roar" tour

Baby loves buffaloes. Guess whose daddy is proud.

All in all, though, the biggest hit of the day was the floating ball in the (empty) polar bear pool.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks like a great time... What, no Rams at the zoo? Denver Media Bias

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun! Oddly, I was thinking about the zoo/ethics stuff last week too. I think I've decided that my trips to the zoo as a child were a learning experience, both in that I became familiar with the different species of animals in a way that I wouldn't have otherwise growing up in Chicago-and also that, I developed a lot of my own ideas around conservation and the ethics of zoos, rather than just learning them from my mom. But yeah, it's tough. ~lmc

tiffany said...

LOL well I am not a fan of the zoo at all but feel obligated to expose my kiddos to it every now and again. We made it to the Denver zoo once this summer and I think that'll hold us over for a while.

But your little man is SOOO CUTE! That is what I really wanted to say here! :)

Yoli said...

I have taken my child to the zoo in Miami several times. She loves animals. Her favorite are pinguins so you can imagine she did not get that wish. I finally satisfied her pinguin satisfaction by taking her to Seaworld.