Things I learned at the Zoo

With these gorgeous Spring days, I am trying to take advantage of two things while I still can: 1) I only have one child to pack up in the morning and 2) getting Keagan into places for free because he's still 2. So yesterday, we headed to the Southwick Zoo- a first time for both of us. Actually, this was Keagan first real zoo trip- we have only seen farm animals so far.
This zoo is almost an hour from our house, but I chose it because it had kiddie rides, a playground and a train ride for entertainment as well as the animal selection. I'm glad I did, because it would have been a much shorter trip had it just been animals to see. Keagan did not like most of the large animals because they were scary- particularly the lions and tigers. He was in his stroller and would say "let's keep moving" and "too scary." We did enjoy some of the monkeys- particularly one who was throwing his dish around his cage while we were waiting to get on the car ride. He also LOVED the giant tortoises. Apparently, they move too slowly to be scary :) At first the capybaras were scary too, but when I explained they are like big guinea pigs, he decided they were cute. They happen to be my favorites as well.
Keagan loved the "merry go round" car ride, which reminded me of going on the same kind of ride as a kid. He also went in an airplane ride that went around, but also up and down. We tried a big bounce house, but that did not go well. There was only one other little girl in it, but he did NOT like the feeling of the floor moving beneath him. Before a total meltdown we got him out of there, and the operator was kind enough to give us our tickets back (we went on the car ride again with those). The train trip was also a big hit. Although at first he wasn't too happy the train wasn't on tracks, but soon got over that. We saw elk very close up from the train as well as turkeys, swans and great blue herons (flying even! which was gorgeous).
I also found it fascinating to observe other families participating in the zoo experience. We had a snack outside the petting zoo area, where they have some goats and baby calves in a closed pen that people can go in and out of. I did not attempt this with Keagan, noticing that many adults were getting goat hooves to the thighs as the goats jumped up for food. I just knew that was too up close and personal for my little guy. He kept his distance from the goats at the last farm trip we took. But I couldn't help wondering why another mom decided to keep her son in there (who looked perhaps a bit older than Keagan) while he was screaming and clawing up her legs to get the heck out! Did she not see he had a legitimate concern, given that these goats outweighed him, some had horns and were apparently in a feeding frenzy? Perhaps she felt he needed "toughening up"... sigh. Only moments later a little boy came out of that pen screaming with a bloody knee. I didn't see if it was a goat-inflicted injury or just a simple trip and fall, but that poor kid spent the next 15 minutes recovering on a bench. This mother had great patience for his outpouring though, and eventually, before packing him and his little sister up in their stroller, the boy was giggling at a silly game of something.
It was about time to leave for us, so of course another bathroom trip was in order for me and we headed that way. As we were getting in a mother was getting her son out of a special wheel chair and leading him into the bathroom as well. While I changed Keagan's diaper on a changing table, she got her son out of his pants and underwear and sitting in a stall while she used the wall dryer to dry up an apparent accident. She had to coax the boy (about age 10 perhaps, with some disability- looked both mental and slightly physical to me, but I'm no expert) to stay in the stall, as he was half naked. I marveled at her cool. Clearly, a frustrating situation, but she just turned to me and said "I should get one of these at home, it would be fantastic!"- motioning to the high-powered dryer that dried the pants in less than a minute. I applaud you, Mother. Life has not dealt you the simplest hand, and yet you handle it with grace and humor. As I looked down at my beautiful boy, pulling his pants back up as she did the same for her son, I felt incredibly fortunate.