Back in June (yes, I know it’s the end of July but I’ve been busy) Elijah and I went on a special zoo trip with Nana Sherry and her friend Carol, Carol’s daughter Lisa, and Lisa’s son Lucas, who is just a bit older than Elijah. Nana was pretty excited that we were all able to actually find a date and time that worked out, since she had been trying to plan this for over a year!
We went to the Detroit Zoo, and it was really a perfect day for a zoo visit – not too hot, perfect blue sky, no rain, and not very crowded either! Elijah didn’t seem to understand all the animals yet though. I guess it takes a certain level of understanding to know that seeing an animal up close is different and more special than seeing them in books. I showed Eli a lion and he was excited at first (“lion lion!”) and then just stuck his thumb in his mouth and looked around like, “okay I saw it, so why are we still standing here?”
Since it wasn’t that busy at the zoo, Elijah had the privilege of being able to run around a bit without having to be holding our hands all the time. He really liked running around on the grass (the zoo has beautiful grounds) and finding the lampposts.
I think his favorite thing was this giant polar bear sculpture at the entrance to the polar bear exhibit. He kept running around it and climbing on the rocks behind it, and then I even set him on top of the bear’s paw to have him look around a bit. It was really cute. The polar bear exhibit is cool too because they have an underwater clear tunnel that you go down in to and then the polar bears (or in our case bear) are swimming around and over top of you. Elijah thought the tunnel was cooler than the bear I think. It took me a bit of coaxing to get Elijah to actually look up and see the bear when he was over our head, he just didn’t seem to get the concept of looking up in time. When he actually saw the bear he was excited though (but only the first time!).
Right after visiting the bears we went in to the little zoo store and Nana picked out a stuffed polar bear for Eli – which he cuddled with and would barely let go of. Until Nana bought it of course, at which point he treated it like it had a disease and threw it out of the stroller. What a fickle boy!
After lunch (Eli’s came in this cool tiger head carrier) Elijah was in a much better mood and had a lot of fun running around again. When we saw the monkeys most of the monkeys were inside sleeping on one side of the while the large baboons were outside on the other side of the exhibit. You could see both parts by running back and forth between one window and the next though. So Elijah would run to the sleeping monkeys, peer in, and then yell, “Wake up monkeys!” over and over again. Then run back and look at the big baboon.
Elijah also found a fence that he could be on one side of while I was on the other. He would run around and then look at me and laugh, while I pointed out to everyone the wild baby that was now in captivity. Then he would “escape” and run around the fence back to me. I think he could have done that for quite a while except that everyone else (including Mama!) wanted to get going to see other animals.
The other cute thing Eli did was share Nana’s frozen lemonade with her. He was in the process of falling asleep when we stopped to get it, and then perked right up when he saw her eating it. He of course wanted a bite. At first his face just puckered right up and he held his mouth funny going, “cold cold.” Then he got a grin – he liked it! After that he wanted more and more. One time Nana was taking a bite and Eli expressed his displeasure at not receiving that spoonful. Nana told him it was her turn, to which Eli replied, “my turn!” He got his spoonful then when Nana said, “Nana’s turn” and had a bite Elijah said, “Eli’s turn!” It was really cute.
Eli did end up taking a nap (Lucas too), and by the time he woke up we had seen a lot more of the zoo ourselves and were on to eating ice cream. There is a huge play area at the zoo but we didn’t visit because it was time to head home (we were all beat!). Next time we visit I think we’ll budget more time for that play area because it looked really awesome.
After a quick visit to the main gift shop and Elijah picking out a leopard spotted truck we headed home. The last think Elijah played on was a stone hippo at the entrance to the zoo, and we had to drag him off it of course! I think we definitely need a return visit next summer!
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