Zoo Park fun

Today we went to swim lessons as normal and Ms. Stacy was back so Jayden was happy.  Towards the end she suggested we consider a semi-private or private lesson for Jayden, which was exactly what Carmen and I had talked about last week.  He's just so close to swimming and he's floating on his own, and Ms. Stacy said she thought he'd benefit so much more from more attention.  So I'll look into it this week.  It's going to be nearly impossible to stay with Ms. Stacy, because it would probably have to be during the week if it's with her.  But I'm going to see what I can figure out and try to make it work. 

After swimming, we took off to the zoo.  The zoo is approximately 10 minutes from the swimming pool and with our membership, entrance is free.  Really probably the greatest choice we made to become members of the zoo.  We spent the first 30 minutes or more playing on the playground, which is what we always do when we get to the zoo.  The pull of the "swides" is just too much.

 I adore this picture.  He maybe looks a little more angelic than he is in real life, but it's such an expression of hope.  Makes me smile.

 

 

After the playground, we ran around seeing monkeys.  And I do mean literally ran around.  He took off and I kept up within 20 feet or so to make sure I knew where he was generally!  At one point some lady came up to me and said "I think your son is over there - red tennis shoes?" maybe a little bit alarmed.  And I said, "yeah, thank you.  I'm okay."  I basically know that Jayden won't ever really run off without me, so I'm okay with him running a little bit farther from me than normal.  So long as we're not near a street or something else dangerous like that.  In any case.  We saw a few animals.  Then we rode the choo-choo!  It was very exciting. 

 

 

He of course wouldn't look directly at me and wouldn't smile.   I asked him where he wanted to sit while we were waiting in line and he said "the back!"  I said okay.  When they opened the gate for us to get on, he made a beeline towards the front car.  Oh well.   

The ride was actually pretty cool.  We rode around the farm section of the zoo and saw bunny rabbits, geese, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, owls, a possum, and a horse.  And then we rode around the "tierra de las pampas" section and saw the ostrich-like birds, rheas, I think, and some gazelle-type animals, guanacas or something like that.  And the train "engineer" honked the horn and rang the bell a lot. 

 

We got home from the zoo and I had to convince him sleeping was a good idea.  He kept telling me "I not tie-erwd," "I no go sweep."  But we sat in the chair, I told him two stories and he was out.  He slept for a bit, then we woke up and ran around outside, chased a lemon, played basketball, walked around the pool, blew bubbles, balanced on the wall, jumped off the wall, and jumped off a ledge near the pool.  It was pretty exciting.  The rest of the day was pretty typical.  But since I had my phone upstairs, I used the opportunity to snap a picture of the cutest brown bear you've ever seen:

 



Thanks Becky and Michael!