Zoo Baby

We've had gorgeous weather here the last few days and C has been really stressed out at work, so we decided to spend some time outdoors as a family and take N to the zoo yesterday.

N has had some rather screwed up sleep patterns, and since she didn't sleep much Friday night, she napped on the way to Fort Worth while C drove and I knitted. Once there, she woke up happy and thrilled to be outdoors. She loves being outdoors.

Going to the zoo on a weekend is like going to stroller hell. We only very rarely use our little umbrella stroller with N. I've used it a few times at the park. I didn't see the point in trying to get her to stay in it, especially since a stroller puts her down so low she can't see anything anyway. So I wore the Ergo and between it, holding her in our arms, and C carrying her on his shoulders, we enjoyed being sans stroller. I wish half the people there would ditch the stroller in exchange for baby carriers. It was so much easier for us to maneuver with her without a stroller. C wore a backpack with our stuff in it and when his arms or back got tired, I popped her into the Ergo, which puts her weight on my hips and doesn't hurt my back or shoulders. (And that is saying a lot because my right shoulder has been permanently damaged for about 10 years now.) The one thing I forgot that I wish we had was her little harness. It's a child leash and it allows her to walk around and be free, but yet we can keep her from running off helter skelter. It was hard to put her down and let her walk since she would just take off in some random direction, usually into oncoming stroller traffic, but most of the time she does love to walk between us holding our hands.

N isn't too aware of animals yet and the differences between them. We have ducks in the neighborhood, so she recognized those, and if an animal was moving around, she might notice it if we pointed it out, but she's not at the point where she is excited to see a monkey or a lion. There was a plastic cow in the children's play barn, and she did moo at that. The cow says "moooooo" and everything else says "ack ack" I think she enjoyed it, though, and this time next year she should really be into it all.

We only stayed a couple of hours and didn't make a point of seeing everything. We figured she wouldn't be too into the reptile house since mostly that is just snakes and frogs laying around, so we didn't go into it. Probably the highlight of her day was climbing the steps of the cafe in Texas town while C and I took turns using the facilities. For lunch she had a banana and her very first bites of pizza. Pizza Hut personal cheese pizza. She loved it and I wasn't planning to give her any until she had finished her banana but Daddy jumped the gun on that and the only way I got her interested again in the banana was by feeding it to her on a fork. Then she took the fork and did a really great job of feeding herself with it! That face she made when she first tried the pizza is hilarious and it looks like an I-don''t-like-it face, but it isn't.

We thought she would nap on the way home, but she didn't and by the end of the 45 minute or so drive she was none too happy with her car seat, so Mommy sang several rounds of "If you're happy and you know it" followed by an eternity of Old McDonald Had a Farm. She didn't nap at all and so we were able to get her down at a reasonable hour and maybe she will get her sleep schedule back on track.