Snowy Zoo

Sam and I took a trip to the Zoo this morning. It's 16 degrees out with a coating of snow on the ground, which means the Zoo is nice and empty! We did this last year and had a lot of fun playing with the lonely sea lions.

As usual, his favorite animals weren't the ones you expect. First, we saw some wild deer on the way in and pulled the car over to watch them graze and wander by. Sam had a eureka moment related to animal locomotion. He suddenly and enthusiastically said, Wait a second! All sorts of animals step on three feet! I think by this he means they lift one of their four legs at a time. Anyway, it was a neat observation, and even neater that he had an observation.

In the Zoo we mostly went from building to building to stay warm. We weren't the only ones with that thought: The Zoo has half a dozen guinea fowl it lets roam the grounds, uncaged. Well, as some other patrons wandered by one of the buildings, the automatic door openers opened, and the birds hurried into the warmth. Sam was as delighted as they were (they are,after all, used to evading toddlers). He followed them around the building happily. After doing this for a while I dragged him into the bathroom, and while we were in there we could hear the fowl chirping just outside the door. It was the most benign parallel to Jurassic Park I will ever experience.

I have one other non-Zoo Sam quote worth sharing. I got up with him this morning and he and I played for quite some time with a new toy he got from his Grandpa Gene, his grandparents Nana and Grandad Collins, and us. (Being Playmobil, it wasn't so much paid for as underwritten.) Grandpa Gene and Nana and Grandad Collins, thank you!

After that, we had a breakfast of toaster waffles. Only in the middle of the meal did I remember we needed to say grace--so I let Sam know, and thanked God for our food. After my brief prayer he informed me, I can't pray because my hands are sticky. So I think now maybe he'll be a prophet. Isaiah already had unclean lips covered, so Sam's gig can be sticky hands.

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Amusing Addendum: All parents, I think, have the experience of trying to keep a child awake while driving someplace in the car, usually to avoid spoiling or canceling out a nap. (And even though parents will bundle a child to the point of immobility in cold weather, many of us have no qualms about opening the car window in 17-degree weather in order to keep a child awake. Naps are sacred and not to be wasted on car trips.) Well, Sam's caught onto this as a way to get attention. Driving back with him from the Zoo Saturday he put his head down and closed his eyes. When I noticed I started trying to revive him only to find he had been faking! The game then went like this: He'd close his eyes an feign sleep, but at the same time call out, "Daddy, I'm sleeping!" I would then reach back and tickle him and we'd start over. It was very amusing--even more than his successful attempt to get attention in the car by taking off one shoe and sock and then wait, giggling, for me to discover it. Kids.