For the first time, Grace walked on the rope bridge alone. She saw other kids doing it and with a little encouragement tried it herself. I waited at the end to give her a high five when she finished. Grace was every pleased with herself and ran around to do it again!
I bought Grace a "zoo key" which you insert in the slot on a variety of kiosks throughout the zoo to hear information and songs or poems about the animals. Since Grace has been interested in necklaces lately (she calls a necklace a"na-neck") , I told her it was her special zoo necklace and showed her how to put the card in the slot. Once she got the hang of it, we were on a hunt to find the animal exhibits that offered the zoo key narration.
Next time we might pretend we are Dora the Explorer looking for the place to put our key card. They are not at every exhibit and not the easiest things to find!
We stopped to touch the fur of a coyote, a bobcat, and a rabbit. Grace liked touching these and asked to go back a few times. The zoo employee was very sweet and let her touch as much as she wanted. You really can feel a difference in their fur. The bobcat's was especially thick. We also looked at their ears, eyes, and noses.
After the jellyfish
we waited on line to touch the sea stars (aka "starfish, but they really aren't fish), sea cucumbers, and snail shells and looked at hermit and horseshoe crabs up close. We learned that the hermit crab will turn the horseshoe crab over to eat it so the zookeeper was there to make sure that didn't happen while they were in the same tank together! Grace was patient and gentle so she must have really liked touching the sea animals. Of course she asked for "more" but instead of more sea creatures we went to see the farm animals.
After her feeding experience with Nana and Ba at the Central Park Zoo in New York last week she was very brave and climbed the fence on her own to get closer to the sheep and goats. I almost had a heart attack thinking she was going to fall into their pen! I even heard other parents telling their older kids, "See, that little girl is not afraid!" I guess they didn't notice me holding my breath!
We didn't touch these animals, but it WAS a special treat to see the two of the baby jaguars in their enclosure with their mom. Three babies - Bella, Nakita, and LeBron - were born in March and will stay in this zoo for about a year. We only saw two of them, though. In the wild, the mother jaguar stops taking care of her babies after the first year. The big one is named after LeBron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers. He weighs 25 pounds - the same as Grace - and the other two are about 20 pounds each.
3 comments:
Oh, what a great time. I like the key idea!!! Looks like the girls had a blast together at their almost sleepover too!! Can't believe it has been cold enough for long sleeves. Ugh!
Well, Grace, now we have other things to do when you come here! We have a ride through zoo with giraffes and monkeys. And, a petting zoo, and, an aviary. We are going to have sooooooooo much fun.
Those keys are really cool! I have a crayon roll with Grace's name on it (not really her name, I have no clue how to do that) for the next time I'm up.
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