Taking Our Zoo to the Zoo!

The zoo had been calling to me for weeks. I kept seeing the billboards, hearing the radio commercials and thinking about whether or not Avi and Itai would enjoy it. School's out for Avi and me so I decided to do it and see if it was something either Avi or Itai would like. The drive took a little longer than I imagined it would and I was starting to wonder if it was going to be worth the trip.

After wondering around for a few minutes, trying to get my bearings, we stopped at the first animal habitat. In front of us stood two elephants, close to where we stopped. They stood so large and imposingly that I couldn't imagine Avi wouldn't notice them I kept pointing at them trying to get them to look. Avi was far more fascinated with the little stream running through the habitat than the elephants. Then the larger of the two suddenly turned and while trumpeting violently collided with the smaller. This, I thought, was something that Avi could not have missed, but when I asked again what he saw the answer was, "Water!"

We went on missing the spider monkeys, the gorilla, orangutan, bears, penguins (I thought he would love them, but they really were pretty boring) peacocks and a cougar. I was starting to think Avi wouldn't be able to see a single animal. Itai was looking very uncomfortable and Avi was say, "Want shev. Want sit down." This is Avi language for, "I want to eat."

I decided to try one last stop before we went to a pavilion for a fruit break. We pulled up to the zebras. I lifted Avi from the stroller and asked him what he saw. He looked around for a minute and suddenly his eyes widened. He saw it! A huge smile spread across his face as he excitedly sang, "Zebra!" With that success I decided it was the perfect time to take a quick snack break.

After the break we finished up our tour. Poor Itai still looked completely miserable in the stroller. We ended up in the park. Avi immediately went for the giant slide. I took the opportunity to get Itai out. While Avi happily climbed stair after stair Itai crawled around in the giant egg placed there for pictures and play. This park was definitely the high point for both of them. Avi ran and Itai happily followed him from spider, to caterpillar and beyond. The price seemed a little high for one zebra and some playground equipment, but how can you put a price on the big smiles of two little boys?