Birmingham Zoo

Joey was off for Memorial Day, everyone was finally healthy, and we wanted to find something fun to do.  We decided to go to the zoo because Andrew really loves reading about animals in books.  When reading books, he will:

• Say "woof woof" for a dog
• Roar and act like his hands are claws for both lions and tigers
• Pretend that he is smacking leaves with his mouth for giraffes
• Say "baa" for sheep
• Say "moo" for cows
• Say "cat" for cats
• Do his hands in the motion for "Roll Tide" for elephants, but he does not say anything
• Shake his head and say "neigh" for horses.
• Say "sssss" for snakes.

As we were driving to the zoo, I was hoping that he would not be scared of the animals and that he would be able to make the connection between what he had read in books and real life.  Both of these things happened, and he LOVED the zoo.  It was such an awesome day.  Here are some pictures.  Please excuse my boys' hair.  I think that they have an entire bottle of sunscreen on, including all through their hair.



 Notice his fist...he is doing "Roll Tide" at the elephant!

 Smacking his leaves with his mouth:

 Attempt and failure at getting a good picture of my boys:

 The lions were by far his favorite. He would run up to the glass, roar at them, and act like his hands were paws.  There were benches to watch them, so we took a juice break and let him enjoy them.

 Cooling off under the elephant that sprayed water out of his trunk:

 Andrew walked some, rode in the stroller some, and wanted to be carried a lot.  I asked Joey if he wanted me to take a turn carrying him, and his response was classic Joey and shows what kind of a dad he is.  He looked at me and said, "Emily, I will carry my buddy anywhere he wants for as long as he wants."  He rarely calls Andrew by name.  It is always "My Buddy" or "Sweetheart."

 I love this picture because Andrew has started saying "Cheese" for the camera.  It is really cute, but this is what his mouth looks like when he does it.

 Here we are taking another break.  Andrew was watching the giant splashpad filled with children while he drank his water.  I did not know that there was a splashpad, so we were totally unprepared.  I did not have a swimsuit, swim diaper, etc.  I told Joey that we would do a better job next time so that he could play.  Then, we decided just to let him go for it.  We took off his shirt (because we did not have a towel, so we wanted to save it to dry him off),  and his shoes, and in he went.  All of the other children were in their swim clothes, while our buddy was in a saggy, wet diaper.  He had a blast, so who cares?

 I do always have a change of clothes with me, so we dried him off and continued looking at the animals. Here is Andrew saying "baa" to the sheep.

 Joey was such a good boy.  I carried him a lot, and we took breaks to let him stretch.  He took a long nap in his stroller, and just went with the flow!