First Trip to the Zoo
Being as we are in fierce contention for parents-of-the-year , we naturally waited until Patrick was 10 months old to take him to the Zoo for his first time. To be fair, just like our first park trip, it has been too cold and gross outside to take him anytime recently, and then last fall when it was nicer out he was just too little. Anyways, so after looking at the forecast for this week this past weekend, we decided today would be the prime day (70 degrees!!) to take Patrick to the Zoo for the very first time. I'm on spring break and Mike has the week off, so we were excited we'd get to do some family stuff that we don't usually get to do this week.
Now, all of us like to sleep in--the boys of the house even more than me. So waking up at 8:30 this morning was no fun for anyone...especially since it was just 7:30 a couple days ago. Anyways, once we were all up and shoveled breakfast and milk from a sippy cup (still winning with this!!) down, we loaded the car and headed to the Zoo. Cheapo Mooneys here know that the Children's Zoo is free from 9-10am, so we wanted to hurry and get there before we'd have to pay. Plus, we knew with the forecast it'd get crazy crowded later in the day, so we wanted to go early so we could be back home in time for Patrick's nap. As you can see below, Patrick had his signature game-face on and was ready to brave the Zoo.
We got to the Zoo around 9:15 and it was already starting to get crowded. Great. I hate crowds and people congestion. Not a fan. I will go to great lengths to avoid these situations. However, I sucked up my hatred and mini-panicy feelings and toughed out the early Zoo crowds for the sake of my boy's happiness and experiences.
Patrick had a blast in the Children's Zoo--we kept telling him he'd see "all different types of Scooters today!"--because, we refer to every single animal as a "big Scooter" "gray Scooter" "fuzzy Scooter", and so on...yeah, that's gonna come back and bite us I'm sure. Anyways, he got to see some Meerkats and Jellyfish that he really liked and then he got to pet the goats (my favorite part!).
We then headed out to walk around and see some of the rest of the animals. Patrick was such a trooper: he was so good just relaxing in his stroller and taking in all of the animals he was seeing.
One of my favorite pictures from today was Patrick next to the ape. They both were just looking at each other--very game-faced-y, Patrick's lately signature look. So darn cute.
Our friends Lisa and Logan happened to be going to the Zoo today too, so we got to meet up with them too and see a bunch of the animals. Logan liked pushing Patrick's stroller, and mama here liked catching up with her buddy Lisa.
We had so much fun at the Zoo! But around 11:30am it was getting crazy crowded (cue anxiety) and both mama and Patrick were getting hungry. So we walked back to our car and drove to Dogtown to eat at Seamus McDaniels for lunch. The best part was that both Mike and Patrick had their shamrock Irish shirts on today--and totally by coincidence. I had gotten Patrick dressed while Mike was getting dressed and they both ended up wearing a green Irish shirt and a Cardinals hat! This was too cute.
Patrick then passed out on the way home--like almost immediately. I'm sure he had a blast seeing all of the new animals and Mike and I really enjoyed spending the day with Patrick and enjoying the gorgeous weather! He's got a playdate when he gets up from his nap with his buddy Mikey, so we have a jam-packed day planned for him. I hope the rest of the week turns out to be as fun as today has been.
Now, all of us like to sleep in--the boys of the house even more than me. So waking up at 8:30 this morning was no fun for anyone...especially since it was just 7:30 a couple days ago. Anyways, once we were all up and shoveled breakfast and milk from a sippy cup (still winning with this!!) down, we loaded the car and headed to the Zoo. Cheapo Mooneys here know that the Children's Zoo is free from 9-10am, so we wanted to hurry and get there before we'd have to pay. Plus, we knew with the forecast it'd get crazy crowded later in the day, so we wanted to go early so we could be back home in time for Patrick's nap. As you can see below, Patrick had his signature game-face on and was ready to brave the Zoo.
We got to the Zoo around 9:15 and it was already starting to get crowded. Great. I hate crowds and people congestion. Not a fan. I will go to great lengths to avoid these situations. However, I sucked up my hatred and mini-panicy feelings and toughed out the early Zoo crowds for the sake of my boy's happiness and experiences.
Patrick had a blast in the Children's Zoo--we kept telling him he'd see "all different types of Scooters today!"--because, we refer to every single animal as a "big Scooter" "gray Scooter" "fuzzy Scooter", and so on...yeah, that's gonna come back and bite us I'm sure. Anyways, he got to see some Meerkats and Jellyfish that he really liked and then he got to pet the goats (my favorite part!).
We then headed out to walk around and see some of the rest of the animals. Patrick was such a trooper: he was so good just relaxing in his stroller and taking in all of the animals he was seeing.
One of my favorite pictures from today was Patrick next to the ape. They both were just looking at each other--very game-faced-y, Patrick's lately signature look. So darn cute.
And, we had to see the camels, of course. Too bad it wasn't Wednesday.
We had so much fun at the Zoo! But around 11:30am it was getting crazy crowded (cue anxiety) and both mama and Patrick were getting hungry. So we walked back to our car and drove to Dogtown to eat at Seamus McDaniels for lunch. The best part was that both Mike and Patrick had their shamrock Irish shirts on today--and totally by coincidence. I had gotten Patrick dressed while Mike was getting dressed and they both ended up wearing a green Irish shirt and a Cardinals hat! This was too cute.
Patrick then passed out on the way home--like almost immediately. I'm sure he had a blast seeing all of the new animals and Mike and I really enjoyed spending the day with Patrick and enjoying the gorgeous weather! He's got a playdate when he gets up from his nap with his buddy Mikey, so we have a jam-packed day planned for him. I hope the rest of the week turns out to be as fun as today has been.
