Field Trip to Como Zoo

I thought I'd update you on the "Mom Thing" Field Trip:  we had a really good time!  The weather was really cool in the morning. But it warmed up a little and was comfortable, with the proper clothing.  It had rained 2" here the night before. In fact, our electricity had been out for a couple of hours. (I don't mind because I love getting out my antique kerosene lanterns and using them, though we don't use kerosene.)  In the morning it was 49 degrees F. and still wet.  I thought, "Oh, no, there'll be tons of huge puddles, and all the little boys will just want to jump in them, and be muddy messes and not care about the zoo!" But that was no problem.  Kelsey and Jeanie (her friend who also loves little kids and is the special favorite of one of the mom's little boys) came along for crowd control.

Kelsey, Jeanie and I got there early to scope things out, which was good, since the new Visitor Center isn't labeled very well, and we kind of drove around trying to make sure we were in the right place.  After about a half an hour we started out with 4 moms and 3 "helpers" and 10 kids under 3-years-old (oh, that's right: Cole was our Man. He's 8). Later 3 other moms arrived and their 6 kids!  It really was fun! We saw a tiger, a lion, a mama giraffe and her 5-week-old baby (how is it that even a baby giraffe is "oh look how cute he is!")  We marveled at that. Baby animals are always cute!  We saw a baby orangutan with its mother, playing with, well, basically, garbage:  cardboard that they'd ripped apart! But, you know how when you give your toddler a gift, and they take it out of the box, set it aside and play very happily with the box? It was kind of like that.

We watched a polar bear being trained.  What would you think would really be a treat for a polar bear?  Well, it's lard. Yep. Lard.  A big huge piece of...lard.  Who woulda thunk?  After a couple of hours, the kids (and we) were getting hungry, so some who had had time to prepare lunches beforehand went across the road to the lovely park and ate at the picnic tables by the playground!  It's really a nice park.  The kids had a great time playing at the playground, even little Jebadiah, who had one week ago broken his arm.  He's 3.  I love being with these young moms, so experienced and mature, so laid back.  Most of the kids there were boys.  The prevailing attitude when anybody falls or anything happens is: "No blood? Ok, you're fine."  Raising Tough Boys. All the children were really well-behaved, and I got to hold lots of babies and little people--in other words, I had a great time!  It seemed like everybody did. Thank you, Lord, for that answer to prayer.