Carly and I travelled down to Columbia yesterday in preparations of today's zoo visit. Carly has begun playing an alphabet game on the
internet that uses zoo animals to help teach letters and their sounds. Her enjoyment for this game and my current memorization of all 26 animals and the letters they are associated with led to me think that a field trip to the zoo would be perfect. It would give her a chance to see a live alligator, lion, tiger, bear, kola, etc.
Carly, my mom, and I arrived at the zoo shortly after 9:00am and had the zoo almost to ourselves at first. Carly travelled through the zoo in her wagon. We first saw the baboons, and then the lions, and then the tigers. All three of which excited her. During these first three exhibits Carly got accustomed to riding from exhibit to exhibit and then standing up in her wagon to get a better view once it came to a full stop. During our 2+ hours at the zoo she was able to see the kola bears awake and playing, the gorillas outside and playing (until they banged on the metal entry door - at which point we couldn't see them anymore and Carly
repeatedly said it was because they had a boo boo). She also saw all of the other large exhibits, and was
occasionally interested in a smaller bird exhibit if it was making noise.
Following our visit at the zoo we were
fortunate enough to be able to meet Mimi and Uncle Robert for lunch before heading back to Charlotte. Carly is still a girl with little words, but with the use of verbal words, sign language, and gestures she was able to tell them both about her visit at the zoo. Her excitement also continued tonight when we got home. She told David about it before, during, and after dinner. Her favorite story is still the one about the gorillas. I'm sure we will be hearing about it for a while.
