It's Always Fun At The Zoo

What do you do on a 70 degree day in Springtime Seattle?  We had our choice of The Puyallup Spring Fair (pros: friends were going, lots of big farm animals, mom could get a scone.  cons: you have to be 2 years old to go on any rides, all Owen really wants to do is run and he wouldn't care about much else there) -- The Zoo (pros: tons of running room, free thanks to Nana.  cons: we always go there, possibly very crowded on a day like today.) -- Kelsey Creek Farm (pros: animals and running room.  cons: never been there and it might be a better weekday activity.) 

We ended up at the Zoo.  It's always low stress and Owen loves it.  This time, he was a running fool.  We spent the majority of the time running around the grass play areas.  There were some steep hills that Owen climbed up and down over and over with no problem (my heart was in my throat.)  The only time he fell was when he was running full speed on concrete - his balance on hills seems to be pretty good!

A new, notable moment was trying to show Owen some of the animals.  He usually has no interest in the animals unless they are right in his face.  This time, we saw some frogs and a sting ray in the kids play area in little aquariums and he pointed at a few that I hadn't even shown him yet, so I knew he was seeing them.  We saw some elephants and he pointed and counted them, but wasn't too interested.  Then we saw two monkeys who were hanging out right near where we could stand.  One was literally hanging from the netting and the other was sitting on the ground reaching through the fence to grab the tall grass just outside.  Owen looked at them and said, "ooh, ooh, ooh."  (monkey sound.)  YES!  Finally we saw and recognized an animal besides a dog and a bird!

But then we went back to running in the grass...

We did meet a sweet little girl who was playing with a hula hoop and Owen wanted it.  Instead of the normal "mine!" "mine!" that I'm used to hearing from kids that age, she said, "we can play together!" and she showed Owen how to play Ring-Around-The-Rosie with the hula hoop.  So sweet.  Steve made a point of thanking her for being so nice to Owen.