I'd Rather Be with an Animal.

Entering the Zoo

It's my favorite season - FALL! We had a fantastic weekend visiting with Grandma and Pop. Sunday was a perfect, crisp fall day so we took a trip to the Bronx Zoo. This was on my 30 Before 30 list, so I was very excited. I think Rob and I were more excited than Matthew. I wasn't sure how he would react to the animals, but he seemed to really enjoy himself. 

Checking out the monkeys

First up was the Monkey House. Since we affectionately refer to Matthew as a monkey or monkey man sometimes - we thought it was appropriate to visit there first. He followed all the little monkeys with his eyes and also pointed to them when they were doing tricks. It was more fun watching him than the actual monkeys.

Matthew checking out the zebra with Daddy

After the monkeys, Matthew ate his lunch and then we saw a zoo worker dressed up in a lady bug costume so we tried to go over and visit the lady bug and get a picture. Matthew did not like this. At first he screamed, which I thought might be a scream of excitement. When we got together to take a photo, the crying started. Poor little guy. We put him in his stroller and walked, and he recovered quickly. We saw a polar bear, a snow leopard, some birds and some other animals before going into Africa. At this time, Rob put Matthew in the baby carrier to get a better look. I think both Daddy and Matthew enjoyed that. We saw some zebras, giraffes and niyalas. Matthew liked the zebra stripes. After Africa, we headed to the Congo and had to pay an extra fee to see the Gorillas. It was worth it though, they were pretty cool. We also saw a camel, some tigers, some bears and a lot of peacocks walking around. Matthew fell asleep sometime after the gorillas and woke up at the car. I'm not sure if all the readers are aware, but it's very hard to be a ten month old. It takes a lot of work to entertain Grandma and Pop with all his crawling, dancing, talking, laughing, playing peek a boo, and just generally being adorable. So even though Matthew napped almost half the trip to the zoo, the parts he was awake for he enjoyed and all the adults had a good time. And to top off a wonderful day, we came home and watched the Pats win on TV and enjoyed a warm dinner and wine from Oregon (more on that in a future post). What a perfect way to spend a fall day!

Today's title comes from Pearl Jam's Animal.(Video from the May 17, 2010 Boston show. This was Matthew's first concert, from his view in my belly).