Our Little Animal Friend

I took Peter to the zoo on Monday and it was the perfect day for the zoo.  Overcast and not too hot.  It felt great to us, but more importantly, it felt great to the animals. The Detroit zoo is wonderful for animals because nearly all the enclosures are gigantic.  However, this means that there are have been many times when I've gone to the zoo and come home having seen almost no animals because they were all in some secluded, shady nook napping.  I'd gone at least 10 times before I'd ever spotted the gorillas, for example.  However, on this cool, overcast day, all the animals felt comfortable roaming and we saw animals we'd never seen before.  In addition to seeing the tiger awake for the first time, the red panda for the first time, the entire chimp family for the first time, etc.  The lemurs were especially curious too.  Well, at least one was.   This little cutie stood by the glass and intently studied each child that came by.  He was undeterred by little ones who banged on the glass or a crazy couple of older ladies who screeched and took selfies and went bizerk over how cute he was.  When the coast was clear, Peter dared to venture over to the cute little lemur and share a moment with him too.  It was adorable the way they just looked at each other, each calmly studying the other.  Soul-mates for sure.

Despite the unusually active animals, however, it really seemed that Peter, as most toddlers, preferred the animals he could climb on.  What would a zoo be without a dozen, scorching hot, bronze animal statues, worn shiny by thousands of little people climbing all over them?   Luckily with the overcast skies, they weren't hot this day and Peter made the most of it.  The elephant was his favorite.  He kept talking to it and encouraging it to get up and play with him.

Just a couple other random photos - at church waiting for mommy to finally finish talking to people and at art class - he was supposed to paint, but washing out the brushes was far more interesting, so he spent most of his time doing that.  I was fine with that.  I enjoy the time we spend in class doing art, whatever form that may take.