the zoo!!

We had a day off today and took the opportunity to take Natasha to the zoo. We have friends with kids her age who go all the time, and some who've said that by the time their son was 2 he knew his way around the place and dragged them to see his favorite animals. We wanted Natasha to see all the animals from her books!

Guess what her favorite thing at the zoo was! go on, guess! no cheating..

Natasha humored us pretty well as we dragged her around to see all the animals. There were birds in the water by the giraffes which she loved, and she shouted "duck! duck!" at them. (All birds are called duck these days)

We did the requisite petting zoo. She said "goat" and "baaah" when she saw them (because she is brilliant, and knows these things)

Goats must be the gentlest, most patient animals on the planet to put up with screeching, grabbing kids day after day..

The Oakland zoo has a really cool bat area that we.. er.. I mean, Natasha really liked

See.. she's totally interested in the bats!

And the reptiles

And the otter!

She did enjoy saying "bunny!" while watching these guys lounge about

But what she really liked was plopping herself down on anything that was about a foot high and saying "book!" until I gave her something to "read"

Can you see the cool pygmy bear at the upper right?? yeah, she didn't really look at it either.

She did glance up from her reading long enough to check out the tiger

ok, do you have your guess ready for Natasha's favorite thing?? Did you guess: the Benches?!

Because hands down, no question at all, Natasha's favorite thing at the zoo was definitely those benches.

The were nothing fancy, just your standard bench.. but here's a little sample of how she reacted when we tried to get her up from one.

So, we spent a lot of time on the bench. We had fun, but for the next year or so we could probably save the trip and just head to the park across the street.. she likes the benches there just as much