Zoo visit! Doctor visit!

Today, Matt, Kalina and I went to the zoo. We really probably shouldn't have:

1.) I spent lots of yesterday achy and contracting (the fake kind, not the real kind), especially when I wasn't sitting down in air conditioning with my feet up. As a side note, are we bad parents for making a bet on whether or not I'd go into labor at the zoo? If I won (I said I wouldn't), I'd get a box of donuts (to share with a hungry hubby and a toddler who loves sprinkles). If Matt won, he'd get the new fishing pole he's had his eye on (we figured the odds were in my favor, but he was willing to risk a box of donuts on it).
2.) Matt has a cold (Kalina and I had it earlier in the week).
3.) Kalina skipped her nap yesterday (right on cue--she skips one every 6th day nowadays) and we knew she'd be likely to skip it today, too, resulting in a trip that might be more trouble than it's worth.

But we're glad we did!

It was a lovely day. The animals at the zoo far, far, far outnumbered the people, and the weather was downright comfortable, at least in the shade. We had fun.

We've finally gotten so we no longer dread a 1 1/2-hour car ride with Kalina with every inch of our beings (or maybe that's just me). We got to be those people I'd always envied who simply "just pack some snacks, books and toys" and hop in the car for a longish drive with their happy child. We saw several fire trucks, fire truck signs, bike signs and deer signs along the way, and those helped keep us all relatively content. We also practiced a few of our animal sounds. We didn't even have to sing a note (although Kalina made up a song or two for us), and we arrived right as the zoo was opening at 9:00.

The zoo is made for walking, and you can begin either at the North America entrance or the Africa entrance. It's quite the trek in between, but they have buses that can take weary/pregnant/toddling visitors back and forth. We started in North America, since the giraffe feeding station in Africa (the thing Kalina was most looking forward to) didn't open until 10:00.

Our first stop was the seals. They weren't home--until we went to an underwater viewing area, and Kalina was able to see the creatures soar past the window.

"A seal!" she'd exclaim proudly (we'd asked her to let us know if she saw any) every time any of them swam by. I think she could've stayed there all day, but Mommy and Daddy wanted to see more so we moved on.

Next came the polar bears (we got a side view of one--not too exciting) and then the puffins. We were fortunate enough to have timed our visit to the puffins to be during feeding time, so Kalina helped the birds find their breakfast by pointing out the small, dead fish as they were flung into the water. Irritated when a fish wasn't eaten before it reached the bottom, she nevertheless had a great time watching.


So great that the lowly puffins became the highlight of our zoo trip. Every five minutes we had to tell the poor girl "We can see the puffins again on the way out, Sweetie! Now, let's go see the lions!" And whatnot.

We finally managed to convince Kalina that there were, in fact, other animals at the zoo. We then boarded a bus (Kalina's first bus ride!) to take us to Africa, and the giraffes.

Kalina was "all done" with the bus about 5 seconds into the ride, but fortunately Daddy was able to distract her well enough that by the end, Lamby, at least, "liked the bus."

We high-tailed it to the giraffes, excited to see how Kalina would like feeding them.







Unfortunately, the giraffes took a distant second place to the puffins--especially since none of them felt particularly like getting handed bunches of lettuce leaves by a toddler (or anyone, for that matter--they had plenty of food elsewhere). Heartless creatures.








We moved on to elephants, lions, baboons and the rest before realizing that 2 out of 3 of us needed to rest and eat. Kalina was close to falling asleep in her stroller, it seemed like (although that would never happen, her enthusiasm, even when the elephant splashed in some water National Geographic style, was waning fast), and I was getting quite dizzy from heat and lack of food.

The respite helped, and although Kalina, our little homebody, probably would've been fine heading home then and there (with one more stop "back to the puffins," of course), we pushed on for quite a while longer.

Some of the biggest hits were the statues, large and small, scattered throughout the park. I'm not quite sure why they have animal statues at a zoo, except maybe they know little kids like them. At any rate, Kalina had a blast scaling them. Even though the rhino (pictured) was a little high and scary, Kalina knew the photo would be worth a little worry, and bravely asked to climb onto its back with Daddy's help. "Down!" she demanded as soon as the shutter clicked, and then she immediately wanted to see the photo of that time she was so brave.

Three identical baby elephant statues were also a huge hit. Although only one is pictured here, we do, indeed, have a photo of Kalina on each, by her request. I'm really glad cameras have gone digital.

Smaller pedestal-top statues all warranted a nice petting by Kalina--she takes care of all the animals she sees, it seems.


We saw snakes, otters (sleeping, unfortunately), gorillas, chimpanzees, bobcats (which Kalina tried to feed a rock--fortunately the cats were behind glass), and plenty more cool animals, in addition to plenty of random caterpillars and frogs and such along the path, before we decided that it really was, for real, time to call it quits. At which point we headed to the aviary, where Kalina worriedly watched a Victoria Crowned Pigeon ("peacock," to Kalina) strut within 2 feet of us as Daddy reassured her that everything was okay. One stop at the flamingos later (flamingos sleep standing up! Can you imagine? And Kalina obliged our funny sense of humor by standing up and deciding "Kalina's sleeping!"), and we were off to a final viewing of the puffins (what luck--feeding time again!) before heading back to the car.

We were hoping (and planning, really), that Kalina would sleep on the way home, but her response to anyone, even Mommy, napping was a firm "no, no, no, no!" Oh well.

We stopped and got Mommy's box of donuts, which Kalina related later as one of her favorite parts of the trip.

Puffins, sprinkles--what a day! Early bedtimes for all.

Doctor Visit:

I visited the doctor on Tuesday for my 36-week appointment. I also had an ultrasound to check the baby's size and make sure she's growing.

She is! The baby is now supposedly 5 lbs. 11 oz. I wouldn't put too much stock in that estimate, though. The ultrasound was fun, it's cute to see the baby.

The doctor was happy to see that the irregular heartbeat had cleared up, and also that we now know in advance about the little hole. No worries whatsoever.

The baby is sitting pretty low, and signs point to me delivering early again. Of course, there's no scientific way to tell, but from what I know about myself, and the fact that I spent a lot of yesterday having fake-yet-uncomfortable contractions, I'm pretty sure Little Sister will be out in the world to greet her due date.

And we're almost ready! Except for packing the hospital bag, writing Kalina Kare instructions, pre-registering at the hospital, another load or two of baby laundry, another trip to Babies R Us, cleaning the house, wrapping a present for the baby to give to Kalina, finishing the book and other freelance projects, and a few other minor details, we're good to go!