Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Matthew's First Time at the Zoo
We brought Matthew to the Zoo for the first time today. Thanks to Chris and Tianfa for inviting us along to the zoo. You see, Tianfa's company has this zoo pass, which admits 4 adults, as part of welfare or something, so lucky us got a chance to go FOC. Matthew has this Animal Picture book, which I bought from Commercial Press at IMM Mall and we have been going through the different types of animals for a while now. It was time to show Matthew the REAL thing!
In order for him to enjoy himself, I allowed him to nap for 2 hours in the morning. In order to do that, I made the environment so conducive for sleeping that I got to wake him up for his lunch at 1130. I turned on the air-con and fan, closed the curtains and he slept like nobody's business!
We met up with Chris, Tianfa and Megan at the entrance to the Zoo and went our separate ways thereafter (because the three of them had already covered half of the Zoo on their previous trip). First stop - Simang... Aiyah, actually it's just a type of ape. I just told Matthew that those were monkeys. These apes were aglie, swinging from tree to tree... But what actually got Matthew's attention were the water hens that were by the stream below the broadwalk. Not sure whether he saw the mouth-wide-opened crocs, waiting to snap their jaws on these birds anytime!
Next up were the white tigers! It just happened to be feeding time. We saw tigers chomping on pieces of meat. One of them was even in the water. Matthew saw the one in the water and eyed it as it moved from one end of the moat to the other, before leaving the water to enjoy its meal. He was so captivated that he did not even want to look at the camera
Then it was the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia where we saw deer and baboons. Again, they are just apes, which I would just categorised them under Monkeys to Matthew for now... Until he is old enough to differentiate. These baboons are active, running around, jumping up, down. There were rockscape for them to exhibit their skills. We also saw some little ones on their mothers' backs. Matthew was just watching all the action on the other side of the thick Perspex window.
Primate Kingdom was where all the monkeys or apes were sited. But when we were there, the sun was out and high. It was too hot and most of the apes were hiding in the shades. We did see a few but nothing exciting...
Elephant time! But Matthew was getting tired and it was time for a short nap. As we walked him in his stroller while he slept, we passed by the sea lions, manatees and penguins and made our way to the Children's World Animal Land.
Matthew finally woke up at the Animal Land, where children could interact with the goats, sheep, horses, cows and pigs, the farm animals. I brought the Animal Picture book along and showed Matthew the photo of a horse and the real horse. He looked at the photo, then the real animal, as if trying to match the two.
Then there were the goats. Somehow the gate to the enclosure was open and several goats "escaped". Mike informed the zookeeper who chased the "fugitives" back into the enclosure. But I was telling Mike that the "fence" keeping the animals were so low that they could just simply jumped over, gate or not... ha ha ha.
After meeting up with Chris, Tianfa and Megan after the animal show, we made our way to the Children's World Funland. There were playground and fountains for kids to play. Megan aborted her plan for a nap and made her way to the playground. Matthew wanted to get himself WET! Wet he got. He was promptly dried and changed and we made our way to the Zoo entrance, as it was near closing time.
On our way out, we saw the lions and giraffes, but did not stay for long. After saying our byes to Chris, Tianfa and Megan, we fed Matthew near the Zoo entrance. He had his brown rice porridge with spinach and meat and banana for dessert. Well, we could say that he enjoyed himself, so did we!
We will be back!
In order for him to enjoy himself, I allowed him to nap for 2 hours in the morning. In order to do that, I made the environment so conducive for sleeping that I got to wake him up for his lunch at 1130. I turned on the air-con and fan, closed the curtains and he slept like nobody's business!
We met up with Chris, Tianfa and Megan at the entrance to the Zoo and went our separate ways thereafter (because the three of them had already covered half of the Zoo on their previous trip). First stop - Simang... Aiyah, actually it's just a type of ape. I just told Matthew that those were monkeys. These apes were aglie, swinging from tree to tree... But what actually got Matthew's attention were the water hens that were by the stream below the broadwalk. Not sure whether he saw the mouth-wide-opened crocs, waiting to snap their jaws on these birds anytime!
Next up were the white tigers! It just happened to be feeding time. We saw tigers chomping on pieces of meat. One of them was even in the water. Matthew saw the one in the water and eyed it as it moved from one end of the moat to the other, before leaving the water to enjoy its meal. He was so captivated that he did not even want to look at the camera
Then it was the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia where we saw deer and baboons. Again, they are just apes, which I would just categorised them under Monkeys to Matthew for now... Until he is old enough to differentiate. These baboons are active, running around, jumping up, down. There were rockscape for them to exhibit their skills. We also saw some little ones on their mothers' backs. Matthew was just watching all the action on the other side of the thick Perspex window.
Primate Kingdom was where all the monkeys or apes were sited. But when we were there, the sun was out and high. It was too hot and most of the apes were hiding in the shades. We did see a few but nothing exciting...
Elephant time! But Matthew was getting tired and it was time for a short nap. As we walked him in his stroller while he slept, we passed by the sea lions, manatees and penguins and made our way to the Children's World Animal Land.
Matthew finally woke up at the Animal Land, where children could interact with the goats, sheep, horses, cows and pigs, the farm animals. I brought the Animal Picture book along and showed Matthew the photo of a horse and the real horse. He looked at the photo, then the real animal, as if trying to match the two.
Then there were the goats. Somehow the gate to the enclosure was open and several goats "escaped". Mike informed the zookeeper who chased the "fugitives" back into the enclosure. But I was telling Mike that the "fence" keeping the animals were so low that they could just simply jumped over, gate or not... ha ha ha.
After meeting up with Chris, Tianfa and Megan after the animal show, we made our way to the Children's World Funland. There were playground and fountains for kids to play. Megan aborted her plan for a nap and made her way to the playground. Matthew wanted to get himself WET! Wet he got. He was promptly dried and changed and we made our way to the Zoo entrance, as it was near closing time.
On our way out, we saw the lions and giraffes, but did not stay for long. After saying our byes to Chris, Tianfa and Megan, we fed Matthew near the Zoo entrance. He had his brown rice porridge with spinach and meat and banana for dessert. Well, we could say that he enjoyed himself, so did we!
We will be back!
Labels: zoo
