They Can Smell Fear

Zoo Girls

 And blood. Or at least that's what Leanna - in an effort to be helpful - terrorized Abby with when the latter lost a tooth into her sandwich outside the zoo today. You see, we (and about half of the rest of Seattle) took advantage of the nice weather (and in our case, an income tax refund) to visit Woodland Park Zoo. First we ran to grab the refund check from the tax preparer (and had to grab lunch to go and Leanna's new shoes while they found someone who could open the safe) and then to the bank to deposit it and then to the zoo.

Leanna Milks a Cow

As noted above, half the city was there, so we girls ate our sandwiches while the Hubs waited in line. And Abby's tooth ("It wasn't that loose, mom! I don't know what happened!") fell out and she handed it to me (ewww... the things moms do!). I tidied it up (thank goodness I still carry baby wipes!) and gave it to the Hubs (who has pockets) and Leanna explained that Abby'd better get it all cleaned up, because "wild animals can smell blood". Abby gave me one of those looks that says OhGodOhGodTellMeThat'sNotTrue and I assured her that none of the animals in the zoo are likely to have any interest in her bloody tooth. No, not her gums either, relax... anything dangerous is kept confined. Whew! Crisis averted.

Abby Milks a Cow

Now Lizzy has either never been to the zoo before, or the last time she went she was too young to know what was going on at all. She was a bit overwhelmed, and being Lizzy, spent as much time shrieking, "Oh! It's so cute!" about other patrons' babies as about animals. Leanna and the Hubs wanted to see the Bug House, although the rest of us were not so thrilled. And I of course immediately started itching as soon as we entered the place. Psychosomatic, of course. Leanna dropped several of our carrots accidentally, and other people's kids kept trying to feed them to the animals, but the animals are on restricted diets, alas. There was a friendly goat, however, who showed some interest.

"Come into my parlor..."

Mom! Is that a Tuhtle?

And afterward we drove back north and went out to dinner at a local buffet place (rules = restaurant behavior + veggies first + parents have veto rights). And between bananas in strawberry sauce and the Icee Lizzy chose for dessert... it's a good thing I had those baby wipes with me.

Several times during the day we watched our favorite video about zoos. You see, I used to work for Humongous Entertainment and, well... my Windows Phone does play Youtube videos...