Some of you may not know this, but it can take a person a very long time to write a blog post.
And a person like myself...
A 55 year-old person...
A wordy person...
A "more is better" person...
Well, it can take a very, very, very long time indeed.
So I have invented the Snippet.
While I have a draft version of a very wordy, "more is better," long, long, long post in the works, I wanted to share this one "speedy quick."
SNIPPET - I took Miss Judith to the Zoo today for an hour, and we walked through a bubble blowing machine, past the carousel and into the Barn.
She spent quite a few minutes talking to a rather large black pig, and even a few more minutes talking to two goats.
We then meandered through the Alabama Wild section and talked about the goats and the pigs. I asked her, "What would you like to see next, Miss Judith? The giraffes, the elephants, the rhinos? You name it, and we will go!"
She tilted her head and simply said, "Goats."
So off to the Barn we went one more time, and she talked to two more goats.
As we were leaving the Barn, we heard ferocious roaring coming from the lion enclosure. We both assumed it was indeed the lions, so off we went across the train tracks and up a little hill to see the King of the Jungle.
Guess what?
The lion was unbelievably active.
I have never seen an unanimated male lion move so much in my entire 55 years on this here Earth.
And roar.
He just kept roaring and roaring and roaring.
This is how I usually find the lions at the Zoo...
"I scared," Miss Judith told me and raised her hands to me from her stroller.
I picked her up, and because I am supposedly the mature adult person in this type situation, I held her tight and reassured her the lion couldn't get us. We were safe.
However, inside I was kinda wishing Mikie was there so I could turn to him and say with arms outstretched, "I scared."
Fun fact for you...
I rarely enjoy being the mature adult person in any situation. Too much pressure.
I decided a little detour into the building directly behind us would be our best solution. A few more doors, air conditioning (and did I say a few more doors) between us and the oddly-acting lion seemed the way to go.
Inside the building, I let Miss Judith walk beside me. I keep all "valuables" on my person, so if I need to ditch the stroller to retrieve a little one it is no big deal.
Also, believe it or not, at this point in time, I am pretty proud to say I am faster than your average two year-old.
We were standing in front of the coyote exhibit when four young men came running up. They appeared to be in the eight to ten year-old category, and they were having a ball. They stood beside us talking for a few seconds, and Judith never took her eyes off of them. In fact, she even moved closer and closer to them. They never noticed her (or me), so when they turned and ran to the eagle exhibit, I watched Judith as the wheels in her little head were obviously turning.
She glanced up at me, and then without a word ran after the four boys.
I was right beside her, and as the boys excitedly talked about all the dead mice in the eagle exhibit (YUCK), she again stared them down.
And they again, did not notice her at all.
They turned and ran to the next exhibit, and Judith did NOT glance up at me before following them.
Obviously, she had decided THESE were her people.
And I decided then and there that walking time was over, and plopped her back into her stroller with a juice box and a couple of crackers to distract her from her new best friends running around the corner.
As we left the building, the King of the Jungle had settled down considerably. He was taking a nap.
And I felt like this was a good idea for a tiny two year-old and a not-so-tiny 55 year-old.
Goats and lions and four happy little boys.
They made our day!
Sincerely,
The Enchanting Belinda
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