May 30, 2011

Animals in Brooklyn

Last summer, right around this time, Sippy Cup and I took a trip to the Prospect Park Zoo.

This year, once again on a complete whim, we decided to repeat the trip but to drag a very pregnant M.O.M. with us as well (apparently a lot of walking is encouraged when you're ready to get rid of the 8 pound bowling ball you have tucked away in your stomach).

Whether through coincidence or good timing, the baboons in the zoo had recently had babies as well.  This led to a few interesting anthropological discoveries as the M.O.M. and I learned just how similar our parenting techniques are to those of wild animals. 

At first, we were a little taken aback by this discovery. 

Then we both realized that when your child is a wild little monkey in his own right, then baboon parenting tricks are just the thing he needs.

As always, there are more pictures after the jump.  Enjoy.


So guess who discovered that Wednesday is "School Trip Day" at
every single museum and zoo in the metropolitan area?


On our way to the zoo, we walked past the Lefferts Historic House...


...which, along with being over 200 years old, also has the most effective
burglar alarm / anti-theft system I've ever seen...


...and further proves the point that Prospect Park may be the ignored "younger brother" to Central Park.
But it's definitely the cooler brother.


We finally made it to the zoo and sought refuge from the sun and the heat inside the first building we found.
This guy was waiting there to greet us...


...along with this napping Bobcat,


these luxurious looking guys,


...and these awesome little dudes as well.
The one on the right did not want his picture taken...


...but his friends were more than willing to ham it up for the camera and the crowd.



These guys were super excited to see us.
Isn't it obvious in their body language and facial expressions?


At this point, we made it to the baboon section.
As I've mentioned, the baboons have recently had babies.
Apparently, one of them gets into trouble.  A lot.
He spent the entire afternoon on "time-out".
More specifically, he spent the entire afternoon trying to run away from "time-out".
This was the first similarity we discovered.


The other, well-behaved baboon was busy playing with his father and sharing a snack with him.
More specifically, the well-behaved baboon was busy stealing snacks from his dad.
This was the second similarity we discovered.


As we were walking out of the baboon house, we found the mother and
her little trouble maker in another corner.

Even though he had spent the entire time fighting her and trying to run away,
she was still sitting in the corner, calmly grooming him and getting him ready for his nap.

This was the third and final similarity we discovered.

I wanted to sing "Circle of Life" in a really loud voice but the M.O.M. disagreed with my enthusiasm.


From the baboons, we found iguanas...


...lizards ("Rango Guys" in Sippy-speak)...


...Toucans ("Rio Birds" in Sippy-speak)...


...Cockatoos...


...and Meerkats.


At this point, we decided to break for lunch.
Sippy Cup did his "George Jefferson Dance of Joy".


He was impressed with our accomodations.

FYI: that's water on his face.  Not sweat.  I promise.


I'm guessing he was a little hungry.



Dessert was simple, healthy and delicious.  The 3 necessary components to any good meal in my book.


After lunch, we went exploring in the petting zoo...


....where you can feed the animals.
If the other children at the zoo are to be believed, this is an amazing thing to do.
However, Sippy Cup was not of the same opinion.


Nevertheless, he did enjoy the parts that didn't involve the threat of an animal bite.



This guy sang a celebratory song when we walked into the chicken coop.
I'm pretty sure he smelled our Caribbean ancestry in the air.



At a random pond, Sippy Cup spotted a baby turtle.
I named him "Master Oogway".


Sippy-Cup also spotted a chipmunk, which he promptly named "Alvin".


In spite of the unexpected heat and the lingering threat of animal bites,
we all managed to have an amazing time.

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