Zoo camp and zoo visits

Sebastian spent the week at Oregon Zoo Camp; he toured the whole zoo, made animal-themed arts and crafts projects, got to meet a different animal each day, and learned about how animals move. I wouldn't say it was a raging success - he certainly didn't ask to return, as he did for Adventure Wild camp or the Sports Craze camp - but he participated in everything and didn't fuss too much about it. And from our point of view, which is that these camps are nudging him back into a more structured environment, it was a success. He was super cranky on Monday and Tuesday, but by Thursday and Friday had settled down and become sweet again. We hope the kindergarten transition is similarly smooth.

Since he was at the Zoo, Liesl and I of course had to visit it as well - we spent all morning on both Monday and Friday wandering around. A zoo visit with just Liesl is a very different experience than with both children. She's just so much slower, so much more willing to sit and watch an animal for long periods of time without getting bored. In fact, she gets upset when you try to rush her along before she's ready. So on Monday we saw elephants, lions, the baby monkey, and pygmy goats. You can pet the goats and she proved willing to stay in their corral, petting, hugging and grooming them, for at least 25 minutes. Three successive waves of children came in and moved on while we were there.  On Friday, we saw black bears, polar bears, the farm goats, and penguins. One of the penguins, with the nametag Luna, proved to be fascinated by Liesl. The two of them actually played with each other through the glass, with Luna following Liesl's tracing hand, and Liesl chasing Luna's swimming, around and around. It was magical.