The Corning Family: A Trip to the Zoo

This was technically Lily's second trip to the Houston Zoo. But the last time was a year ago, when she was about 5 pounds and still on oxygen and an apnea monitor. So needless to say, she didn't really care about looking at the animals last year! This trip to the zoo was loads of fun. We literally spent the entire day at the zoo, and Lily had a blast. She napped on the way to the zoo and then again for about 45 minutes while we were there. Otherwise, she was awake and having fun the whole day.

Lily really enjoyed looking at the animals. After only a couple of exhibits, she had clearly picked up on the idea that she was supposed to look for an animal each time we stopped the stroller and pointed at something. She was pointing and laughing, sometimes even talking to the animals. I am so glad we took her to the zoo at this age - too young to really understand or remember it, but old enough to enjoy seeing new things.

Lily's first carousel ride!

Mist fans are awesome. Enough said.

The Children's Zoo has a small spray park for cooling off. This was Lily's first experience with a spray park, so we started out with the tiny little sprinkler that you can barely see her covering with her hand. She had fun, though, so I also took her through the bigger sprays. She really likes the water!

Lily has visited two petting zoos before, and she hated them both. So I was nervous taking her to pet the goats, but she surprised me by wanting to pull the poor goat's ears. After touching the goats, she wanted to climb into the other animals' pens to play with them!

We took a break in a small covered area inside the Children's Zoo, and we found a little tunnel to walk through. (No, she's not walking by herself yet. Very close, but not yet.)

There were all sorts of fish inside this tank, but Lily only cared about this blue one who kept swimming back and forth in front of her. She tried very hard to catch it.

This toucan was by far Lily's favorite animal in the zoo! He put on quite a show for her, hopping, dancing, and singing along the branch. Lily was cracking up!

For the rest of us, this little bird is probably the most memorable animal in the zoo. It was not even a teeny bit afraid of us! It started getting closer by perching on a vine a few feet above Lily's head. Then it landed on this railing, only a couple feet away from Grandpa Scott, who was leaning against it. The bird hopped along the railing, right behind Grandpa, pausing only to peck at his arm and back. It proceeded further along the railing, all the way to Grandma and Lily. The bird and Lily had a staring contest, and Lily did not hesitate to reach out to try and grab the little guy! He turned his head back and forth, clearly sizing Lily up. I think Lily won the staring contest, but the bird got the last word by flying right past her face to return to his perch on the vine. It was so funny!