Long Time No Blogging...our trip to the Zoo

I think this is the first time (without being on vacation) I have gone over one week without posting. It's not that I haven't had anything to post about, believe me a lot has been going on, I just haven't had the time. And honestly, I probably don't have the time right now, but I know a lot is going on tomorrow, so I need to catch everyone up! Wow, where do I start, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... (actually Zach loves the music from Sound of Music, I sing it to him all the time and it cracks me up when I hear him singing Edelweiss or others). Let's start with Monday, we headed downtown to go to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Of course, we all failed to double check to see what day it officially opened. Yes, it was the next day. So, we headed over to the Zoo!! It was still a wonderful day and I was glad we roped Aunt Jess and Papa into having to spend 2 days with us this week! Now that Joel is working full time, Jess will be able to join us on more outings! We first rode the train while Grandma and Papa went and got lunch for a picnic.

(Both photographs are courtesy of Just Me...not bad for taking my own picture I thought!)

After our delicious picnic of Fried Chicken we made our way over to the gates of the Zoo. We had lots of fun seeing all the animals. This was our 3rd visit to the Zoo since being back in Houston. I didn't feel the need to snap pictures of the animals as we did the last two times, but I just had to capture the new baby elephant. He was born in November and anything that's a baby is just so adorable, isn't it?

After much animal viewing we went and rode the Carousel. Zachary's prime choice on the carousel is always the bench. He prefers that to any animal. I always enjoy getting to sit on the bench with him, but I let Papa take him since they don't get to spend as much time together.

However, the boys got to ride the carousel twice, so the second time around Papa convinced Zach to ride on the seal next to Jaeden. Of course upon first sitting Zachary enjoyed it. You can see him checking it out in the picture below.

Before the carousel took off I could see Zachary trying to motion to Papa that he wanted to go back to the bench, but Papa was determined for Zachary to experience the carousel while riding an animal. As you can see he enjoyed it in the beginning...

but after about half-way through the ride Zachary was asking to get back to the bench and became nervous and a little scared. He wrapped his little arm around Papa trying to feel more secure. You can see the fear in his face.

And I just had to capture him from behind...

I'm sure the next time we ride a carousel we will be back on the bench which is fine with me. I don't like to push him into anything he doesn't want to do. It's part of developing trust with your child and I always want him to feel safe and secure. He has just as much fun riding on the bench as most children do riding on an animal and the point of riding the carousel is having fun the whole time. Thanks Papa for taking care of him and encouraging him to step out of his comfort zone. He needs a little push here and there and now that he's experienced more than the bench, I know he'll eventually be ready to ride an animal on his own. It just may take a few more bench rides for him to be comfortable doing it!