Evan and Jordan go to the zoo

I'm very thankful that a whole lot of people love my children and they genuinely want to spend time hanging with the twins. I'm thankful because I think it's important for the kids to interact with people and everyone they get to know will be able to teach them something. One of the people who adore my kids to death is Uncle B. He is a dear friend whom I've known for almost half my life and our friendship has evolved through the different chapters of our lives. So it also comes as no big surprise that he is involved in our life now with the twins.

On Friday, both Uncle B and Aunty CY who live 5 minutes away from us, took leave to go to the zoo with us. That's another reason why we're thankful. If not for them, we'd have had to wait much longer to go to the zoo again because 2 adults, 2 children and one single pram makes for a possible albeit exhausting day at the zoo. Even with 4 adults to spread out the exhaustion, it was still formidable. But this time, we covered more of the zoo than the last time.

Anyone who wants to take kids to the zoo should do it first thing in the morning before the sun comes up fully and it gets too hot. The only problem was that some of the animal exhibits were still in their dens. So, while we managed to smell the otters, there was not one otter in sight and that's where the procession began.


Most of the time, the pram was used as a trolley for our bags while the kids walked or got carried. Like I said, thankfully, there were more of us to go round so the carrying duties got spread out although Baby J was a bit more particular about who carried her and Evan was quite happy toddling around most of the way. His next favourite mode of transport was being carried by Uncle B and Aunty CY and Mommy on the rare occasion that she could put Baby J down. Packrat however, was behind the camera, testing out his new EF-S17-55 mm-cost an arm and a leg-sell a kidney lens. Everyone has suggested we get the Friends of the Zoo card to make these excursions more economical. But we think that we should only do that when the kids are older and show more interest in the animals. They are showing more interest now than the last time we took them but this time, it was mostly animals that they'd come across in their books.


Like the elephants that decided to take an amble in the water near where we were getting Baby J somewhat nervous and extremely koala like for a while. At the same time, she kept trying to articulate "elephant" which came out sounding like "Air-Fff" because it's a second most favourite beanie baby that she puts herself to sleep with, by biting its trunk. Of course, macabre as it was, we, adults anyway, just had to go and see the White Tiger exhibit. We rationalised is as also being one of the highlights of the kids' visit since they knew what tigers were, knew what sounds it made but had never seen one in real life.

Here's Uncle B showing Baby J how to say hi to the Tiger and her trying to imitate him and say hi. Evan was very excited when he saw pictures of the tiger on a display board and realised that it was the real thing across the moat.



According to news reports, it was the 2 female tigers that mauled the man to death while the male tiger was just not interested. But when we were there, it was the male one who seemed to be very restlessly pacing while the two female ones seemed happy to just sit and chill.

At home, Evan isn't allowed into our cars much because it would mean him leaving little footprints everywhere and have the mirrors smudged and the indicators, wipers, lights, heater and volume all turned up. So, here he is, pleased as punch in the driver's seat of the Land Rover Defender, a vehicle both Packrat and Uncle B agreed was cool and one Evan should one day learn to drive if the earth hasn't gone to environmental hell by then. I'm convinced, all guys think the same way. The boy himself spent a good ten minutes playing with a steering wheel so large it was taller than he was. It took another 10 minutes to extricate him from the vehicle. Thankfully, there was so much and so many people to distract him otherwise, there might have been stamping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.


Even though the boy is generally the more shy of the two, Evan and Uncle B got on like a house on fire. But to the chargrin of Uncle B, the less than 10 kgs boy was still quite a weight to carry around, leading Uncle B to remark in the afternoon how his shoulders had seized and to which, I cruelly replied "welcome to parenthood". It's true! I carry them so much, my fatigued muscles are so used to it, they don't complain anymore.


This pram, compliments of Deb has been extremely useful and served us well. When I really felt like I was neglecting Evan by fobbing him off everytime he came to me begging to be carried, Baby J was relinquished into the pram. I was determined that since Packrat had to go online to figure out how to fold the pram, we were going to use it more than to dump all our bags. She, thankfully, was quite happy to sit in there like a queen beatifically surveying all her dominion and eventually kicking back and falling asleep. The guy who put suspension on prams, I am eternally grateful. It made manoeuvering it a breeze and we're in the midst of getting a pram like that which can sit two kids but those cost an arm, a leg and many zoo passes.

The best part of the day though, had little to do with animals. The Children's Rainforest zoo was where the children got to strip down to just swim diapers and Uncle B gamely brought them in to the midst of water jets and fountain splashes. The problem was even though Baby J has always the one to complain of heat, 2 minutes in the water and her teeth were chattering so hard I thought they'd shatter. But that didn't stop her from enjoying herself and chuckling with glee.



Similarly, Evan had hangups too. The boy had something against his feet in the water or the synthetic rubber flooring. There were moments where he looked like he was trying to walk on water but failing such a miracle, settled for walking on my feet or being carried by Uncle B, who got splashed and soaked to the skin for them.

All in, the kids had fun, including the big ones. Baby J lost consciousness even before we got out of the zoo but I am extremely proud of the munchkins who walked some of the very long way to the Children's zoo. By that point, no matter how chummy Evan was with Uncle B, blood is thicker than water and Mommy possibly smelt more familiar so then and only then was there screaming and wailing and almost the gnashing of teeth. But even with that, everyone left with a warm feeling in the bellies, knowing full well this was what it was to be in one of those MCYS ads for starting families. The only difference is, we know that it was a reprieve of sorts and the kids had a far scarier and difficult to control Hyde-like personality and in that way, relished it even more.

Next stop, The Animal Resort where they can go up close and actually feed the animals. And then, Uncle B has to take leave again to go.



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