to the zoo again

tuesday morning, after music class, madelyn and i headed off to the zoo for the morning since it was a nice cool, breezy day.

what a huge difference in madelyn since the last time we had gone about a month before! she was so excited! people were even commenting on her excitement as we strolled between exhibits. she was clapping, laughing, banging her hands on the stroller tray, squealing, kicking her feet, and of course smiling as we made our way around. it helped that the animals where the most active i have ever seen them.

we had heard that the animals are more active when the weather is cool, but wow! the elephants were even out and moving around quicker than i had ever seen an elephant move. and we got to be about 5 feet from the giraffes because they do meal time twice a day up on a platform where guests can feed them (it sells out really quickly to do that) and other guests can stand a few feet away and watch. madelyn was pretty still during that part. she kept looking at me to make sure that it was okay for us to be that close. (at least that is what it looked like she was thinking from her expression.)

and then the most surprising part was when we went into the fish 'house'. madelyn asked to get "down" from her stroller. now keep in mind that madelyn screamed and cried while holding on with a death grip the first time we took her to see the fish. then tuesday she was laughing and running up to the tank and pointing at all the different fish. i could not believe how quickly she had overcome this fear. i will definitely make the effort to take her more often now that she enjoys it so much more. and will probably just let her roam free in some of the exhibits since we aren't in a rush and don't have to see the whole place every time.

changing subjects - madelyn really loves her daddy and now that she is getting older (and more obedient) they can do more things together. madelyn goes out with daddy to water the grass and plants in the evening and then they go to get the mail together. well last night matt was working on a permanent baby gate for the top of the deck stairs so that maddie can spend time outside with us when we use the grill and maddie got to help/watch.

aren't they cute? love.