To the zoo

Last week was strange. I was childless once again. Jacob got to take a vacation week from daycare and visit Grandma Debbie and company. My mom and dad came early last week, spent a few days, then packed up the kid and headed south. When I got home Tuesday night, it was awful quiet at home. And very lonely.

But Nate and I got used to it fast. I woke up a few times the first night, but by the third, I was sleeping the best for more than a year. We also said we would go out with some friends once for a night out, but that never materialized. Each night, we’d get home and be too tired to go out.

Meanwhile, Jacob was enjoying his aunts, uncles and various other relatives. When he visited my grandpa in assisted living, he about got attacked by all the ladies coming to see the cute little boy. At one point, one lady decided she wanted to pick Jacob up from Grandpa’s lap. But he wasn’t ready to let go yet, so Jacob became the object of a short tug-o-war before one of my parents intervened. Although he’s a little wary of strangers, he warms up to them pretty fast. The trick is to let him meet the new person before they just grab hold of him. He’s quite a ham, but doesn’t like strange people passing him around.

On Friday night, Nate and I headed down to my parents for the weekend. The trip had a three-fold purpose. First, we took four round bales of bedding for my parents. In exchange, we brought back four of my heifers to add to my and Nate’s herd. Oh yeah, and we had to pick up Jacob, too.

While planning for the trip, Nate told me this time he wanted to “do something,” not just visit with my family all weekend.
After trying to think of something, I stumbled upon the answer while trying to solve the problem of no flamingo picture for the upcoming Rural Living section: the zoo. Madison has a wonderful, free zoo: Henry Vilas Park and Zoo not too far from downtown. It was predicted to be a nice day, so on Saturday we packed up Jacob and a few of my siblings and headed for the zoo.

Even though I didn’t get a flamingo picture (they aren’t out yet), it was a fun trip. They’ve added a lot of stuff since I was there last in third grade. There is one design flaw at this zoo. Most of the railings are just the height of Jacob when he’s in his stroller. He wasn’t alone; the zoo was crowded with kids trying to peek over the railing from their stroller.

Even with an excellent view of the rails, he seemed fascinated with the animals, especially the polar bears and primates. I decided we needed a family picture with the polar bears in the background to record the first family trip to the zoo. Unfortunately, Jacob didn’t really want to cooperate. He couldn’t take his eyes off the bears behind him. After a few minutes of trying to get his attention, I gave up and told my sister just to take the picture. So now, we have a nice picture of me, Nate, a polar bear and the back of Jacob’s head.