May 14, 2007 by Barbara.

Today we read:

• Johnny Tractor, Generation II (no author), twice, though I resisted saying “Buy John Deere” at the end of the book; 
• Busy Witch by Bettina Paterson; 
• Buster by Denise Fleming, I’ve been missing Denise Fleming’s artistry and went to the library at lunch to choose a book;
• There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro;
• I Love My Daddy Because … by Lisa Porter-Gaylord; 
• My Dad! by Charles Fuge;
• Happy Birthday, Biscuit! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli; and
• Most of Someday by Alison McGhee and Peter H. Reynolds

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May 14, 2007 by Barbara.

On Saturday, we drove to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Terry’s in the morning. I rode in the backseat with Reid and she didn’t touch me with her foot once. Hooray! She stayed awake for the first couple hours, though she was pretty tired looking, but fell asleep soon after I gave her the iPod with the Dora video playing. I think I’d fall asleep to get away from Dora, too.  As always, Reid’s eyes popped open as Daddy started to slow down for the exit to Frankford. We ate lunch and then got back into the car for the hour’s ride to Bowmanville. Daddy was remembering (fondly?) our last visit to the Bowmanville Zoo on what he refers to as the Batan Death March vacation. Reid had no memory of that visit or the seagulls that had fascinated her two years ago.

We saw the cutest baby ring-tailed lemurs that you could imagine. I guess there was an animated movie recently about zoo animals who end up back in Africa that had a ring-tailed lemur in it but I didn’t see it.  My experience with them has been limited to the Bowmanville Zoo and the Fall Fair. I’ve always liked how fast and agile they were but to see one-month old babies moving like that - we all had goofy grins that babies cause. Three times we approached the camel ride and three times we balked. Reid liked the idea in concept but camels are very big up close. I hope she’ll go with me the next time we have the opportunity. (Yes, it *is* about me ;+) We saw monkeys, lions, llamas, tigers (even a white one), elephants and more animals that you’d expect at a zoo. Of course, we spent lots of time over a couple of passes at the elephant enclosure. There was also a very noisy bull with a giant pair of horns, a cow with an extra leg hanging out of her right front shoulder and many, many goats of various ages. At one point, some of the baby goats - kids, I guess - were mingling with the people on the path. Reid’s eyes were huge and sparky but she didn’t want to pet them for a long time. Eventually, she did get close enough to try to feed them but they were too bouncy to eat. We also went to the Animatheatre to see a performance called “Predators and Prey”. I was a little worried but it wasn’t graphic or gory - they just presented some animals doing tricks and told us if they were omnivores/carnivores/predators or herbivores. Reid climbed onto Daddy’s lap and got to see a gigantic Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, a ring-tailed lemur on a lady’s head and some other animals up close. The pair of capybarus (the world’s largest rodent, which looks like a guinea pig but is the size of a large pig or maybe it looks like a small, hairy hippopotamus) were a highlight, too, as they played together in their pond. On our way out, we stopped for a few slides and to build a couple of castles.

And for the record, it was not hot and humid on Saturday. In fact, Reid’s daddy may be talking about this year’s chilly trip.

On the way home, we three girls rode in the backseat again (how traditional we are). Reid wouldn’t let Grandma Barb read but did “allow” me to read the two Barney books and Iggy Pig’s Snowball Fight that I got at the Kindermusik church  rummage sale a few weeks ago as well as nine books from her backpack. I kept suggesting Henry and the Cow Problem but Reid refused until she had to choose between it and Paperbag Princess, which she is really not keen on. As I read it, though, she fell asleep. None of the other adults in the car asked me to finish it and so it ended as a cliff-hanger.

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