A Visit to the Petting Zoo

So, Grayson loves animals. He loves to see them when we're driving around. He loves to look at them in books and talk about them. And he loves to scream, at the top of his lungs, all the animal sounds. All this loving would lead me to believe that he would just love the petting zoo. Well, I was wrong.

Yesterday Grayson went to the petting zoo with his friend Omar, and although he didn't scream or pitch a fit at any point, he was clearly terrified of all the animals. Because his favorite animal seems to be a horse right now, we went up to the horses first. As I lifted him up to pet the horse's nose, he immediately began pulling away and yelling, "no, no, no." Okay, no big deal, I thought, we'll keep trying some other animals. Let's see...he was also afraid of the zebra, the ducks and geese, the sheep, the goats, and he was even afraid of a baby chick. The only animal that didn't seem to faze him was the turkey. The turkey?!? He actually got out of his stroller and walked around them. And toward them! I did finally get some video of that.

After the visit to the turkeys, he seemed to warm up a bit and wasn't quite as terrified, but he was still a little overwhelmed. We ended the trip on a hay ride and he fell asleep in my arms. I do think we'll try again later this summer. I'm hoping now that he realizes the animals are a little bigger than they appear in books and from the car, that he'll enjoy himself a little more the next time. We'll see, I guess.

Finally some Fun with the Kangaroo!