Lions and Tigers and Bears. And Rain.

Day 145

My younger son and I went to the zoo today. We had been planning this for a while, with the promise that he could take as long as he wanted to meander through the entire place. When the our boys were little we would take them there together. The younger one would want to go slow while the older guy would run from exhibit to exhibit, barely stopping to look. In hindsight, our older son had absolutely no interest whatsoever in animals, and still doesn't. He did his best to let let us know, but we kept taking him to the zoo anyway, as if it were some sort of parenting mandate. And the little guy continued to be dragged away from every animal he tried to look at for more than 20 seconds.

We woke up this morning to pouring rain. “It looks like we can't go to the zoo today” I said. “Why not?” was the response. “Because I don't feel like walking around getting soaked” I thought. But what I said was “No reason I guess.”

And we went. And I was true to my word. He was allowed to take as much time at each animal as he wanted. I kept my opinion to myself when I thought that standing for a full 10 minutes in rain looking at the elephant eating hay was a bit much. Almost 15 minutes looking at the wild dogs snuggled up in a pile together, protecting each other from the weather I presume. No problem. Ok, I did move him along when we were in the bat house because I was getting a bit squeamish in the dark damp cave with bats flying around, even if they were behind glass.

Three full hours in the rain. We did not leave until my son said he was ready to go. And believe me I was ready two hours and half hours earlier. And for this reason I am counting our zoo trip as my act of kindness for the day.