it's a kind of animal.

There's something indescribably awesome about seeing your child realize that the things that he has learned about are indeed real. We took Nathan to the National Zoo over the weekend and had the best time. The weather was gorgeous, it was not too busy, and we got to spend time with Nate and some friends. The last time we went to the zoo Nate wasn't quite a year old, so it was a whole new experience this go 'round.

Our first stop was in the indoor panda observation area. Thankfully the zoo has started to limit the number of people allowed in at one time, which gave us the opportunity to see the panda up close and personal. I wish we had the video camera out for that part because Nathan started screeching "It's a bear! Mommy, it.is.a.BEAR!!" and then turned to the teenage girls standing beside us and happily said "it's a kind of animal!".  We tried to tell him that it was a panda bear, but Nate was insistent that it was simply a bear and thought that the bear eating bamboo was hilarious. He told me that the bear was trying to clean up :)

Shockingly enough, Nate did not like the monkey house, and had a mini-tantrum while we were in there. Chris got some great pictures of an orangutang that was putting a paper bag on it's head and drinking out of a cup. Another orangutang threw up all over the glass and then ate it [not pictured].

When it came to the elephants and the reptile house, Nate was in love.  He is a big fan of the movie Dumbo and is obsessed with the croc in Peter Pan/Jake and the Never Land Pirates. We also saw snakes, turtles, and a tiger for just a few seconds before they took it indoors for the night.  Nate's reactions to the animals was just priceless -- there's just something special about him learning from pictures and then getting to see the real deal.

We had a really nice day out! Educational, fun, and relatively cheap since entrance to the zoo is free! Here are a couple more shots from our day together!