It was gorgeously springy outside yesterday, so I took the kids to the little municipal zoo for the afternoon. A fine day to go to the zoo: the big male lion paced from end to end of his enclosure, stopping now and then to look majestically and possibly hungrily at the squealing children on the other side of the glass as mothers shuddered and shutters clicked. The polar bear sunned himself beside his pool, no matter how much the children tried to coax him to dive into the water. The orangutan galloped about with a plastic kiddie pool upended on his back, like a big hairy turtle.
(I forgot my camera.)
Milo, as you know, loves birds. Sadly, the flamingoes (Mingoes, they go, in the WATER!!!!) had not been put out for the spring yet, so we made sure to visit the Aquatic Animals building to view the penguins and puffins.
I held Milo up so he could be just on the other side of the glass from one of the tufted puffins (link to bird guide) . "What's this bird called?" he wanted to know. Tufted puffin, I said, reading the sign, and he frowned and repeated, "Tuffin puffin." Awww! "Tufted puffin," I said, and he said "Tuffin puffin!" with a big smile. I put him down and we went off to see the polar bear.
Later that night I wanted to get Milo to say tuffin puffin (awwww!) for his dad, so I prompted him. "Tell daddy about the bird I showed you at the zoo today."
He spun around with his jaw dropped and his feet planted wide apart and proclaimed, "Bird! Puffin! He goed in the water!"
"Tell him what kind of puffin."
Big smile, and a shout: "TITMOUSE PUFFIN!"
(He must have been thinking of this one.)
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