Three times around on the zoo carousel....

We love the zoo. The animals, the playground, the farm house, the petting zoo area, the beautiful "water features," and the carousel. As zoo members we get a discount on carousel tokens and that is a good benefit because somehow in the midst of Analayne's excitement and my excitement I started letting her ride the carousel 3 times each time we visit the zoo (which in the good weather months might be once a week). Analayne gets to hand the token to the zoo worker, pick which animal she wants to ride and then as she rides round and round she has a beaming smile! While we stand in line for our turn to board the carousel, Analayne and I talk about each animal and we point to the different animals and name them as she starts to make her decision about which one she will ride.

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo and she rode the elephant, the bongo and the monkeys. She had wanted to ride one more time but I had to enforce my limit (my physical limit of going round and round 3 consecutive times in a row and also my financial limit of $1.00 a ride!). The animal that she would have chosen was the giraffe. However, at the zoo there are maybe 3 animals on the carousel that do not go up and down and the giraffe is one of them. I explained this to her, but told her that the next time we visited the zoo she could ride the giraffe if that is what she chose. For the next 3 weeks this is exactly what I heard her say over and over again to nearly everyone she met. "I ride the carousel. Giraffe no up down. Elephant go up down. Giraffe no up down...he too tall." Finally last weekend in the beautiful 70 degree weather I took Analayne to the zoo and yes, we rode the carousel 3 times. She chose to ride the turtle, the elephant and the GIRAFFE!