Zoo Atlanta

"baby mei lan"

Tyler talked about baby mei lan all the way to the zoo on Tuesday and all the way back. He was so excited to see the baby panda, I'm not really sure why.

I bought our tickets online-which is the only way to go, the line was horendous to buy them at the zoo. I told him we were going to buy special tickets to see the panda and then he started talking about her. He's never seen a picture or shown an especially strong bond to panda's until Tuesday. When it was our turn to take the panda tour mei lan was sleeping on a tree with her back to us. I lifted him up and sat him on the rail (there's a glass pane between you and the panda room) he wrapped his legs around it and wouldn't let go. He just stared at the sleeping panda like it was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. I had to pull him off b/c you only get a few minutes in the room and he hadn't seen the mommy yet. He cried until he saw the mommy eating some bamboo.

After that he had to have his hand stamped with a picture of a panda and then went into the gift shop went straight over to the red shirts and picked one out with a picture of a mommy and baby panda on it. He told me it was mommy and mei lan and he wanted it. That many words with a clear point wins him one red t-shirt.

Jackson was a wild guy too-he also loved the panda more than anything else and wouldn't come away. He crawled down between peoples legs and we couldn't get him out. He had his nose pressed against the glass and just stared. When he went into the gift shop-chasing after brother-he saw the stuffed pandas and put 15, yes 15, of them into his stroller and tried to roll out of the store. So he too got a little gift fromt he shop.

The other big hit was the lion, but she was too hard to see and Tyler was pretty upset over that, but on the way back out we got a glimpse of her sleeping in her cave. We also saw lots of baby gorillas one of them was nursing-I guess the mom was a nursing nazi like myself and
someone else I can think of. There was also a silver back sitting in the corner perfectly still, one of the babies went over sat down right in front of him crossed his arms over his chest and stared back. It was soooooo cute especially since he must have been a little bit smaller than my baby Jackson but he sat there so sure of himself mocking his daddy.

All in all we had a great time and the boys loved it-as a warning definately buy your tickets early, and the wretched smell at the front entrance is the flamingos and isn't nearly as strong once you get past them-I was ready to leave when we got there if it was going to smell that bad the whole time.

Oh one more thing-my favorite part! There was a joey in his mommies pouch in the kangaroo house. He bit his mom so she put her head down and bit his foot then nudged him out-the beast was huge! he must have been three feet tall! I don't know how he ever got in there. I felt her pain too when I get bid I bite back and then my nursing bra is closed.