The Zoo!

Today was a perfect day for the zoo. Mr. Mustard had the day off work, it was gorgeous, sunny, and 75 degrees, and it was a Monday, so hardly anyone was there! Perfection!

We saw the new gorilla exhibit, which was phenomenal. They've been working on it for years, and it's finally done! Paprika was very excited to see the "monkeys" and had a great time running around pointing them out. We also say the hippos (which Paprika pronounces "Heeeepos"), zebras, lions, ducks, peacocks, flamingos, tigers, and a whole bunch of other animals. The male lion roared at the top of his lungs for about five minutes while we were watching him. The roaring really fascinated Paprika- it didn't scare her- she was just very interested in what he was trying to say. The tigers had two baby cubs with them, and they were having a ball playing and wrestling eachother. It was too cute for words!

Paprika wanted to walk the entire length of the zoo. The LA Zoo is on the side of a steep hill, but that didn't seem to deter Paprika. She wants nothing to do with the stroller and would just prefer to walk herself, thank you very much!

The zoo just launched a wonderful outdoor playground for kids, so we had a lot of fun playing there when we were done visiting the animals. Paprika had a great time running around with Mr. Mustard on the playground equipment. She's a bit aprehensive about the slides right now- she refuses to go down them now when just a few weeks ago it was her favorite thing to do!

Over the weekend, we just relaxed around the house and tried to stay dry- it's been raining a bit. We watched the Academy Awards last night, which was great fun. Paprika actually took a nap for the first three hours of it- I put her down for a nap right as the show was coming on, and she woke up right before they announced Best Director. So, she watched a little red carpet with me and then got to see the end of the show. I'm being pretty strict about her wake-up time now, which is helping her move towards and earlier schedule. If I let her, she would really sleep all day long- and then we'd miss out on fun days like today at the zoo!