Safari Park and Packing for Home

This was our one free day. The agency had nothing planned for us, so we decided to try out the Safari Park, a zoo on the outskirts of the city. We braved the subway, which was pretty nice after all. Our guide had told us sometimes during rush hour it gets so crowded that peoples' faces are smushed up against the windows. We were much luckier.

The park was pretty neat. I especially liked a monkey habitat that allowed the little monkeys to show off their swimming, diving, and cavorting abilities. You could buy and throw food into the water or into their very coordinated paws. The zoo also had a large number of pandas and 60% of all the white tigers in the world.  We even saw baby tigers in incubators and a nursery setting.

These animals were far more active compared to the snoozing animals at the Philly Zoo. But then, here employees throw meat at the tigers and lions to get them moving when guests walk by. It didn't look cruel; I decided to be ok with it since we were already there.  They also dangled chicken necks over water and tigers jumped for it, landing in the water. It was pretty amazing to see swimming tigers just on the other side of a pane of glass.





One really weird part of the zoo was the Jurassic Walk part. They had animatronic dinosaurs in pens, complete with signs that they used for all the other animals. Most of the moved, the raptor spit water, and the biggest ones roared. I found it a little hoaky, but I imagine my brother might have liked it when he was 8 or so.

Several school age children were terrified. Ruby was too little to think anything of it, though I rushed past the noisiest ones.  She did like the Jurassic mists we walked through, though.

I'm pretty sure this was the first time Ruby saw any of these animals. Given the way she jumped when she saw a house cat in a shop yesterday, animals are all pretty new to her. She took a whole park full of them in stride, though. She learned how to point. During the safari tram ride she kept pointing at the wrong side of the tram, at the plants and not the two dozen giraffes. 

And here you see a big step. Mommy's was tired and said no to picking Ruby up to see the silly monkeys, so she turned to Daddy.  He was happy to help. I think this is the first good picture of them together!

We had *lots* of great opportunities to test our parenting today. Ruby missed her nap and scheduled her meltdowns for all the public places: both subway rides, the middle of the monkey walk, the restaurant.  I found myself in the middle of a circle of spectators, holding a writhing, screaming child.  I just avoided eye contact with everyone.  When she stopped crying and I looked up, people seemed to be giving us kind looks. They usually waved goodbye to her.

We try to see these challenges as chances to show her the new boundaries in her life. I'm sure it will take a while. We also have great glimpses of her growing trust in us: I especially love to see her turn her head back to check on me while we walk hand in hand, and then a grin spreads across her face.

We've felt such support from our friends at home. I wanted to let you know some things the experts have told us about helping Ruby to transition during these early days. Our job is to teach her that we are not temporary caretakers, but her parents.  They suggest that only her parents feed and hold her for the first weeks she's home. They actually said we should do everything for her and be the ones to hand things to her for the first six months, but we'll see how that goes. I'll be home with her all the time, so I think that will pretty much be unavoidable.  We know that you all want to hug her, but since she's really got to focus on attaching to us and her grandparents, we'll have to find other ways for her to know how welcome she is.

The other girls might like some extra attention and time out with friends, especially since their transition at home might be tougher than they realize (but nothing out of the ordinary). 

A thunderstorm is echoing through the city--not something I'm used to at all.  My husband has used his amazing spatial awareness to pack all of our bags. Tomorrow we'll be leaving very early to begin our 26 hours of travel (including drive times).  I'll post in a few days to let you know how our reunion with the girls went.

Now, in the words of Pearl and Sapphire, "Adios Flamingos!!"