Indianapolis Zoo and Winnie the Pooh!

On this morning we loaded up the car and trekked downtown (I think) to the Indianapolis Zoo. We had gone once two years ago, when Max was 2 and Nick was known as "Gummi", and Cousin Logan was not quite 1.

Aunt Angel was our guide, and we were lucky to have her expertise. She led us right to the areas we wanted to see first, with suggestions about what times to return to the dolphin area.

One of the first exhibits we visited was the cheetahs.


There was a small group of kids crouched down on the other side of a glass window, where a beautiful male cheetah was lazing. He was rolling over and relaxing, and the kids were "oooing" and "awwwwing" about the cute cheetah.

(tune in later. this is where I will insert a cute picture of the kids gathered around - when I get the pictures off the camera that I accidentally left in Angel's extra stroller.)

Nick came over and banged on the glass, saying "kitty!". This would have been a fine thing to do with the neighborhood cat that sometimes pays us a visit, but the cheetah did not particularly like Nick's enthusiastic greeting. He responded by following Nick to another section of the glassed observation area, stretching, turning around and SPRAYING the glass exactly where Nick was standing. No harm was done, so all the adults who were watching burst into laughter. Nick was unphased, and we moved on to the next exhibit.

Nick, peering through the freshly-sprayed glass.

After a few more outdoor exhibits, we went to the Dolphin exhibit and then to the building that houses the sharks (which you can reach in and pet!). Shortly after we entered the shark building, Max and Alex encountered the section in which jellyfish were floating/swimming. Max had a very strong reaction to the jellyfish, and so he and Alex spent a fair amount of time sitting next to the glass, talking about the jellyfish. Thy talked about how he was scared that the jellyfish could hurt him, but that the glass was thick and they couldn't close to him at all. After a while, they moved on, without any apparent resolution to his fears or concerns.

We moved along and he spent a long time looking at the Penguins.

Strangely enough, when asked later that day to tell us what his favorite part of the zoo had been, Max reported "jellyfish!" Go figure :)


After the excitement of the Zoo, we decided to try our hand at going to see a movie in the theater again. The new Winnie the Pooh movie has been out in the theater for a while, and only a few screens continue to show it. So, we made a beeline for a theater closer to Neeme and Pawpaw's neighborhood and got settled in with some popcorn!

There were some scary parts, and Max ended up sitting on both our laps as well. But, we were able to talk him through the relatively dark scenes with the "Backsoon" and SUCCESS! Max had his first full-length movie-going experience.

Later that afternoon, we went to Aunt Angel's house and had a BLAST playing with Cousin Logan. The boys took a quick break to refuel. SO cute!