Da Bronx!

You know it's been a while since you've blogged when the 9 year old staying with you says it's been like two WHOLE weeks since I've written. Okay, it hasn't been that long, but we've been busy. Between outings with the Spanish visitors, running a few errands, hitting the parks, seeing a few friends here and there, catching up on laundry and grocery buying and a very impressive meal out alone with my husband, it's been a full week. Now I'm actually feeling a bit more rested and the weather turning cooler has helped a ton. God, I love the fall. Jeans AND sweaters? I can't wait. In that spirit, we ventured to the Bronx Zoo yesterday for the first time ever and I have to say it was well worth the wait. Now that Elisa is just a bit older, I feel like she has the stamina for such an all day adventure. We weren't trying to get out of the house super early, but we aimed for around 10am and made it to the zoo by car within about 30 minutes. The sky was just a bit overcast and the wind cool so luckily we all had our jackets and long sleeves to keep us warm until that afternoon sun poked through. What a day...

There was a lot of running. As we like to say, Elisa does not walk. She runs. You turn that kid loose and it's off she goes.

The tigers might have slowed her down, but at that point, she was sleepy and didn't really care. They were so cute rubbing their noses together.

Can you tell she has the patience of a saint? Yes, Abuela is the perfect compliment to Diego's 9 year old precociousness.

The ibex (what's the plural of that??) were Elisa's favorite animals. She LOVED them. She loved that they were headbutting each other and seemed to frolic as much as she does. We loved how much she laughed and whirled and imitated them, saying they were wearing "hats." Right. Horns, but to her they were hats, so I guess she knows something we don't. Do they take them off inside? ;)

The zoo was much bigger than I'd imagined and pretty well laid out. We opted for just the general admission and not all the bells and whistles, and it was still a lot to do. I especially enjoyed that there were some great viewing areas for little kids. We didn't even make it to the extra Children's Zoo because Elisa was napping, but still she had plenty of places to stand and see the animals. And right now she is all about doing things on her own. So it was nice that she could grab the railings and be just like the big kids. For some reason, I remember her being way too small to do this at the Queen's Zoo. But in da Bronx, she was acting very grown up. And we had a great day.