The Zoo

I took her to the zoo today. Which is like saying I took her to Disney World during spring break. We got there the moment it opened, and there were already about thirty school buses lined up, with kids in matching shirt colors streaming through the gates like the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Apparently Fridays in April and May are prime field trip days. The only other people there were power moms, chatting on their cell phones while pushing five hundred-dollar strollers that hold three children at once along with the contents of an entire refrigerator and changing table.

E and I enjoyed zooming along in our little thirty-buck green stroller. She swung her legs and peered around at the other kids. The little girls seemed to like looking at her and one even called her “gorgeous” which put me in a great mood for the rest of the trip.

As a game D will sometimes tell her to shout out certain words (like “bus!” if she sees one while we’re driving). Apparently he taught her the Chinese word for leopard, because now every time I suggest going to the zoo she says “bau4!” over and over non-stop. So of course we were obligated to see the leopards, who happened to be mating today, which made me grateful she was too young to ask questions. Afterwards they lounged on their backs, which made her say “dap-dah” (for diaper) loudly over and over. Apparently anything on its back with its legs in the air is about to get its diaper changed. Again, grateful her words don’t make sense to anyone but me.

We lasted about ninety minutes. Or rather, I did. Unfortunately the crowds made her too shy to walk much, so I was often holding her with one arm so she could see above the railing, and pushing the stroller with the other. Holding her these days feels like carrying ten sacks of flour. It’s like the way they used to make the girls in home-ec carry around a bag of flour to simulate having a baby, except that was nothing compared to this. I told her to hold on to mommy, in an attempt to get her to help hold her own weight, after which she very gently grabbed a fistful of my shirt with one hand. Touching but not that helpful.

Apparently I say “wow” a lot, and E has picked up on this, because she says “wow!-wow!-wow!” repeatedly anytime she sees something exciting—like an elephant doing tricks, or the same two cats on the couch every morning. Other than that, she was pretty pensive and quiet as usual. It’s hard to tell how much she got out of the whole experience but I tell myself it provided great unconscious cerebral enrichment.

Since staying more at home I’ve figured out what all the other moms do with their kids all day: go to the mall and museums in bad weather, and the zoo and parks in good weather. Coming back intact today made me feel like I’d passed some initiation rite. Not quite as bad as, say, taking my first night of call, but tiring nonetheless.