13 Months

As if celebrating one complete year wasn't enough, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo for Jackson's 13-month birthday (we didn't really go because it was his 13-month birthday, but I think it adds something to the story, don't ya' think?). We went to the attached White River Gardens too in order to see the Butterfly exhibit they are famous for. None of us had seen it before. It was interesting, but it was the first day the exhibit was open for the season, so I think there were still many more butterflies to hatch. It was still fun though, watching them fly around, land on people, and seeing all their brilliant colors. I don't think I'd ever seen butterflies that big! By the time we got to the zoo part of our trip, it was like 11:30-ish. Might I recommend NOT going to the zoo at that time of day?! Many of the animals were sleeping. I don't know if it was the time of day, the humidity, or what, but the lions, tigers, bears, polar bears, & kangaroos were all sleeping. Kinda dull to watch an animal sleep, ya' know?! Plus, several of the exhibits were closed -- I assume because it is still early in the zoo season. It was nice being there when it wasn't crowded though. Despite some of our disappointments, some of the animals were in fine form - sea lions, walruses, zebras, giraffes, elephants, ostriches, birds, emus.
Jackson seemed to enjoy the experience, though I think he thought we were there to people watch, not animal watch, because he seemed to enjoy watching all the kids around him more than the animals. He got a bit freaked out when the crowd startled him by "ooohhh-ing" and clapping when a sea lion jumped off the rocks into the water. He really didn't like that, so we high-tailed it out of there and he got over it quickly. He apparently enjoyed the animals just enough to refuse to look at the camera when we were at an exhibit though. We couldn't seem to get a picture of him looking our way when an animal was near all day -- he was too busy trying to figure out if he should be excited or scared by whatever animal he was looking at. Of course, his favorite part was the playground area. Good thing we went ALL THE WAY to the zoo so Jackson could go down a slide.......we only passed like, a BAZILLION FREE playgrounds on the way to the zoo.... He got really fearless on the playground; he kept going down the slide head-first! When does that whole "I'm afraid of anything I haven't done/eaten/seen before"-thing kick in? Obviously, I hasn't kicked in for Jackson yet....