I Met a Sloth

Did I ever tell you about the time that I met a real sloth? It turns out that this is something that one can do simply by paying the zoo lots of nice money!

My older kid has always been the zoo's biggest friend, and the world's second-hardest human to shop for (her father is the world's hardest human to shop for, so it might be genetic), so her big Christmas gift from me last year was a day at the zoo with us, with the extra activities of a sloth encounter AND a dolphin encounter.

We met all the animals for Christmas!

But first: my favorite sea lion pose:

And, of course, at this zoo there are plenty of animals that you can meet without paying any extra money:

If you, a full-grown grown-up, don't leave the touch tank wet to your elbows, are you even a homeschool graduate?

As someone who has regular internal hysterics on the daily about the fact that all my family! Is not in the same room at the same time! Much less the same state!, just walking around the zoo together was my own favorite part of Christmas break:

Okay, I lied. My favorite part of Christmas break was THIS guy!!!

We got to hang out with him and coo over him and watch him eat snacks while his zookeeper talked about him and answered our questions--

(Look! He smiled at me!)

And then WE got to feed him snacks and take our photos with him! And then, THEN he curled up in a little ball!

He. Was. ADORABLE. 

Sloths don't seem like big thinkers, and there weren't really any thoughts apparent behind those big, brown eyes, but here he is scratching himself:

Oh, and here he is eating just one more snack:

Look how slowly he moves!!!

I swear I felt like I came out of a fugue state when we finally left our new sloth friend. I had no idea how much time had passed, what day it was, or what was happening in the outside world.

Might as well go visit the flamingos!

If nothing else, they'll scream you out of your meditative zone of contemplation!

We've seen free-range kangaroos at other zoos, but I think this is the first time we've visited since they've come to our zoo. There were very few people out on this cold late afternoon right before the New Year, so the kangaroos had plenty of room to hop all around in our vicinity and act like we weren't there:

I always forget that in December, the elephants and zebras and giraffes really aren't there, so we walked through a silent and empty African savannah--

--but the orangutans were around--

--and so were the dolphins!

After the dolphin show, my partner and kid went off to meet the stars of the show, while I hung out by the fire pit and got completely obsessed with the entity I call Twinkle Tree:

Every few minutes, it would do a whole light-up musical number, then go back to being a regular Twinkle Tree for another ten minutes or so. Even after the others came back from their encounter and wanted to walk around some more and tell me all about the dolphins they'd met, I was all like, "Shhh!!! Twinkle Tree is about to go off!"

I... may have sat there until I watched Twinkle Tree's entire repertoire. I don't even want to guess how long that took.

Eventually, my partner only managed to lure me away by wondering out loud if the Twinkle Tunnel also put on a show every few minutes...

It didn't, humph, but it was still pretty cool:

This turned out to be SUCH a good present! The kid loved it, of course, but I definitely loved it the most. We spent the whole day together, and although I sobbed miserably a couple of weeks later when we dropped her back at college, then spent another couple of weeks in a depression, pretty much just crying, listening to lavender country, and finishing the puzzle we'd worked on all break, I think all that together time shored up my emotional state so that I wasn't as much of a wreck as I usually am.

Yes, that was me NOT being as much of a wreck, ahem.

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Autumn at the Indianapolis Zoo: I am in Love with a Sea Slug

In every year and every season, we love our closest zoo. I've taken the kids to the Indianapolis Zoo in the winter, for Christmas lights and infinite hot chocolate:

I've taken them in the spring, to watch butterflies hatch--

--and in the summer, to pet sharks:

At every animal's habitat, it seems, I can find the children superimposed at every age, over every season.

Add to that recollection, now, the children at ages thirteen and fifteen, over the course of one beautiful, unseasonably warm late October day:

Will at fifteen, loving on the snakes

Syd at nine, also loving on the snakes

admiring the sea lions from above in 2019

admiring the sea lions from below in 2008

the beautiful fish habitats in 2019

the beautiful fish habitats in 2009

This is (oops) I believe the same species of shark that we dissected in 2016...

Y'all know how much I love my chondrichthyans!



This girl, in particular, remains enchanted by chondrichthyans, too:

She and I share shark memes back and forth, and I'm lucky to be her parent.

One of the most enchanting things about October at the Indianapolis Zoo is the presence of pumpkins enriching the animal habitats. Some are of the fake Jack-o-lantern variety--

But others have treats inside:

And for some animals, the pumpkin itself IS the treat!

Speaking of treats... here's my life-partner, co-parent, beloved, and the pickiest eater in the family, who saw the nut butter sandwiches that I was in the process of packing that morning, got sulky, and was encouraged to pack his own damn lunch, then:

Why, yes, he IS eating lunch meat directly from the container it came in.

Here are the dolphins, being enchanting:

And here's a chance to snag yet more Halloween candy!

Here's Will at fifteen, admiring a lion.

Here are Will at eight and Syd at six, also admiring a lion

Here's a baby orangutan:

 Here's a sleepy meerkat:

 Here's Will, feeding the birds with nectar given to her by another guest:

And here's when I made her share the nectar with Syd:

Arrow, may she rest in peace, spent a long summer one year attacking Syd every time her back was turned, and ever since then Syd does NOT feel a kinship with fowl:

This is called exposure therapy/"Mom wants a nice picture so you stand there, Young Lady, and let that bird eat out of your hand!"

Here are the trained dogs:

Here's the wild tiger!

Here's the red panda that for over a decade we figured was probably stuffed, since I swear on my life we never once saw it move. But on this October afternoon, we stood and watched it climb around for nearly three minutes before it fell back asleep!

One last family portrait--

--and then it was off to browse the gift shop, where indeed, I did meet my own true love:

It's a sea slug, which I did not buy. Our love was true but brief:

I mean, really. Who needs a sea slug when they've already got their own life partner, co-parent, and picky eater? I'm sure that sea slugs are fussy about peanut butter, too.