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A Trip to the Zoo and More
Feb. 25th, 2010 09:39 amYesterday, as part of Mason's "Intersession" (a three week break he has right now because he's in a year round school), he and I took our friend Eleanor to the "big zoo" (aka the Minnesota Zoo.)
Let me tell you something, now is the time to go to the zoo. You might freeze your butt off, but all the animals are...well, frisky. The wolverines were hilarious -- well, if you find biting, snarling, and trying to sit on each other (not, ehm, mount, but seriously trying to push each other around with their massive girth) funny. There's a rotating volunteer staff watching the wolves for signs of mating. The musk oxen, which we watched from the relative warmth of the monorail, were butting heads. The bears in the Russian exhibit were rolling around in the snow playing and scratching their fur on the dead trees. I've gone to the MN zoo on-and-off for years, usually at the same time (around opening, 10:00 am) and this is the most activity I've seen EVER.
There's quite a bit of construction going on in the tropics trail and some of Mason's favorites weren't on view for one reason or another. The Gibbons, you may recall, recently gave birth, so they're in seculsion. But much of the noctural animals are in the section they're working on, and the sun bear and the lemurs aren't visible right now either. But Eleanor is a birder, so we had a lot of fun spotting various South American birds in the open bird area, while Mason ran back and forth through the bamboo screen. Some funky hens were strutting on the roof of the doorway, and a long-legged stork-type thing peeped out of the underbrush. We also saw a few birds engaging in nesting behavior -- gathering straw and noisily debating territory rights.
As we were leaving, Eleanor pointed out something that I've noticed but never articulated, which is that after a long trip to the zoo (we were there almost for almost four hours) you start noticing all the animals in your own backyard with the same kind of fascination you might normally reserve for something exotic. I saw four Cooper's hawks on lamp posts on the drive back to Saint Paul, and I noticed the house sparrows were clearly also feeling "spring" in the air.
It was cool.
One of the things Mason and I have been consciously doing during his break is take "recess." Mason has been having some trouble falling asleep at night, and one of the things we've been doing to combat that is to make sure he gets outside for at least fifteen minutes or more. Of course, once we're all suited up, we usually end up outside for an hour or more. We've been slowly building a fort using these snow brick makers that my folks bought Mason for Solstace. It's already three feet high, and now I'm starting to make it enclosed. I'll have to take a picture when we're finished. It's been slow going because it's tedious and Mason gets bored of it before I do, and it also the snow has been powdery instead of wet, so we sometimes have to start a fire in our chiminea and scoop up snow from around the base where it gets melted.
So I usually get only a few bricks laid a day.
The other thing we've been doing for Mason's sleep issues is to set up a good routine. I make him a little "Relax tea" early in the evening, he reads for an hour or more, and then we set him up with some music. Part of the problem, he's told us, is that it's hard for him to turn off his mind. It's a problem a lot of us can relate to. I usually am awake a half hour or more after I turn out the lights, but eventually I drift off. (Shawn, meanwhile, snores the instant her head hits the pillow.) Anyway, it seems to be working. It only takes him fifteen minutes or so now to fall asleep.
Anyway, I've been still sort of on a writing vacation. I've been doing little bits, but nothing serious. I keep thinking I should be working, but it's harder when Mason is around to distract me... and I know he's going back on March 8, and so my mind knows there will be a start date for me getting back to writing.
How's by you?
Let me tell you something, now is the time to go to the zoo. You might freeze your butt off, but all the animals are...well, frisky. The wolverines were hilarious -- well, if you find biting, snarling, and trying to sit on each other (not, ehm, mount, but seriously trying to push each other around with their massive girth) funny. There's a rotating volunteer staff watching the wolves for signs of mating. The musk oxen, which we watched from the relative warmth of the monorail, were butting heads. The bears in the Russian exhibit were rolling around in the snow playing and scratching their fur on the dead trees. I've gone to the MN zoo on-and-off for years, usually at the same time (around opening, 10:00 am) and this is the most activity I've seen EVER.
There's quite a bit of construction going on in the tropics trail and some of Mason's favorites weren't on view for one reason or another. The Gibbons, you may recall, recently gave birth, so they're in seculsion. But much of the noctural animals are in the section they're working on, and the sun bear and the lemurs aren't visible right now either. But Eleanor is a birder, so we had a lot of fun spotting various South American birds in the open bird area, while Mason ran back and forth through the bamboo screen. Some funky hens were strutting on the roof of the doorway, and a long-legged stork-type thing peeped out of the underbrush. We also saw a few birds engaging in nesting behavior -- gathering straw and noisily debating territory rights.
As we were leaving, Eleanor pointed out something that I've noticed but never articulated, which is that after a long trip to the zoo (we were there almost for almost four hours) you start noticing all the animals in your own backyard with the same kind of fascination you might normally reserve for something exotic. I saw four Cooper's hawks on lamp posts on the drive back to Saint Paul, and I noticed the house sparrows were clearly also feeling "spring" in the air.
It was cool.
One of the things Mason and I have been consciously doing during his break is take "recess." Mason has been having some trouble falling asleep at night, and one of the things we've been doing to combat that is to make sure he gets outside for at least fifteen minutes or more. Of course, once we're all suited up, we usually end up outside for an hour or more. We've been slowly building a fort using these snow brick makers that my folks bought Mason for Solstace. It's already three feet high, and now I'm starting to make it enclosed. I'll have to take a picture when we're finished. It's been slow going because it's tedious and Mason gets bored of it before I do, and it also the snow has been powdery instead of wet, so we sometimes have to start a fire in our chiminea and scoop up snow from around the base where it gets melted.
So I usually get only a few bricks laid a day.
The other thing we've been doing for Mason's sleep issues is to set up a good routine. I make him a little "Relax tea" early in the evening, he reads for an hour or more, and then we set him up with some music. Part of the problem, he's told us, is that it's hard for him to turn off his mind. It's a problem a lot of us can relate to. I usually am awake a half hour or more after I turn out the lights, but eventually I drift off. (Shawn, meanwhile, snores the instant her head hits the pillow.) Anyway, it seems to be working. It only takes him fifteen minutes or so now to fall asleep.
Anyway, I've been still sort of on a writing vacation. I've been doing little bits, but nothing serious. I keep thinking I should be working, but it's harder when Mason is around to distract me... and I know he's going back on March 8, and so my mind knows there will be a start date for me getting back to writing.
How's by you?