Someone Told Me It's All Happening At The Zoo

 So Wifey's out of town still, and D1 asked if maybe I wanted to take the Little Man out for a day. I did. So she and he and his wonderful nanny came over, we exposed him to the inevitable licking attack from our dog infested house, and then we were off -- D1 stayed home with her sister to rest and work.

Oh what a day it was. I hadn't been to ZooMiami in decades, except for one evening when we attended the boss Ron Magill's locally famous "Sex and the Animals" lecture. We used to take the Ds all the time -- Wifey bought yearly passes -- but as they aged, we just never made it back.

It was a gorgeous, overcast day, so not too hot. The foliage that was denuded in Hurricane Andrew is all back, thankfully, and there are new exhibits.

We strolled the Little Man around, and he got his first live view of the animals he had seen in books -- and identified them all in Spanish. The zoo has a big variety of, as Wifey used to call them, "antelope-like" animals, and we called them all "vacas especiales," or "special cows." I can update him later.

He identified a giant tapir as an "oso," or bear, and I realized if looked pretty bear-like, especially from a distance. We sat on a bench and he ate his lunch -- watching the Arabian antelope type critters, and sharing some of his food with a friendly ardilla, or squirrel.

As we headed toward the exit, after a solid several hours in which we only covered half the place, I looked skyward and thanked the Big Man -- He let me get this far in life with an actual grandson.

D1 called in a lunch order from LOL, which was on the way home, and we ate with Tia D2. Later D1 and the Little Man and lovely nanny left for home.

Oh -- I have SO much to teach him. My paternal grandfather was long dead by the time I was born, and my maternal one died when I was just past toddlerhood -- I have a single memory of visiting him in the hospital before he died.

So I hope I get to change things this generation with this absurdly adorable child -- already pretty much bilingual.

Maybe he'll teach ME the actual Spanish names of the vacas especiales...