It's zoo time!

[rivka]

Today was the first day of the season for the Maryland Zoo. It was also ideal zoo-going weather: sunny and in the upper 50s. Because we're members, we got to enter half an hour before the zoo officially opened - which turned out to be a great blessing, because it turns out that the zoo is free this weekend, and half of Baltimore had managed to jam themselves in by the time we left. But the first hour we were there was blissfully uncrowded.

I took a zebra photo that I really like:



(Of course, it's hard to take a bad zebra photo. They were madeevolved to be photographed.)

Alex was incredibly excited. She gave long narrations about each of the animals - what she thought they were doing, where their families might be, how they related to each other. We took a couple of short movies (46 secs, 1 minute 13 secs) of her narrations; I have embedded them below the cut, along with transcripts. I should note that there's not really much to see - it's all about the audio.

I also feel compelled to note that I don't usually repeat absolutely everything she says, like a bad parody of a Rogerian psychologist. I was trying to provide on-the-spot translation services so I could send the video to relatives who aren't used to hearing Alex talk.

Watch on YouTube

Translation from the Toddlerese:

Alex: Okay!
Me: Where's the zebra going?
Alex: Zebra's going swimming.
Me: Really?!
Alex: Zebra going to walk. Zebra going to walk in the water.
Me: The zebra's going to walk in the water. Look, he's going over to see the other zebras.
Alex: Go see the other zebras. That's a Mama zebra.
Me: Oh.
Alex: Hi, Mama zebra!
Me: Where's the Papa zebra?
Alex: Right there.
Me: Okay!
Alex: Hi, Papa zebra! Baby zebra hug Papa zebra.
Me: Baby zebra hugs the Papa zebra? Okay.
Alex: Tigers!
Me: You want to see tigers?

Watch on YouTube

Translation from the Toddlerese:

Alex: Here comes a seagull! Here comes an oster-ster-strich.
Me: Here comes an ostrich, yes.
Alex: Here comes an ostrich. Ostrich eat water. Ostrich eat water.
Me: Ostrich wants to drink some water?
Alex: Ostrich eat water.
Me: Look, here's the zebra right here. Look at those big ears.
Alex: Zebra feeds the ostrich!
Me: Zebra feeds the ostrich? Okay. What does the zebra feed the ostrich?
Alex: Zebra feeds ostrich food.
Me: Some food, okay.
Alex: Rhinoceros feeds the ostrich. Rhinoceros feeds the ostrich.
Me: Sounds good.
Alex: Rhinoceros feeds the ostrich.
Me: Here comes the zebra to see the rhinoceros.
Alex: Zebra kiss the rhinoceros!
Me: Oh really, the zebra kiss the rhinoceros? Are they friends?
Alex: Okay!
Me: Okay.
Alex: Zebra, zebra rhinoceros friendly.
Me: Okay!


(Also note that this is a Gratuitous Icon Post. Yay, GIPs!)