lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

The twoddlers LOVE animals.  Well, they love pictures of animals.  Or animals that are about 5 feet away from them.  Anything live (or even resembling live, like, stuffed animals) that gets near them and their hearts start racing, they start trembling and kicking, and whimpering.  Big, small, sweet, calm, doesn't matter.  I'm sure that all my friends who are loving parents to animals think it's all my fault because I selfishly don't want to clean up after a pet around the house.  So be it.  We do try to let the twoddlers get to know our neighbor's dog who is adorable, small, and sweet.  While they clutch onto us with one hand and both legs squeezing tightly, we have gotten them to pet (touch) little Farrah.  But, it is definitely a mixture of fear and excitement and curiosity and who knows what else all mixed into one. 

While completely understandable, it's also a little nutty to me.  I mean, they both make more animal sounds than speak words.  What does a dog say?  Woof, woof!  cat: meow, mouse: eeeeeeee, camel: pbbt, fish: pohp, pohp, rhinoceros: pubbt, rabbit: nff, nff, nfffff.  Seriously, they can make a rhinoceros snort sound and get excited about it.  Rafa's favorite book by far is the Winnie the Pooh animal encyclopedia.  I don't blame him, the pictures are fantastic.  I bet he could look at those pictures by himself for an hour if we let him.  But, yet, show him the real thing, and he would rather go running for the hills.

The twoddlers do love animals if kept at a safe distance and they get really excited about seeing the creatures that I think they can communicate with better with than their parents.  So, while on a recent trip to New Orleans, we took them to the aquarium and the zoo.