Once upon a time, when I was still pregnant..

We did something fun!

But first, I need to show you something. Aed got this little rash on his torso, and instead of getting him checked by the doctor like normal people, we decided it would be easier to take a picture of it and send it to my dad and let him decide if we should take Aed to the doctor. I was looking through my pictures and came across that little set of images and saw this cute one of Aed trying to grab the camera. And then I noticed the boots. THE BOOTS!

Be still my beating heart.

How he loves his boots.

How I love him in only a diaper and boots.

Now on to something fun. The Edinburgh Zoo!

Remember how our Tesco points got us a little vacay out West? (I love pretending like this is a huge country) Well our Tesco points also got us a free day at the zoo! I’m telling you, our lives would be so boring without our Tesco points! They are not even paying me to say this!

I was so excited to go to the zoo because I love zoos dearly, but we were really not sure when the best time to go was since I was getting more pregnant by the second.

So, naturally, we decided to go when I was a puffy, rotund, beautiful 39 weeks pregnant. To a zoo that is entirely built upon the steepest hill in all the land. All of it. The whole thing is uphill until you decide to leave, but by then you need someone to just roll you down because seriously.

Anyway.

We got to go with some friends from the philosophy department who also have an adorable wee lad with curly blond(er than Aed’s) locks. The downside is they are both crazy toddlers, so when I saw their little curly heads together as they were looking at some animals, I didn’t move fast enough for the camera and the moment was forever recorded only in my brain! Sad.

So we wandered (and some of us had to push others of us up the never-ending hill) and enjoyed animals like this one:

Which kicks off our theme for the day: Most of the animals hate us and hide when we come to see them! Maybe we make too much eye contact? I don’t know.

So then there was a monkey show. I’m sure it was fabulous, but it was hard to tell because I was a little distracted..

A certain relative of monkeys was adamant that he get to play with (read: trampled by) the big kids on the big kid playground. At this point, he hated the zoo and had still never seen a monkey in real life because there were obviously more important things to worry over.

But then we found other monkeys.

And he thought the zoo might be ok after all. And then I started to question the goodness of the zoo when a couple of monkeys got frisky right in front of my precious babe’s virgin eyes! And he watched them.. yes he did. I pretended it was no big deal (yes I had to pretend, because I do not have the level of maturity (or desensitizedness?) it takes to think that’s no big deal) and considered how I am not looking forward to those conversations in the coming years..

We also saw pinguinos! Which are so very much my favorite! Though I have to say, it was very evident that they are birds because their poop was everywhere, which was kind of gross. But then they made up for it when they all marched around the zoo and were super cute during their special afternoon penguin march.

We ate a delightful lunch and then someone started getting sleepy. We came prepared, but alas, there was no sleeping to be had in the buggy OR in the car on the way home. He’s made of steel, this child. He will make sure he doesn’t sleep at any cost! He is determined.. And also so cute..

I LOVE to see him snuggle his ‘boo bankie’. Oh it melts my ever-lovin’ heart.

Then we saw these ginormous things.. sea lions? Maybe?

And these red river hogs..

And this is where I said, ‘Aed, can you make a pig face?’

And he said, ‘Sure, mama!’

And thus concludes our trip to the zoo.. But I do feel I should say, the Edinburgh Zoo has many large and interesting animals that we either 1) could not see because they hate us and were hiding, or 2) could not see because Ian couldn’t heave my girth any further up the never-ending hill. Why did they have to put the cool ones all the way at the top? And how did we not know that there was a tram we could have taken to the top and then walked down at a leisurely pace? Maybe next time..

Just an aside, pygmie hippos.. not that small. Also not that cute, and very smelly.

Brotherly love coming up next!