The hayride was available right at Rainey Gate and we were seated next to none other than Iron Man!!! (We'd brought Alex's costume just in case he wanted to wear it.) To our surprise, he was more thrilled to sit next to Iron Man (who was about 6, therefore, probably the REAL Iron Man). Unfortunately, the hayride turned out to be a little too haunted for Alex. The ride through the kinda scary village was enough for him when he saw the huge spiders and ramshackle houses. When actors in make-up burst out of nowhere onto the truck, he was done. It took some time to calm him down, though the treats at the end of the ride seemed to help.
After that, we decided to take it easy on the Boo at the Zoo particular events. We avoided the 'dark' exhibits too.
Alex's spirits were lifted when he saw Batman, though. Batman appeared to be all of about 5 or 6, but Alex was sure he was the one to ask about Superman. 'Excuse me', Alex said to the pint-sized superhero 'I'm looking for Superman. Have you seen him?' Before the confused Caped Crusader could answer, Superman happened by. 'I see him!' Alex declared 'Thank you!' And off he ran.
Poor Superman was a taller 3 year old who was positively terrified by Alex's star struck hero worship. He paced around Superman with a shy smile, as if he was seeing a real superhero in person. We explained to the adults with Superman that Alex was sure that he was meeting the real thing and we tried to explain that to Superman, who was overwhelmed by it all. Thankfully, Alex didn't seem to notice that Superman wasn't exactly speaking in response.
After seeing his heroes, Alex seemed to be over the hayride.
He declared that he wanted to ride the Bug Carousel, as usual, but he also wanted to ride the Monorail! That's a first for him. We decided that we had to get to Wild Asia first instead of last, like we usually wind up doing.
On the way there, we went through the Butterfly Garden, where Alex agreed to pose with some photo billboards - looking adorable as a Zebra Swallowtail butterfly. Once at Wild Asia, we got to see a puppet show. Then we headed off to the Monorail. Alex was really into seeing the animals this time around. After the tour guide had said that their juvenile rhino was celebrating a birthday that month, Alex even sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
We got some lunch there at Wild Asia, where Alex asked for a giraffe "hoopdey-hoop" straw. Then he did a wonderfully Big Boy thing. He used the public potty with Daddy! Yay! (We promised him a new superhero for that.)
Alex loved seeing Jungle World again, even though he had to be reminded that he loves their pond-like aquarium with its lower-than-water level seating. (Lots of "dark" to get through to get there.) He did want to leave and only the promise of seeing tigers did the trick.
After a walk that was longer than Alex would have liked, we got to see no fewer than SIX tiger cubs of different species frolicking and wrestling in their exhibits. Alex growled like tigers do and pretended that he was a tiger cub.
More to see on our way to the store, where we promised Alex a souvenir. He preferred his ride on the Bug Carousel and the giant Halloween cupcake in the cafe. We wound up staying at the zoo until closing.
In order to keep our promise of getting his superhero, we actually went to the Galleria in White Plains taking the buses all the way there. We couldn't find what we were looking for, but a very sleepy Alex just didn't care at that point. Since he already found Iron Man, Batman and Superman at the zoo that day, I guess he figured he'd see Captain America some other day.
Yawn...Bye Zoo! See you next time!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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