Handy & Capable

    Earlier this year in April, we went to the Tampa Zoo for the second time, taking advantage of our annual passes. There were a few things we didn't see when we went the first time in January-- which I.. did not.. post about..  *Long Napoleon Dynamite sigh*

   *Spends four minutes quickly swiping through the January zoo photos* I already have 42 April zoo photos to post, but okay- whats 21 more! Do keep in mind that this blog title refers to the April photos, and this first family photo (below) is one of those favorites from April. :)

   Starting over --

   Back in January, I was eager to take Emma to the Tampa Zoo. I actually put money aside in her savings account for tickets around Christmas 2020 because I had wanted to take her last year, but for some reason that never happened. Once we moved to Sarasota, and were even closer to Tampa, I told Michael that I was definitely getting us tickets, and the annual passes were only ten dollars more than a day pass! And it includes holiday events later in the year, which I still keep reminding him about. 

   These are pictures from our day on Saturday, January 15, 2022:
Emma got in for free (both times -yay!) then we waited in a short line to get our annual passes and a map, which Emma held on to for us. I was surprised that, at four and a half years old, she was still more interested in the the low hanging leaves than watching the animals. Especially the monkeys- they are so entertaining! One of the orangutan moms was carrying a tiny baby around in her arms while climbing up and down the ropes.

   This area was in the Kid Zone. If you look very carefully in the emu picture, you can see a kangaroo way in the distance (over the emu's back). I wish he had been closer. The Brevard Zoo had the best kangaroo area that you could walk into and pet the kangaroos that were jumping all around you!! They also had a petting zoo area, but that was a let down because all of the animals were really far away too and by "all" I mean there were maybe two goats. We didn't go to the Kid Zone when we went back in April. Sometimes I want to go to the zoo by myself since I can handle the heat better than Michael and Emma. Then I can go on that "baby tiger" coaster and the Roaring Springs water ride without them waiting for me.

Distracted by more cool leaves after looking at the penguins for 0.84 seconds! ;)

Watching the healthy manatees eat the lettuce in the water.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the manatees underwater after going through the reptile area.

   Now on to the second Tampa Zoo visit on Sunday, April 17th, 2022!! This day was pretty hot, even though we got there right when they opened at 10am, so Emma was not in a smiley mood. But she wasn't crying or crabbing either. Just going with the flow like a good sport. For this visit, one of the main things I wanted to try to do was the Safari Jungle ride. Last time it said the wait was an hour, but luckily in April it was much shorter. But we walked through some other areas first. Also, I always like to dress Emma for the occasion. It's hard to tell with her bib in the way, but in the January pictures, I put a cute cheetah shirt on her. In April she was wearing a shirt with a bunch of zebras (and one unicorn) on it- with a giraffe bib! Double the fun!

   I got really excited when we passed a new open area that was decked out for Easter with a sign saying you could get a picture with a certain character. I don't think it was the Easter Bunny, but someone similar. I was like, "Ooooh! Yes! Let's do that!" But as we walked over, an employee with a clip board asked the family in front of us if they had a reservation. Ugh, of course. I turned around signaling for Michael to turn the stroller around and we took these pictures in front of the Easter egg sign instead. I look forward to Emma's "first official Easter" and doing egg hunts next April since she'll be able to do a little bit of stepping/walking then. Another couple who also didn't have a reservation took the family photo for us, and then Michael took a photo for them.

   In the reptile and aquarium area, I liked looking at the tiny Dwarf Seahorses. I told Emma, "These are your seahorses, Emma!" If this is the first blog post you've ever read about our daughter, you should know that she has primordial dwarfism. In the photo below, Michael is pointing them out to her. I was so happy that finally, two months before her fifth birthday, she was finally showing an interest in the animals. She was reaching her hand out toward the manatee and the turtle!!

   Somehow in January, we had missed a lot of the "Florida" area, as the park is broken up into six different zones. So it was fun stumbling into a whole new areas with panthers, different bears from the one we saw at the beginning, flamingos, and other birds. And wolves!

   At this point we got in line for the Habari Preserve Safari ride. There was the regular line and then the handicap line, which I opened the door for, because clearly that is us, with Emma's medical stroller. Michael seemed hesitant for us to be waiting there and we got into a slight disagreement. After a few minutes a female employee, who clearly could see Emma's trach and ventilator and everything let us know it would be a few minutes because not every jeep had the handicap lift. I thanked her and assured her that we were fine waiting. Michael told her that if it was an inconvenience, he could leave Emma's stroller at the gate and carry all of her medical equipment up the stairs on the back, or we could just not go on the safari at all. I wasn't sure why he was being so weird about everything. "Calm down," I told him, "They make handicapable arrangements for people in situations like us- so we are able to enjoy the fun just like everyone else. There is no problem in waiting ten minutes for the next available jeep with a lift. It would be more inconvenient having to carry all of the heavy medical equipment. It's fine." Plus, we were the only ones in that handicap line anyway.

   They locked Emma's stroller into the jeep and Michael held Emma during the ride.

   The ride ended just in time for her inhaler puffs. Michael and Emma waited in the shade of the Africa area, kind of across from where the giraffe, zebra and elephants are able to roam while I walked around and took some pictures of a few other animals. I'll need to bring the Canon and zoom lens to get some good National Geographic type shots like I got at the Jacksonville zoo over five years ago!

pygmy hippo = mini hippo!

   When I got back to them, just after Noon, they were both just sitting there staring off, looking hot and tired. Emma was ready to leave (those two photos are her signing "all done"), but Michael and I were hungry and I was secretly hoping to get an animal shaped pretzel since I saw a kid get one earlier and it looked "fun". I'm all about fun! Michael said that was fine and he got an icee drink. The pretzel tasted a lot more like a big, flat Pillsbury biscuit with salt on it. It did come with a cheesy dipping sauce. Still fun, but next time I'd get a regular pretzel.

   A few other non-zoo related topics that I wanted to add in this post are:

   1) I tried to get Emma registered for kindergarten!! I am so excited for her to start school. She is such a big girl!! The school board did tell me that since we currently live in a different county than where our house is being built, that I have to wait until we are moved into our house to get her registered. So I will call back again in October, and then I have to get a bunch of papers filled out by the pediatrician since we want her in the Hospital Homebound program. That is for kids with mental (or in Emma's case- medical) issues, and other delays, who need a teacher to come to the house for learning, instead of being at school. The pediatrician has to explain in detail why Emma qualifies for this program. I'm not sure how long all of the paperwork will take to get processed, or if a teacher will be available right away. However, we did find out which school Emma is zoned for, which is exciting as well! It's called Nunyabiz Elementary. I'll write another post about school once she starts!! :)

  2) Hannah, from the UK company SWNS, who helped with our documentary about Emma in February, emailed me again on August 1st. I hadn't heard from her professionally in a few months, but we follow each other on social media now. She contacted me saying that she wanted to have an Instagram phone call because she was working on another article for a different magazine. She needed to go over some updated summer details and to read her new article to me to make sure all of her facts were correct. I spoke to her on Thursday of last week (August 4th) for about 40 minutes. She wrote it in first person, and her summary of everything we have been though was so well written. It's crazy to think about all we have been through with Emma, especially during her first 11 months of life in the NICU.

   Hannah told me that this new piece is for a women's weekly magazine called Pick Me Up, which gets published every Thursday in the UK, and Emma's article is called "Small but Mighty." She also told me that it was her last week with SWNS! Now she is working on a consumer show. I'm trying to see if Hannah can email me what she wrote so I can share it on here since I won't have another way of getting the article. Too bad it wasn't published while Michael was in London in May! He could have bought a few copies. 

   PS- I just watched our five minute documentary, "Part of Me", again. << You can watch it on Vimeo with this link. It's so good! Definitely check it out if you haven't already seen it a handful of times! ;)

   3) I wanted to share a sweet text that someone very special sent to me recently. In the previous post I mentioned that Words of Affirmation is one of my top Love Languages, so this meant a lot to me. Since I tend to reread these posts from time to time, I want to make sure I can come back and see this. She said, "One of the things I love about you is your contentment and joy in life. Finding beauty in all things around you and celebrating the smallest to the largest things in life. Thank you for letting God's light shine out to all who surround you."