Zoo Impromptu

We went to the zoo today, mainly to get out and enjoy this weather and take my mind off all of what Grandma is going through, post-heart surgery, a thousand-plus miles away.

The kids did their part to entertain. Reni nearly launched himself into the duck pond and narrowly missed getting bit by a huge peacock who thought his finger was a gummy worm. Both of them enjoyed the stroller-free morning by running amok and keeping me from needing that gym membership I am not really psyched about starting. Reni played with his own poop. I'm always struck by the fact that my children are more zoo-like than anything you'll find at the actual zoo.

It is spring break for several of the private and charter schools in Albuquerque, and the zoo was filled, uncharacteristically, with high schoolers (the nerdy, sweet kind that you want your kids to turn into because they prefer Disney marathons over heroin, for instance). We were watching a chimpanzee swinging in the fake trees when Anika disappeared around the corner into a small amphitheater I wasn't aware existed. A group of six high schoolers was there, goofing around and singing songs from a musical they'd just performed (they were singing "Nine to Five" and there was a lot of dancing and clapping and laughing going on). Anika and Reni were entranced. Anika giggled and ran right up to the group and started dancing. Reni joined in. Anika asked them if they knew 'Frozen,' and she led them in singing "Let it Go." She ran around, she twirled, she laughed, pretended she had a microphone, took a bow. They thought she was quite the ham, and couldn't believe that she knew every single word to the song. Reni was a few steps behind but also clearly enjoying himself, singing along a bit shyly and with a wide smile, until he discovered a spider on one of the concrete steps. Then he lost interest in the Frozen song and ambled up and down the stairs searching for more spiders.