Pre-Zoo Animal Visit

Visiting the zoo is on our bucket list, but I wasn't sure if Little C would enjoy it or not. Sure, he loves our dog and cat and pretty much any animal he's come in contact with, but I wasn't sure if it would be worth paying admission to the zoo or not.  Can an 8 month old really enjoy the zoo? I wasn't sure.

To see if he would be interested, I thought I'd take him to Brunswick Nurseries, a local nursery.  They are well known for their trees and plants, but also have a little petting farm - a local favourite among children.  It would be a good test run for the zoo. I hadn't been there in over 10 years, so C and I decided to check it out.

First up, the pigs! When reading a farm book, the pigs have been C's favourite, and the real thing didn't disappoint.  He thought the pigs were so funny.  He laughed and laughed and laughed. I'm not sure why they were so funny to him, but he loved them. They just sat there looking at him. Maybe they had some sort of piggy-little boy inside joke. 

Next, goats. As goats usually are, they were very curious! Can you tell someone to our left had a carrot for them? I could tell C. liked these too. They weren't funny, like the pigs, but he was mesmerized. I think it was because they were so interested in him.

There were more animals than I expected there to be - sheep, a donkey, llama, cow, peacocks, chickens (and a rooster), bunnies, ducks.  A wide variety for his first encounter with non-household animals. 

Donkey and Cow sniffing around

My favourites were the peacocks.  There was one male and a few females.  The male had his feathers spread the entire time we were there, shaking them for the females.  Sadly, the ladies did not seem interested. I don't think I've ever seen peacocks with their feathers up in real life. I only wish he had more room to move around.  Hopefully he gets time in the bigger open area.   

Duck pond. This guy was huge!

One of two groups of ducklings. Cute!

After seeing the animals, we took a short walk through the woods.  They have a nice little landscaped pond, with goldfish and waterfalls.

I think they call this tree the Octopus tree. There are quite a few trees like this one along the trail, but this is the biggest.  Imagine, all that is normally in the earth under each tree we see!

It was a great hour at Brunswick Nurseries.  We were also there to find some flowers to replace some seeds we planted, but didn't grow.  Sadly, we didn't find anything, but they did have some great looking plants.  (I guess I should have put more effort into my gardening before the end of July!)  Overall, I'd say our pre-zoo visit was a success. Now we just have to make our way to the big zoo!