(no subject)

[the_rck]

On May 4th, we took Delia to a members only event at the Hands On Museum. They had a petting zoo in. We got there as close to opening as we could because we were afraid of crowds. As it turned out, we were right. We had about a five minute wait to get to the animals; by the time we left the building about forty-five minutes later, the line was so long that I expect it took at least half an hour to get through.

The petting zoo consisted of rescued farm animals. They had a miniature horse (I'm not sure how this differs from a pony, but apparently it does), a llama, a couple of goats, a piglet, a bunch of rabbits and other critters. Delia was terrified of them and refused to go near. I think that part of it was the press of people, but part of it was definitely the animals themselves. To our surprise, when we went into another area to see the reptiles, Delia was fascinated. She touched one lizard several times and reached for the turtle but couldn't quite get there. We suspect that she'd have liked the gopher snake if the crowd hadn't been too thick to get through.

The true hit of the evening, though, was the stairs. Delia climbed up and down and up and down until I was exhausted. When my legs gave out, we took her to the toddler play area and let her run there. She enjoyed that, too.

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

Yay Delia having fun!

Google tells me that a miniature horse must be proportioned exactly like a full-sized horse, but no taller than 34" "at the last hairs of the mane". A pony is a general term for a small horse and not as formally defined. But I'm pretty sure ponies are quite a bit bigger than miniature horses.

[the_rck]

Interesting! All I knew was that the lady who was with the miniature horse, protecting it from the horde of kids, didn't like it being called a pony. I'll have to bear the distinction in mind. I suspect that a miniature horse is better suited to a venue with lots of toddler (Delia's only 32", so the horse was still taller than she).

That was a good evening. Delia throws herself into the stuff she enjoy so whole heartedly that it's a marvel to see.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

How is Delia with cats and dogs and other furry critters? I know she loves playing with human hair, but the fur of other mammals is different. (Except poodles and chinchillas. I have no idea why they're different.) If she seems to really object to approaching the furry ones, she might know something you don't. Especially because it's so hard to test babies for allergies before their immune systems finish developing. I may, of course, be projecting inappropriately...it's entirely possible that she was just nervous about the crowd and she'd be perfectly happy to play with one critter at a time in a quieter space. She seems to be growing into quite a lively little explorer. You must be very proud.

[the_rck]

With dogs, Delia tends toward fascinated hesitation. She doesn't want the dogs licking her, nuzzling her or otherwise initiating contact and can't figure out how to touch them without risking them moving on her. She hasn't encountered many dogs, and most of them are a lot bigger than she is (the exception is Scott's parents' dog who's pretty small). She gets this look that says, "It moves! I don't know what it's doing!"

I have no idea about cats. I'm sufficiently allergic that we tend to avoid visiting people with cats.