1st School Field Trip

Today was Jocelyn's FIRST school field trip! :)

Where did they go?

To the Topeka Zoo!!!

 

We saw lions and tigers and bears -- OH MY!!

 

Ok, not really. Well, those animals were there of course, but they were too far away for Jocelyn to actually see. That's okay though.

 

Jocelyn and I traveled to the zoo in our van with the intentions of meeting the rest of the class there. With this whole Botox and no head control thing, I would not even entertain the idea of her riding the school bus. The combination of the vibration and the noise in general on the bus would have caused Jocelyn to totally shut down before we even got to the zoo.

 

Even though the zoo is twice as far from our house than the school, we arrived even earlier than on a normal preschool day. Guess we were both excited for the field trip.

 

We ended up having quite a bit of time to kill before the school bus arrived. Luckily for Jocelyn, she got in her morning nap, and we had a little time to take pictures and play together.

{I sure do love our baby-girl!!!}

{Pure ooey-gooey sweetness!}



There were SO MANY kids and adults at the zoo today.

 

IT.WAS.A.MADHOUSE!!!

 

Apparently, going to the zoo at the end of the zoo year is the popular thing to do. There were even school buses from the Lawrence school districts. Craziness I tell -- just absolute (slightly control) chaos! haha As kids walked by us, they were intrigued with Jocie's wheelchair to say the least. One kid pointed and yelled "whoooooa, look at her stroller! Its all sorts of souped up!" hahaha Too funny!

{A fraction of the waiting line!}

When we first got into the zoo, the first up on the list were the Orangutans. There was a HUGE one in there that I'd never seen before, and all the kids were excited to see him/her, except they were annoyed that it was so lazy -- made me laugh.

We cruised on through the zoo and found a cave-like area. Inside the "cave" was a pretty waterfall in which Jocie loved. Not sure if it was because she could actually SEE it since it was in motion, or if it was because the sound was interesting and soothing. Maybe both.

As a class, we bobbed and weaved through the waves of little people to see the lions, gorillas, elephants, hippos, etc. None of which particularly appealed to Jocelyn, but that was more than likely because she couldn't really see them.

During this period of the zoo she sort of shut down for a little bit.

When we got to the giraffes, she seemed to perk up and was interested in them. It helped that they were still inside and in a small space.

 

Another area of the zoo that was entirely too cramped, but that Jocelyn had fun in, was the rain forest section. We didn't actually explore all around in there like the other kids (absolutely too overwhelming), but we found a little spot, sang a few songs and played with different colored and textured leaves. She really liked this part I think.

 

By this time, all the kids were hungry and needed a break. Yay for snack time!

And after snack (and no, Jocelyn didn't "eat" a snack, but she still sits with them), she was almost all tapped out for the day as you can see from the picture below.

Right before it was time to leave, we all hit up one more spot -- The Gators!!!

The little baby gators were the cutest! These were approximately a year old.

And wouldn't you know, little miss texture sensitive girl was WILLING to touch a baby gator!!! Say whaaaaat? I wish I would've had my camera ready the first time, but by the third time, I snapped a picture. Not the best, but that's okay. Her normal response to something like this would be to cry, totally resist, or make this god awful butt hole looking face hahaha.

It might not be a big deal to some, but I was so pleased that Jocelyn was watching the other kids, willing to touch the leaves and gators, and overall, that she didn't sleep through the whole zoo visit. We went with some friends last summer and she slept the entire time. The time after that, Justin and I took her, and she was so upset she vomited the entire time. :( Definitely not a fun time for anyone!

She tends to sleep when she doesn't want to engage, is overwhelmed/over-stimulated or simply because she tires so easily.

It was a great day for a trip to the zoo and great memories were made!!