A day at the zoo!

We haven’t visited the Singapore Zoological Gardens for a while, and when we got the memo that Jerry’s school has an outing, I made the husband take leave with me to attend the session. After all, daddy’s gotta be involved too right? (p.s. I didn’t realise that monday was a PH then and we accidentally clocked in a super long weekend!)

Jerry was super excited on the school bus. He wasn’t all the usual grumpy him when he told him we are going to the zoo! He must have thought it was a super happy day that daddy and mummy are coming along with him.

It was a half day trip and we didn’t manage to see that many animals, unfortunately. But, Jerry seems really familiar with the animals and kept asking for the elephant. It was super funny.

We stood around the polar bear exhibit and actually lost our class teachers and his classmates. We had no idea where everyone went, and I think they were a little disorganized because they didn’t ensure everyone moved on together and they didn’t brief the parents on the routes/itinerary for the day. We were lost for a while and found another class from the same school and tagged along with them but I was a little bummed that Jerry wasn’t able to share the experience with his own classmates. I did notice that not many of the parents in his class came along and the toddler class that was tagged with them required a lot of assistance and hand holding so the teachers probably missed us out.

Jerry’s face was totally plastered on the glass while watching, and guess what? Daddy is super fascinated and kept asking me if we have seen the polar bear before… (ikr, I have 3 boys)

I like that Daddy held on to Jerry’s shoulders while the polar bear was coming and told him gently, “Don’t be scared ok?”. It is quite unusual of him, but I am thankful that he did that to assure Jerry even though Jerry wasn’t afraid at all.

Jerry recently loves to make monkey faces into the camera. I wonder who taught him that… or have I taught him unknowingly? Errm, I just realised that there isn’t any chimps in the picture, but let’s just pretend there is ok? We headed over to the Splash Safari next and that’s where we caught up with his class. There weren’t any seats left around that area and we had to sit in the splash zone, in front of his classmates.

I don’t know to laugh or cry. The husband took the map and shielded themselves from the water splash. My legs and shoes got all wet, but my body is still relatively dry. It was really funny to watch though.

We took the tram and caught some animals like the giraffe, zebras, lions and rhinoceros. Jerry was really observant. He pointed out to the road divider on the roads and told me its “Zebra!”. It might have been a small thing, but mummy here is swelling with pride with his keen observation.

We also ventured over to Kidzworld and Jerry got really excited because he got to feed the goats! I think the poor goats seemed really famished. They were fighting each other for food and at some point, got really violent and frightened all the kids.

Jerry kept feeding the leaves non stop and he was even willing to feed the really small pieces of leaves to the goats without the fear that he will be bitten. The husband and me just watched in utter amazement at his bravery. He also started giving more leaves to smaller goats so that it gets to eat more.

We caught sight of a horse carriage on our way out. What luck! Jerry just stood mesmerized by it till it passed us by and we proceed to our lunch venue.

While resting and waiting for our lunch, this happened. One of the mums took out her mobile phones and let her kid watch youtube on the mobile.. the next thing I know, Jerry joined him quietly by the side, watching silently and just keeping himself entertained.

This was a proud moment for me. Since Jerry was very young, I have always taught him to watch computers, tablets, mobile phones, television at a distance to protect his eyes. And when I saw this sight, I knew all my teachings haven’t been in vain. There was once where his classmates pushed him and he got too close to the phone for my comfort. I went to whisper in his ears and he just moved by 30cm backwards silently without much of a struggle. I was very impressed with him! One of the mums witnessed the sight and asked if it was because he is too close.

I didn’t capture any picture at lunch since my phone battery died and my camera battery also died (forgot to charge!) but we had a great time watching Jerry interact with his classmates and his teachers. He took our fries and went around distributing them to his classmates, one fry at a time. He even fed one of the parents and I found it really adorable.

We ended the school outing with an eskimo’s kiss and a class photo and I figured we need to come back soon! The last time we visited the zoo was eons ago (Jerry looking really cute in the old pictures), and that is if our River Safari trip is not counted! P.s. The husband isn’t really into outdoor heat/sun/sweating so I am sure he is frowning if he ever reads this.

As a parent, have you ever tagged along your kids’ school outing? Did you enjoy it and see a side of your kid that you never see at home? I sure did.