Roar!

To help Collin celebrate Halloween this year we took him to our local Zoo for the zoo boo! a Halloween event where you get to see the animals, do a little trick or treating and not have to worry about being out in the old. Collin dressed up as a little lion and off we went on a beautiful Friday evening to Como Park Zoo.
Once we made our way into the zoo, Collin started to notice all the other people in costumes. He was a bit ambivalent about approaching all of the different characters and seemed to stand back to take it all in. For a few particular instances he was willing to get close or touch the volunteers dressed up as everything you could nearly think of: pirates, characters, animals....

I love that the zoo boo is such an inviting place that we could visit long before bed-time, in the daylight. All of the volunteers were so kind and helpful with toddlers. I loved watching Collin respond to them, trying to determine if the person inside the costume was genuine or a guise. We saw lots of pumpkins, scarecrows, ghosts and ghouls- all of which had smiling faces and weren't in the least bit scary.


We also visited Thomas the Train, Charlie from the Peanuts Gang and a few more characters from toys and Drew's and my childhood.
We really enjoyed watching Collin interact with the other kids there and start to make some adventurous on his leap. It's amazing to see how much he's grown since he's really started to walk (read RUN) and he's transferred that confidence to social interactions and exploring new environments. We really loved watching him think about each new person and decide if he was or wasn't going to approach them, touch them or just offer the tiniest of smiles.


Its hard to believe that next year we'll have two little boys to bring to the zoo boo, one that's 2 and 1/2 years old, and one that is a bit over 9 months. I feel like I can barely remember what 9 months was like with Collin as so much has happened in such a brief period of time. Nevertheless, we'll be wandering along the zoo boo with a double stroller and double the excitement next year.