What's Your Name?

We made more friends at the zoo today. Or at least we saw some old friends, but now we know their names, since Makela is obsessed with knowing what to call all creatures great and small.

We now know that the alpha male orangutan (identifiable by his big, round cheeks) is named Clyde. He has a VERY playful adult male offspring, named Satu -- meaning "first born" (not sure of the language -- Swahili perhaps?). He is father to Chinta, only four years old and still very small. Satu and Chinta play all day long, except for when Chinta goes inside and the siamangs come out into the enclosure -- then Satu plays with THEM. We also saw Indah, Chinta's mother, and she mostly just hangs out in a tree or a hammock all day, only coming down when Chinta "screams bloody murder," as the zoo employee told us. And the elderly female of the bunch is Janie -- she is about 46 years old and was born in the wild. She used to get out and walk around the zoo, mingling with visitors, but the enclosure remodel and her age now prohibits this.

Today was also a good day in the petting paddock. Makela actually ASKED one of the goats his name. Seriously -- she walked up to him and looked him in the eye, saying "What your name?" I had to tell her that he speaks goat, and not our language, so that's why he couldn't answer her. But the zookeeper kindly introduced us, and thus we met Firecracker, one of the goats, and discovered the rabbits' names: Darth Vader (black -- go figure), Luke, and Leia. Makela also tried showing another goat how to play with a ball attached to a chain, after he scratched his face on it. Not sure that he was all that interested.

Makela was also thrilled with her "treat" that she earned for sleeping through the night. She wanted a chocolate ice cream cone, specifically from the zoo, so that's why we went in the first place. She enjoyed every lick AND the sugar cone! Along with her hot dog, few potato chips, and animal cookies, it made for a super healthy lunch today! Okay, not really. But a kid's gotta live once in a while, no? Plus, she chowed down on some "California Cuties" in the morning (the clementines that are so popular here right now), along with a whole bunch of blueberries later in the day. It all balances out, right?