Lucas Camilo

Lucas braved the heat today and took his first trip to the zoo.  The low temperature last night was 81 (with humidity), so by the time we got out of the house this morning it was 90 degrees and getting hotter.  But Lucas’s grandma Susan is only in town for a few days, and Krista insisted that it’s summer and we should get outside… so Lucas reluctantly agreed.  (We went without Burke since he was at work madly getting ready for the big launch of his immigration project tomorrow.)  Lucas was groggy and sweaty but a good sport about the short-but-hot walk over to the zoo, and once we got into the shaded walkways he was a little bit happier.  He refused to look up at the groundhogs or the ponies, though, and his eyelids drooped with sweat as we pushed him around in his stroller.

But then we found the extremely air-conditioned Small Mammals exhibit, went inside for a moment of relief, and low and behold, Lucas perked up.  Together with another large family happy for the respite we wandered through and saw porcupines, elephant-shrews (so cute!), meerkats, and armadillos.  Lucas stared through the glass fascinated.  When the other kids caught up to us, they climbed over the front wheels of Lucas’s stroller to get a better look at the animals.  Although they looked for a minute at the tubing coming out of Lucas’s neck, it was nice to have young kids unfazed and not self-conscious about being around Lucas.  Their parents were great too – straightforward with questions regarding Lucas’s age and if he’d had a complicated birth.

After watching the armadillo pace back and forth for a while, Krista couldn’t resist explaining to Lucas that wild animals aren’t really meant to be in cages (although when the day comes that he understands what we’re saying we may not rain on his zoo parade so quickly).  Lucas seemed to have had enough anyway, so we walked back home.  It felt like another tiny set of victories – the first time Lucas has been away from home so long without both his parents or one of us and a nurse.  The first time he’s had strangers crawling over the wheels of his stroller.  And of course, his first trip to the zoo!

In other news, we want to congratulate Krista’s cousin Merissa and her husband Geoff on the birth of their baby – Mara Michelle Kelly – last week.  We look forward to the day Lucas can meet his growing extended family on the west coast.