We have been visiting the stingrays at the zoo weekly, if possible, and yesterday we decided to ask about the baby stingray, or as Brendan pronounces it, "beebie" stingray. I would like to introduce you to PHIN (short for Phinehas), an 18-month old male stingray. Isn't he darling?!
Phin is VERY social, for an aquatic creature! He will come right to the side of the pool and wave at us and let us pet him for quite a long time.
However, yesterday when Brendan and I visited little Phin we found out from the zoo trainers that he has been sick! As I watched him swimming, he didn't quite act like his normal self--swimming quite erratically … but still very friendly. The trainers cautioned us NOT to pet Phin yesterday. He has been under veterinary care and the vet thinks he has been overly stimulated by all of the attention and petting he has received.
Brendan was very concerned when he heard the "beebie" stingray was sick. The only way I could explain it to Brendan was to tell him that Phin had a tummy-ache. Brendan made sad faces and watched him carefully.
Little Phin came quite close to us … and we had to try VERY hard not to pet him! He is so cute!
Brendan loves the stingrays. He watches them for the longest time.
Brendan is standing at the best place at the pool for touching the stingrays … it is a little curvy corner place where the stingrays hang around and sail past on a regular basis.
See how gentle Brendan is? He is a very good listener and tries really hard to follow directions--which is quite remarkable for a three-year-old.
I love Brendan's expressions!
He is just so delighted by these creatures. When Phin would swim away, Brendan would ask: "Where did the beebie go?" in his small and sweet voice.
We are kind of in a rut at the zoo, but I don't mind. All of the kiddos like "hands on" exhibits. Brendan loves these budgie birds so much.
He is pretty careful about these little birds.
He loves to have one sit on his feeding stick ...
This little face! I could just eat him up.
The picture below cracks me up and deserves a good caption …
A couple of times Brendan tried to put his hand around one of these little birds … he wanted to touch them so badly!
We did go and visit the penguins TWO times yesterday. They were not very active while we were there, and we watched them for a long time. Without any prompting whatsoever, Brendan began imitating them and did an almost perfect penguin walk with his hands extended down at his sides and his feet shuffling along--but of course, I missed that picture.
My happy Little Fellow ….
What a joy you are!
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