A Day at the Zoo - We Learned So Much!

Field trips to the zoo can be SOOOO much fun!!! And oh yea, educational too! Yesterday, I went with Avery's entire Kindergarten class to the zoo. I had a babysitter (aka Hector) for Isaac. So, I was able to give Avery my full attention. And for most of the day, Avery seemed to actually want my full attention. :-) So, it was tons of fun and the weather wasn't even all that hot, which made the day even more enjoyable.

We saw tons of really cool animals. But everyone agreed that the gorillas were the best!
Avery was waving at the largest gorilla, and he came right up to her!
He was SO big!!! When we came to some monkeys, Avery asked me what kind of monkeys we were looking at. I didn't know. I told her that we needed to go read the sign to find out. And this is what we saw: Mona Monkey! Avery started yelling at the top of her lungs, "Everybody, come look! Come look! This monkey has the same name as my Nana." To explain... Nana is what we call my Mom. Mona is her first name. Knowing this fact, Avery thought it was so cool that the monkey's name was Mona. And she obviously felt the need to share her excitement with everyone else visiting the zoo that day. Mom, I wish you could have been there. It was so cute! Avery and I read together the little blurb that said, "A baby mona looks like it's mother. Who do you look like?" And Avery asked me, "Do you look like Nana? Do I look like you, Mama?"

I guess it's funny that I've never really put much thought into who Avery looks like. That's probably because I've always just assumed she looked like her Daddy because of her dark eyes and hair. But her questions got me thinking, and I told her that we would have some fun with this when we got home. I love keeping old pictures, and I love looking at them and comparing them. So, yesterday afternoon Avery and I sat on my bed and pulled out several pictures to look at and compare. These are the pictures that Avery and I liked the best.

My Mom's High School Senior Picture:

My High School Senior Picture:

My mom, in her mid 30s:

Me, in my mid 30s:

My Mom:

Me:
Avery:
You get the picture (pun intended)! :-) Needless to say, seeing the resemblance did my heart good on so many levels. I think my Mom and Avery are beautiful! But for me, well, I struggle... Having 3 babies in 5 years and aging in general just did something to me, not just physically, but to my self-esteem too. Looking at these pictures helped me to realize that maybe I need to stop being so hard on myself, and maybe I need to start looking at things from a different perspective. Maybe I need to start looking at myself in the same way I see Avery... the way I see my mom... the way I hope and pray Avery will always see herself... beautiful, inside and out! Who knew you could learn so much from a day at the zoo?