There are things Alice says and does that are instantly recognizable. That are familiar as skin.
“Oh,” I think, “She gets that from me.” Or, “Right now,” I
tell her. “You look just like your dad.”
And, yet again, there are times she reminds me that she is
not a copy, not an echo. She is someone new, completely.Since she has been old enough to notice them, for example, Alice has been drawn to animals in a way that I cannot entirely comprehend.
Now. I like animals. Quite a bit, sometimes. I have had
pets, and I have loved them. I have observed animals outdoors, in their own animal
spaces, and I have been fascinated.
But I have never had an affinity for animals the way my
daughter seems to.
She was 8- or so months-old the first time I took her to
Micke Grove Zoo. Even then, she wasn’t content to watch the animals from her
stroller – she wanted me to lift her up, as close to the enclosures as we could
get. She pointed and laughed and clapped.
(It’s a modest zoo. There’s a lot Micke Grove doesn’t have,
but Alice is too young to see that. In a way, the size and scale are perfect
for a 2-year-old).
Still, I worried the lorikeet exhibit (it’s open now through
Sept. 3) might be too much for her – too loud, too messy, too close. I was wrong.
Lorikeets are medium-sized parrots
with tongues specially shaped for eating nectar and soft fruits. They are
social and spirited. Micke Grove is hosting more than 50 of them in walk-through
aviary that allows the kind of hands-on interaction that usually isn’t possible
with zoo animals. Entry into the exhibit is included with the price of
admission ($4 for adults, $2 for kids ages 3 to 17. Kids 2 and younger are
free. Parking is $5). A cup of nectar to feed the birds costs an additional $1.
Every time a lorikeet drank from Alice’s cup, she squealed
with that high-pitched, super-concentrated joy you really only hear out of
toddlers. It was the best.
