Yesterday we took Sydney to a fall festival at a local lawn and garden center. They had a scarecrow-building contest, bounce houses for older kids, pony rides, and a petting zoo. I thought Sydney would get a kick out of the petting zoo.
The trip started off badly because she fought having her shoes and coat put on. She cried most of the way there (only a 10 minute ride). She stopped crying when I took her out of the car, but only wanted to cling to me the entire time.
We took her over to the petting zoo area, and I squatted down with her sitting on my knee next to the fence. I thought it was probably a good idea to keep her on the opposite side of the fence as the animals. I had some animal feed in my hand, and was quickly mobbed by hungry goats and sheep. They stuck their noses through the fence to get the food and sniff us. Sydney just stared for awhile, and then buried her face in my shoulder. I couldn't get her to pet any of them.
Then this gigantic llama came over. A llama in a petting zoo? How do you find a llama in Des Plaines? In reality, this was a baby llama, but it still towered over the other animals in the petting zoo. It was as tall as I was! Sydney did NOT like the llama, either. It was very aggressive and would not take no for an answer when I tried to stop feeding it.
I decided that I would try to take Sydney inside the fence, thinking that she might prefer some of the less aggressive animals that weren't coming up to the fence. We went inside and again I squatted down with her sitting on my knee. A little pig walked up to us and sniffed her foot and leg. That triggered a meltdown, thus ending our trip to the petting zoo.
Before we left, I tried to get Sydney to pose for some pictures with the fish ponds and also with the pumpkins. She would have none of that. She actually seemed to be afraid of the pumpkins and hid her head in my shoulder when I tried to hand her a little one. I finally got her to tentatively touch one, but that was as far as we got.
Our baby has become such a fraidy cat!