assalamualaikum & hi!
its march! and it is the birth month of our big baby, Zahra. so happy birthday Zahra! you are four! four years! we love you so much. you have grown into a kind and loving girl, we hope we will see you grow into the best person you can be. as a treat, more like a coincidence actually, we took the kids to the National Zoo. it was amazing, considering the kids now know about animals. and that is what i am going to tell in this post.
being a bored mom that i am, i did a lot of research about going to the zoo lol. and guess what? there are actually a few things we learnt beforehand, thank God im pretty particular about this kind of thing kan? lol but hey, if you're the kind people who likes to be adventurous and make impromptu plans, that's cool too.
Planning
- we made the kids watch national geographic so they can identify the kinds of animal in the zoo, tame and wild. zahra and muaz are already 4 and 2 and they have animal miniatures and they know the names and all, so we think these ages is just nice to start going to the zoo. earlier than that, a baby wouldn't know what they're looking at and they will probably just sleep or cry the whole time at the zoo.
- weather forecast. it is best that you go during a sunny day and not during a rainy one right? we went during a sunny day but at 1pm, the sky was dark it started to rain (which was a relief because we justtt about to get out of there phew)
- its best that you go early in the morning. the zoo is open at 9am. we arrived there at 945 am, it was nice, not so many people despite it was a Saturday. around 11am or noon people started flooding in.
- make sure you plan where you want to go (you can google the map online or you can study the map there, they will give you one before entering), there will be animal shows at 11am and 3pm. if you want to catch the shows, you better plan ahead.
What to wear?
- depending on the weather, wear accordingly. malaysian weather should be just sunny or rainy right? no snow.
- comfy, cotton clothes
- hat!
- kids wore shorts and sleeveless shirt
- my husband and i, we wore jeans and sport shoes and sneakers
- muaz wore sandals with socks and zahra wore slippers (because she didnt want to wear her crocs!) it is advised that kids wear sport shoes too, but a nicely fitted ones, sandals are okay too
What to bring?
- a stroller & cover (blanket if you want)
- a mini fan with powerbank and cable
- camera, gopro
- mineral water
- spare clothes for the kids, diapers (who knows what will happen, the car will be very far)
- umbrella
- milk bottles or kids favourite drinks (they sell drinks and food too in there. we stopped and had refreshment near a zebra, giraffe and rhino place, it was so nice drinking cold orange juice while watching the animal lol)
- sunblock! we used mary kay sunblock SPF50, suitable for adults and kids above 6 months. apply every 2 hours.
take a lot of pictures but dont forget to actually enjoy the time you're having with your family. we didnt take much pictures because the animals were amazing lol. you will be tired i swear! but fret not there are buses (you have to pay separately at the entrance). if you have any questions, you can ask me lol. i guess that is all about prepping for zoo trip. thank you for reading! byeee~
love,
ansari