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I'm not sure if we've mentioned this widely, but for some reason, Ara is completely obsessed with our cat (Mia, AKA The Meeps, AKA The Kiffin). Every time Mia walks by, Ara's face lights up, and she starts trying to walk (no - you didn't miss an update, Ara can't actually walk yet, but this doesn't stop her from trying) towards the kiffin (see how useful that one is?) to play with her! We found this intriguing, not only because, of course, everything our goddess child does seems, to us, to be divinely inspired, but also because it suggests that even before Ara understands who mommy and daddy are, and what food is, and that muslins do NOT taste good, she DOES understand that cats are nice! How shocking! Is this innate? Hard to say, but it would seem so! Some of Ara's first real smiles were inspired by the sight of the meeps.
Unfortunately, the feeling is not mutual, and as soon as Mia realizes that she's being stalked, very slowly, by a tiny human, she high-tails it (literally, in this case) out of reach. Note the non-plussed kitty in the photos on the right.
So anyway - based on this evident love of animals, we decided to take Ara to the "zoo"! I say "zoo" and not Zoo, because this is a tiny selection of cages in the heart of downtown (sorry, "Central") Hong Kong, where hilarious animals are on display. These include the scary boa constricter, a tiny crocodile, a group of exciting Lemurs, our personal favorite the Lesser Mouse Deer (more mouse than deer, hence aptly named, shown second photo down, less than a foot in length) and a pair of orangutans that lead most people to say "What The Hell Is That Thing??" (see odd photo on left for evidence).
After an arduous hike up what can only be described as a mountain, we finally arrived at the zoo - sweaty and ornery. But Ara's delight over all around her lifted our mood, and soon we were ZOOming around (ha ha ha!) looking at everything. But: when I say "all around her", I mean "ALL". In descending order, Ara was completely taken in by: railings, gravel, other children, leaves, people trying to make her laugh. Nowhere on that list appears: The Boa Constrictor, The Crocodile, The Lemurs, The Lesser Mouse Deer, or The Disturbing Orangutan. Ah well. Kind of a positive actually, I mean, how often can you actually do something for the first time more than once??
So, spent from our ambitious travel, we rocked it First Class on the way home. Ara was almost all tuckered out, but managed to do some serious playing and with her reflection, and some (enchanting to us, alarming to others) high-pitched "vocalizing" before falling asleep in her new hoodie. An Urban Traveller is born.
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