Z-O-O

This weekend the area zoo had a birthday celebration for their mascot. We are members of the zoo so we are also frequent visitors. I usually ask Caden if he wants to go to the zoo by fingerspelling "z-o-o" followed by the sign for "animals". I assume it will be awhile before he can fingerspell but I like to first demonstrate the proper sign anyway. He had a grand time at this birthday celebration with the games, crafts and animal displays they had created for the occasion. Though he was so exhausted he could barely walk, he insisted he didn't want to leave every time we asked if he was ready.

The following day we were out running errands and found ourselves on the road leading to the zoo. At the last stop light before it becomes visible, Caden began to sign something from his car seat. His fine motor skills being what they are, I do admit that sometimes I have trouble deciphering his signs without a context. I asked him to try again. He repeated the same movement and I was still clueless. I hate when I don't get it. I feel like I'm failing him and I could see the frustration in his face as he tried his sign over and over. Finally he resorted to signing "animals" and then the light bulb went off in my head. He had been fingerspelling "zoo". I screamed so excitedly that The Tank nearly pulled off the road shouting "What? What's wrong?"

"Caden spelled zoo!" I was elated and shocked. "You want to go the zoo and see the animals?" I asked.

"Yeah!" he said with the same inflection that one would use to say "Duh!" I half expected him to roll his eyes at me. Unfortunately the zoo was closed and I explained this to my little genius but he didn't seem to mind. We were too busy doing the Caden-spelled-zoo dance.