All familiar characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine.

Stephanie may have been swayed by an advertising slogan, but she inadvertently found a place that Olivia completely immersed herself in from the moment she heard her first monkey screech.

"Wow ... she's got the Howler Monkey-thing down," Steph said, after Olive's mouth opened wide to let loose a sound that had two under-five-year-olds looking over at us from where they were being helped out of a vehicle nearby.

One boy had even covered both ears. My wife nudged me when she caught the proud smile I gave our baby before bestowing a kiss between the big brown eyes that had grown even bigger as Olive tried to see everything all at once. In my mind, it can never be too early for her to start terrifying boys.

"Okay, my little Olive-Pie ..." Steph began.

I cut my eyes to her at the new nickname as I closed the back door.

She shrugged. "The guys are a bad influence on me ... blame them." She looked back at our daughter, who had gone from her car seat into her Mama's arms. "Does Daddy even bother pulling the stroller out, Olive? Or should we just accept that you'd prefer to be carried through the place?"

"She won't get the full monkey experience if she's in a stroller, Steph," Julie told her. "Olive won't be able to touch or see them very well."

My mind is definitely more on one side of this argument than the other. "I vote for stroller," I shared with them.

Julie smiled at me. "Of course you do. You're always worried something bad is going to happen to us, or that we'll catch something bad."

"Because it is always possible, and it's my job to protect you from anything damaging."

"You don't have to protect us from Squirrel Monkeys, Dad. We'll be fine."

"I'm more worried that the monkeys will need protection from Olive," Steph said, as our baby struggled to get down and get started on her latest adventure.

Olivia's body can't walk yet, but her mind runs on high-octane fuel.

"I already know she's going to think the monkeys are extremely lifelike toys and try to grab one," my wife continued.

"Okay, how about this," Julie said to us. "Dad can protect us, you can protect Olive, Steph, and I'll protect the monkeys."

I dropped my arm around Julie's shoulders, still stunned at times at what an incredible young woman she's become.

"I say it's a plan," I told her. "I suppose that means were ready to go inside."

"Yeah, it does," my daughter told me. "And don't worry ... Steph, Olive, and I, will all be watching out for you. You get protection, too."

My grin was immediate. "Thank you. I'll likely need it."

I can think of more peaceful ways to spend my time than having unpredictable creatures running by and leaping up onto things all around me, but I vowed never to let my issues become my family's. Since Olive tends to remain more settled when I'm holding her, Steph passed her to me so she wouldn't spend the whole time just struggling to get down and attempting to crawl across the place.

We eased into the visit by helping Olive distribute the 'monkey food' we bought, that Steph said reminds her of my breakfast since it's mainly chopped fruits and nuts, into a metal dish that was immediately pulled up to the top of the 'human cage' and promptly emptied by the Howler Monkeys sitting on the wire above us. Olivia got so excited, first by shaking something and hearing the individual pieces reverberate against metal, then by seeing the dish yanked away as the chain suspending it was pulled up high over her head and eaten by the biggest 'stuffed animals' she's seen so far. Happy sounds emanated from her that we haven't heard before.

"She's loving this," Julie pointed out. "Can I hold her when we go into the rainforest area?"

"I would say yes," I told her, "but if you're going to want to feed something, you'll need both hands free."

"That's true."

"Your dad will let you hold her now," Steph suggested. "If you think you can keep up with her."

"Oh I definitely can," she said, holding out her arms.

Olive reached for her sister after only a beat. Julie has more than enough energy and strength to keep her sister entertained. She pointed out the Macaques searching for treats in the pool that is included in their seven-acre forest enclosure. As Steph walked beside me with her arms wrapped around my midsection, Julie also educated Olive on Gorillas and why they need to be protected when we had reached the Gorilla forest. I got my baby back but lost my daughter to Steph as soon as we approached the Rainforest habitat.

Steph was hesitant about letting Squirrel Monkeys actually jump onto her to get food instead of them waiting politely for her to hand it to them, but if Julie was brave enough to be a monkey-feeding post, she wasn't going to chicken out. One Squirrel Monkey jumped down from a branch over her head, right onto Steph's forearm. As she went still, he climbed the rest of the way up her limb and stood upright with one human-like hand resting on her shoulder as he ignored food in favor of staring in infatuation at her. As she said a friendly hello to the obviously smitten primate, I was suddenly far more concerned about my wife trying to take a monkey home with her, than our baby getting hold of one.