The Aquarium on 1-27-12

We have two favorite books that go along with a trip to the aquarium: "Curious George goes at the Aquarium" and "Starfish: Stars of the Sea" by Connie and Peter Roop. The second book has a cute stuffed starfish that came with it. I thought it was a finger puppet, but after I read the book, I learned that the hole is to represent the mouth that is on the bottom side of the starfish.

We are still looking for the octopus at the aquarium. . .

9-12-11 A Trip to the Aquarium

I got to pet a starfish today. Wow, that was a first. The boys did it, but weren't as impressed as I thought they should be. I guess when you're two and four, you figure this is just what people do every so often. . .

There were a lot of "Wow!" moments today. The first was as we exited the Interstate and sped into the downtown traffic. I could hear the moment the boys laid eyes on the skyline. Then Max nearly busted out of his car seat when he saw three city buses together.

What I always think of as the "Dolphin Show" has been renamed renamed the "Aquatic Show". I assume this is to not disrespect the dolphins. Today's show had a significant amount of information and minimal dolphin tricks. I learned the behavior modification methods that they use with the dolphins and the Belugas. Everybody knows that the small fish and the squid are positive reinforcements. But now I know that tickling the tongues are too! I also learned that it would be smart to give Caden a sucker at the very beginning of the show and then he would sit nicely through the whole thing.

The soothing sounds of the aquarium set a relaxing atmosphere. It was interesting to watch the divers feed the fish. I wish I had a recording of Max's little voice when we got to the shark exhibit. It was high pitched excitement with a touch of fear. Caden was free from the stroller in this exhibit and was able to stand over the plexiglass while the string rays swam underfoot. I could tell it boggled his mind! It was also here that Max announced he had found Nemo. Pheww.

The boys go to hang out in a submarine replica and Conrad found more than one set of decorative rocks to climb. I was trying to predict was Conrad's favorite part of the aquarium would be. I figured it would be seeing the divers feed the fish, the submarine, or the mushroom like jellyfish. He told me that the best part was me, Grandma, and Auntie Lee. My heart inflated a little bit. When I pushed for a more aquarium-related answer, Conrad replied, "All the tanks, mom." The tone of his voice added, "duh."

The aquarium is officially added to my favorite places for an adventure.

9-17-10 Trial Run

Today we did a trial run to the zoo. Just me and the boys -- no friends for a play date. I was curious how it would go with all three boys and didn't really want witnesses if it didn't go well. My trio of boys surprised me. It was no problem at all. We went specifically to go to the petting zoo section. It was cool to see Conrad and Max's reactions to the chickens and goats. Conrad is fascinated by the whole concept of "laying eggs" and he enjoyed the responsibility of brushing the goats. Max was more stand-offish with the goats and we couldn't go into the pen with the stroller anyway. Max was more into making animal sounds with each animal that we saw.

Caden, well, he's just happy to stroll along as long as he's included at lunchtime! We had geese and a squirrel try to join us for lunch. Here's a tip: Don't throw a pretzel to the geese as you sit down to eat your lunch. The geese were not apprehensive about coming right up to the kids at all. I told Conrad that if he got scared because they were so close, just yell and they'll go away. This worked and Max though it looked like fun. It was a noisy lunch.

It got really noisy when a squirrel got too close for Max's comfort. The squirrel is more used to toddlers than Max is to squirrels. Max squirmed and then got upset. I had to shew the little animal away. I must have looked like Wonder Woman to Max. I probably looked like psycho mom a few minutes later when I had to run after Max who had decided to climb the play equipment that he was way too little for! I climbed down from the jungle gym with a baby on each hip. The big one was protesting with his entire body.

Aside from that incident, the day was glorious. Conrad even learned to spell the word zoo. We left the zoo with everybody smiling and the car lulled them to sleep. We'll be going back again soon.