The Aquarium!

It was such an exciting morning, that I didn’t even mind it when I had to get up 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday! Benjamin and I played and had breakfast while Jeremy slept until 7:30. Then, Benjamin ate breakfast again. (not kidding…he ate a complete second breakfast less than an hour after eating 7 ounces of milk, a yogurt and two piles of Cheerios. So, I fed him a frozen peas, cheese and blue berries and crackers for the second breakfast.

We packed everything up and left around 9 a.m. so we could get there before it opened. And, good thing we did, because the line was long and it wasn’t too warm outside!

We bought our season passes, since they are the equivalent of two visits, and we figure we will be back. Then, we made a beeline past the crowd to get to the first tunnel. Benjamin, you can see, was quite interested in the fish swimming above his head. Jeremy thought it might seem odd to him to see the fish, but not to hear the Baby Einstein music playing in the background like on his movie.

 

My what big eyes you have! Benjamin chuckled every time this fish looked at him.

 

Most of the time we took turns holding him, but on occasion, Benjamin got down to explore. We moved through each exhibit quickly, so he wouldn’t get bored. His favorite, though, was the Frog playground exhibit.

 

When you push the buttons, each frog makes a different croaking noise. Benjamin leaned on this button until we couldn’t take it any longer and had to move him to another button. It just wasn’t the same, and he decided to go back.

Next. we went into the rainforest to see the otters. Benjamin liked the waterfalls the best.

Here he is in another tunnel with fish and a scuba diver floating above.

Either the shark scale is off, or Benjamin gained three pounds from his endless meals!

 

The gift shop was probably the highlight of the trip. BALLS!

You can see the stroller in the background. We hauled it the entire time, and Benjamin never rode in it!

Freedom! It is tough to get Benjamin to go where you want him to go now that he knows how to use those long legs!

We showed Benjamin a fish restaurant right outside the Aquarium.

 

And he took off down the board walk as happy as a “clam.” Yes pun intended.

 

He even found a friend and tried to grab his shoes!

Afterward, we played in Barnes and Noble for a few minutes (they have a Thomas the Train table) and then we headed home, since it was past lunch time. All in all, we only stayed about 1.5 hours downtown, but it was the perfect amount of time. Benjamin was so excited, he couldn’t sleep at nap time. He just sat in his crib and talked and cooed for an hour while Daddy and Mommy napped!