1st trip to the Aquarium

Owen and his new best friend - Mr. Scuba Man


We are two weeks out from my due date and Operation Stay Distracted is in full swing. Thanks to groupon and some planning ahead, we saved Owen's 1st trip to the aquarium for this week to have something to look forward to. Accompanied by my lovely mother and fabulous Aunt Susan the four of us piled into the car and headed off to explore the deep blue sea.

It took Owen about 15 minutes to get warmed up to the idea of the aquarium. The first exhibit to meet you when you walk in is a 20 ft glass wall looking in on fish found in the Puget Sound. If I was only 2 1/2 feet tall I would be intimidated too by this monstrous wall of water and movement. As our luck might have it, there was also a scuba diver in the tank! Owen was quite the skeptic at first, hesistant to go anywhere near the glass or wave back at the diver. However, when we returned a 2nd time to the same tank Owen could not get enough of the fish or the diver. I think we sat there for a full 20 minutes simply watching the water world move in front of us.

One thing in particular I was excited for was showing Owen the tide pools where you can touch things like star fish and sea anemones. I lifted Owen up, showed him he could put his hands in the water to touch the animals and asked if he wanted to do it. He looked back at me and responded "Mama, rock?" repeating this several times. I explained that there weren't any rocks to throw but he could put his hands in the water instead. He looked at the tide pools and then looked at me like I was crazy and then asked to get down. What's the point of water if you can't throw rocks in it?

Once we had thoroughly explored the tide pools we were mesmerized by the tanks of tropical and exotic fish. Little did Aunt Susan know she was going to get a work out in by holding Owen up to the window for 15 minutes as we soaked up the brilliant colors before us. After we had our fill of the tropical dance, we moved on to the sea otters and seals which quickly became another favorite for Owen. Playing peek-a-boo with the seal was apparently hilarious to him as every time those large eyes and shiny wet skin resurfaced Owen chuckled with delight.

Later that day after the excursion had ended and Owen had napped I discussed the mornings events with him. He proceeded to respond: "And yellow...and big big fish...and arh-arh (meaning seal) and fish...and man." He probably repeated this 15 times obviously thrilled with his 1st time at the aquarium.