Of fishes and kids

This past Saturday we took Oath and L, our nephew, on a day trip that ended up being our first sleep-over. Hooray! 

Oath and L spend many afternoons together at my in-law's, and they are best friends as well as cousins. They love each other dearly and are always asking for each other's whereabouts. So, when it was L's 5th birthday last month, we decided we'd give him something more meaningful than a toy or some soccer-related stuff (which is his favorite thing ever): we would gift our time and Oath's presence, and take them both to the Aquarium.

The day, rainy and grey as it was, started later than we wanted for several reasons, and plans had to change a bit, but we all rolled with it. In the end, we picked L up at late in the morning and had lunch at my in-law's, where Oath had spent the night (there's been quite a lot of plan-changing, this weekend!). After lunch, we got in the car and off to see fishes we went!

They were very well behaved most of the time, and even if Oath kept having meltdowns for one reason or another (we still haven't worked out why, but my guess is he was too excited about the whole thing), L weathered his cousin's tantrums like a pro. The time we were in the Aquarium, though, they had so much fun they forgot about it all and kept laughing, pointing and squealing all the time. We have some videos and they are just like two caffeinated chipmunks, going from one tank to the other and gasping in delight at every new animal they saw.

Honestly, I had a blast too. I expected something much smaller, having been to some pretty huge aquariums in my life, but was pleasantly surprised. From sturgeons to turtles, all through sharks, nautilus, and penguins, there was plenty to be seen. They loved the sea-horses and the big shark tank where turtles bigger than them seemed to wave us hello. I was in awe at the shark eggs, where you could clearly see the tiny shark-embryos moving around, and the jellyfish in their blue-lit tank. Partner unexpectedly got all attached to each and every kind of starfish there, and it was so cute!

But the big hit? The big hit were the otters. Sadly, they were too sad for my photographer abilities, so all I've got is a bunch of pictures of a big blur of fur and bubbles. Oops!

Once we were back home they also had a blast playing and turning Oath's room upside down while we adults laid down to rest for a bit. I take my hat off at the parents of two closely aged kids: managing a 5 and a 3.5 year old just for an evening was exhausting!

There were pancakes for dinner and strawberries with milk for dessert, three books before bed and giggles up until nearly midnight.

All in all, it was a blast!

Oath's mom