Fish Story

Today a little dad's group I've organized took our sprats to the California Academy of Sciences, which has recently been rebuilt to much hoopla round here. I've only been once since it was anew, and it was so crowded I saw very little. We went at the crack of dawn (11am) so as to potentially keep ahead of the crowds, and it turned out to be the right plan.

It was the first time H has been to a zoo or aquarium or anything of the sort, though when we were at Alex and Matt's over the holidays he loved their aquarium, so we had hopes.

And I can happily say that the only thing that made him really mad was that he was not able to penetrate through the glass and hold onto the fishes (and probably put them in his mouth). He was absolutely absorbed from the first moments at the penguin tank until about an hour later when he fell deep asleep on my chest amidst the humidity and soothing sounds of the rainforest dome. I think his favorite was the enormous jellyfish, which he pawed at repeatedly and made several excited shrieks and gurgles for. In general, he was most fascinated with underwater, so we stuck with the aquarium this time. He stared, and watched the fish go round and round and smiled and giggled and wow...it was a sweet experience. Cati was sad to miss out, but she also got a few hours off with her girlfriends to drink christmas beer and eat coconut pie. I've been working hard to make sure the mom's don't just see our gang as their favorite babysitting collective, but it's still nice to give mama a break.

Needless to say, we'll be headed back to the aquarium again. We may even get him a small tank at home for Christmas as long as the cats promise not to eat the fishies. We're constantly excited and surprised at how well H takes to new experiences...he loved a post-impressionist exhibit we went to awhile ago too...makes me think we need to try more stuff out...the zoo, boat rides, etc.

Man, what fun we have ahead!