Go Fish!

After last weekends trip to the zoo, we decided to embark on another adventure to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden today. Actually, we had planned on going to the Yankees game, and then to Aidan's 1st birthday party, but the weather deterred us from the game, and Kaylani acting a bit sick deterred us from the birthday party (wouldn't want to be that kid who gets all the other kids sick). Apparently Kaylani acting a bit sick didn't deter us from going to the aquarium though, but chances are she had a better chance of getting sick there than getting anyone else sick, right? Anyways, it was Kaylani's first trip to the aquarium, and I think she liked it!

We knew from her fascination with the sea otters last week that she would love the aquarium so today really just confirmed our thoughts. It was a little bit harder for her to see all the fish since some of them were real small and the whole place was kinda dark, but when she did see them, she sure did love them! She banged on the glass in delight each time a giant shark or fish would swim by her. She'd shriek and say "ishhhh" whenever a bright colored fish would come near her. She said "ishhh" when the penguin followed her every movement ("ishhh" could mean "penguin" too right?). And she even stared at the hippo as it ate hay and wiggled its giant ears.

But she didn't like everything at the aquarium. Actually, the part she didn't like the most was the people. Well, she loved looking at the people and kids that were at the aquarium. It was the people IN the aquarium that she didn't like. When one of the staff all dressed up in his wetsuit swam over to her area of the glass and tapped on it, she immediately backed away. He tried to wave at her and smile through his mask, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Frankly, I don't blame her. Giant sharks, turtles, and fish? Cool. Old man in a wetsuit? Pretty scary.

We capped off our trip with a stop at the gift shop, but didn't end up buying anything. We tried to get Kaylani to pick between a purple hippo or a turtle, but she was more interested in the shelf full of frogs. And just when we thought we'd be going home with a new stuffed frog, she threw that on the ground too. Guess we saved ourselves $15...this time.

Anyways, I'm kinda picture crazy right now, so here are pictures from today's trip to the aquarium and her breakfast adventure with pancakes bananas. The picture quality at the aquarium is not the best since I haven't figured out how to take good pictures in the dark with or without a flash, but check em out anyways. Oh, and here's a video just for kicks too. Enjoy!

Animals don't get Labor Day off...

Animals don't get Labor Day off, but fortunately, I did! So since I was off and the animals weren't, we decided to pack up and head to the Philadelphia Zoo. The last time we were at the zoo, Kaylani was just a little over 5 months old and fit snuggly into the Baby Bjorn. And at 5 months, Kaylani wasn't interested in much of anything and probably couldn't see all too far, so it's safe to say that the zoo wasn't overly exciting. This time, on the eve of her 10 month birthday, everything was different.

We started off around 10am with Kaylani in her stroller. Once we rolled into the zoo we realized that the stroller just wasn't going to cut it. And once Kaylani was in Mommy's arms, it meant that she was able to follow Mommy's hand and finger all the way out to every animal we saw. First it was the camel that Kaylani waved at. Then it was the cheetah that Kaylani screamed hello too and bounced in excitement for. Next was the monkeys, and the ducks, and the rhino, and all the other animals.

The best part was seeing Kaylani's eyes light up every time she found the animal. First she'd just be staring off, maybe seeing something, or probably just staring at grass. Then, she'd slowly look around, and when she caught first sight of the animal, she would light up, smile, point, wave, bounce, and say hi in her cute little baby scream. Priceless.

If we had to guess which one was her favorite animal, we'd guess the sea otters since she pounded on the glass every time they swam by her. After seeing that, we knew that she loved to watch them, and also that we need to take a trip to the aquarium sometime soon. She also seemed to really like the cheetahs and the giraffes. Either way, we knew she had a great time and we're excited to go back. Luckily we're members and it's only 40 minutes away so we can go back whenever we want. Well, assuming we have a free weekend that is.

Anyways, my words probably don't do it justice, so check out these pictures we took today. I know I just posted pictures yesterday, but I gotta get these out there (and off my camera since I took 248 pictures). So sit back and enjoy Kaylani's 2nd trip to the zoo! There's even a great sequence of Daddy trying to get out of an egg (it'll make more sense when you see the pictures).

What a zoo!

The zoo is a zoo. I take that back. On a normal day, the zoo is a zoo. But on a nice day at the beginning of "zoo season", the zoo is a ZOO. On days like today, families go to the zoo, no matter how much of a zoo that zoo actually is. It might have been just another day at the zoo, but since this was our first trip to the zoo with Kaylani, it sure felt like a zoo.

After a quick 30 minute morning nap for Kaylani, we headed out to the Philadelphia Zoo. It's about 40 minutes from here, and the ride was fairly uneventful, or as uneventful as could be for having a minivan with 4 adults, a 4 year old, a 2.5 year old, and a 5 month old could be. It wasn't until we got to the exit for the zoo that we realized that we were definitely not going to be alone today.

Walking around with just Mommy and Kaylani would have been crazy enough, but add in the extra responsibility of Alisha and Rohan and the tens of thousands of other people that were at the zoo and you have yourself one heck of a day. I'm actually not complaining (much) because we had a great time and Kaylani behaved extremely well even though she only napped 1.5 hours throughout the day. The Philadelphia Zoo (the first in the US according to a sign I saw) had plenty of animals to keep us busy (and walking). We saw turtles, snakes, frogs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my...sorry, had to) amongst other things. But I still can't get over how much of a zoo the zoo was.

I like to think that we're prepared for any public situation. We took Kaylani to the mall the week before Christmas, and she was only 6 weeks old at that point, so that had to be preparation for something. Both today and the mall at Christmas still meant Kaylani was near (or on) us at all times which makes things a little bit easier (and less hectic). But it's still too early for me to start thinking about Kaylani as a wandering toddler, or having more than 1 child (let alone 4 which is Mommy's new plan...to be written about at a later date).

For now, we're going to continue to live day by day, so check out pictures from Kaylani's last couple of days (can't believe she's in her 160's already). And if you're so inclined, check out pictures from the Yankees 2009 home opener. Even though they don't have Kaylani in them, they're still pretty cool (and have an upclose shot of Harlan Chamberlain who we saw passing through the halls). Enjoy!