Today was a good day.
Alex slept in his own bed last night which gave John and I the whole bed to ourselves. Unfortunately we were both exhausted, so we ended up going to sleep. Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyhow, Alex slept in late unexpectedly this morning, giving us the opportunity to make up for last night.
Alex continued to sleep soundly in his room until almost 8:00, so John and I also got to enjoy our morning coffee together without having a crazy monkey trying to grab our mugs, which was also delightful. Alex woke up just in time to send Daddy off to work.
Looking like he was feeling much better, I decided that we could go to the gym today. Alex was thrilled to go play with his day-care friends and didn't even bother to turn around to wave bye-bye to me before I went to work out. After the gym Alex indulged me by eating several pieces of chicken, a graham cracker, one vanilla creme shredded mini-wheat and 4 oz of an organic strawberry yogurt smoothie. We watched his favorite DVD (30 minute reading DVD), read a couple of books and he went down for a two hour nap. John came home while Alex was napping so we got to eat lunch together and watch Jeopardy.
Later in the afternoon Alex and I cleaned the inside of my car which was long over due. You could barely see the backseat under the layer of smooshed graham crackers and mini Nutter Butters. Alex gathered up all of the trash in the front seat and helpfully put it in a plastic bag. Then, not so helpfully took it all out of the plastic bag again and flung it all over the garage.
With the car clean (well, cleaner anyway) we headed off to the Aquarium. I wasn't sure Alex would enjoy it all that much. I figured he was still too young to appreciate the exhibits, but he had a fantastic time! He insisted I pick him up to look at all the aquariums and he excitedly pointed at all the different fish. They had a giant octopus there that fascinated Alex until it began to move, stretching it's huge tentacles down the tank (the tank was floor to ceiling and Alex was standing right up next to it with his nose pressed against the glass). The octopus slowly made it's way downward and at some point, Alex decided that the octopus was no longer friendly and ran to hide behind my legs. After picking him up and putting my own hand on the glass where the octopus's body was, Alex realized it wasn't trying to attack him and calmed down.
For me, the highlight was the jellyfish. I could have watched them all afternoon if Alex hadn't been so anxious to move on to the next exhibit.
The highlight for Alex was most certainly the touch pool. Filled with fish and stingrays, people were encouraged to stick their hands in to pet the wildlife. Alex had a ball splashing the water and occasionally getting to feel the slippery wing of the stingrays. Any time a stingray would swim close to him he'd laugh and try to dive in. Even though I had a good hold on him, all the splashing left him soaked from the waist up.
The only thing that could get his attention away from the touch pool was the shark tank. The sharks were pretty small when compared to what we see on the the Discovery channel, but when they started feeding them, it was a frenzy, sharks whizzing around gobbling up fish. Alex was standing up on a ledge with his whole body pressed against the glass, sharks gliding by just inches from his nose.
On our way out to the car, Alex discovered the fun of puddle jumping. He ran through every puddle from the exit of the aquarium to our car. A woman in the parking lot commented that he must be part duck, and that he was so cute splashing through the puddles, he'd made her day. Since he was already soaked, when we got home I let him splash around in some great puddles forming in our back patio.
Throughly soaked, I changed him into dry clothes and gave him a piece of construction paper and crayons and let him color for a while while I watched the newest "Digging for the truth" episode about Rameses On Demand.
Alex played on his own while I had phone converstations with my mom, my step-dad and my grandmother. John came home early, dinner was especially yummy (herb marinated chicken, mashed potatoes and sweet corn) and everyone in our house, even the cat, seems to be in a great mood.
I love days like this.
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