"Mom? Where is MASSACHUSETTS?"
"Mom? When are we going back to our RED HOUSE?"
"Mom? Why did you want to COME here?"
"Mom? Where's our black Kia Soul?" (asked EVERY TIME we get in our rental car)
Speaking of our rental car, things were even more confusing when we took the car seats out of our rental car yesterday and put them in Auntie Shannon's car, in order to drive all together to the pool, playground, and dinner restaurant. Auntie Shannon had parked at our parking garage in order to pick us Rowes up, and enlisted Julia's help in a mnemonic device to remember the number of her parking space.
JULIA: Six-oh-four! Coloring on the floor! Six-oh-four...Knocking on my door!
The second one was the one that stuck. As we all walked through the parking garage, Julia and Auntie Shannon chanted their rhyme over and over together.
JULIA AND SHANNON: Six-oh-four! Knockin' on my door! Six-oh-four! Knockin' on my door! Six-oh-four! Knockin' on my door!
Not wanting to be left out, Madeleine chimed in brightly: "Six-oh-five! Knockin' on MAH door!"
Then we got to Auntie Shannon's car and Madeleine asked, "Mom? Where's our black Kia Soul?"
Luckily, Madeleine was able to temporarily forget about her confusion this afternoon, as we took a trip to the impressive Georgia Aquarium. The kids were both out of their minds with excitement, before we even entered the doors. Completely captivated by the various dolphin statues outside the entrance, the girls could have probably played with their new dolphin friends (who they named and ranked in order of most to least favorite) for hours:
Julia and her new Dolphin BFF
But we did have to part with the dolphins, and once we were inside the aquarium, OMG. The kids were in paradise. We started off checking out the ocean life tank, where we got to see not only tons of fish, a hammerhead shark, and a bunch of stingrays, also some seriously huge whale sharks. (MADELEINE: Mom? I want to TOUCH the whale shark. ME: You really DON'T want to touch a whale shark, honey. MADELEINE: Why not? ME: Because it would eat you. MADELEINE: Why would it eat me? ME: Because sharks eat people, honey.)
Afterwards, we headed to see the beluga whales, which was the highlight of the day for both girls:
JULIA: (sighing with pleasure) I just REALLY LOVE beluga whales.
We also got to check out the sea otters and penguins before heading off to the next exhibit: The Coral Reef. And wouldn't you know it, but Julia's extended day program has been learning about coral reefs for the past month or so. So the fact that I pulled her out of school for a week of vacation is not for nothing! - she got some extra coral reef enrichment today - woo-hoo!
The coral reef
And as if it wasn't exciting enough to see a REAL coral reef with REAL tropical fish, the exhibit also had this!:
She's the queen of the WA-HAY-HAY-HAYVES!
Before the afternoon was through, we also went to the aquarium play area, the touch tanks, the frog exhibit, and the river dwellers. And, of course, we saw the giant jellyfish (MADELEINE: Mom? I want to TOUCH a jellyfish. ME: Honey, you really DON'T want to touch a jellyfish. MADELEINE: Why not? ME: Because it would sting you. MADELEINE: But why would it STING me? ME: Because jellyfish have poisonous tentacles that sting, honey.)
I'm not sure why all the creatures Madeleine wanted to touch were the dangerous ones. And seeing as she didn't even like the poisonous cheese on her tacos the other night, I can't imagine why she would want to touch poisonous tentacles.
After our aquarium adventure, we headed out of Atlanta to visit Uncle Dave, Aunt Sarah, and cousin Emily. Julia was absolutely enthralled with her little cousin and spent the majority of the evening doting on her. The kids also enjoyed mashing into Emily's play tent for some good old indoor camping out:
Madeleine, who hadn't pooped since the "do you think I pooped in my pants" incident the day we arrived, and who had done several panicked, pinched legged, butt-out potty dances at the aquarium (leading me to sprint her across the facility to the nearest bathroom only to discover a false alarm), FINALLY got some poop out at Emily's house. In fact, she had more than one marathon poop session in the bathroom. I accompanied her on the second one, during which she felt the need to not only diarrhea out her bum but also out of her mouth.
MADELEINE: Mommy? How do potties work?
ME: Uh, well, they have water in them that flushes the poop and pee down the hole when you push the flusher down.
MADELEINE: Mommy? How do COATS work?
ME: Uh...they cover your arms and your body to keep you warm.
MADELEINE: Mommy? How do PURSES work?
ME: Purses? Well, they zip open and you can put important things inside and then zip them closed.
MADELEINE: Mommy? Sometimes monsters have THOSE kinds of ears.
ME: Oh. Really?
MADELEINE: Mommy? I'm INSESSED with The Lion King. Because...lions and tigers are WILD ANIMALS. Mommy! Look! (pointing at the door stop) We have one of THOSE things at our hotel! Me and Daddy love to BANG them! Because that's so EXCITING! Mom, this is how you BANG them, with your toes and feet. Oh! I got MIXED UP. Mom? What does mixed up mean?
ME: Uh, it means confused.
MADELEINE: What does CONFUSED mean?
ME: It means...you did the wrong thing.
MADELEINE: Mom. That's not what confused means. Confused means MIXED UP. Mom, you got MIXED UP. Mommy, we're TWINS! We both got MIXED UP!
Finally, the verbal and literal diarrhea were done, and much to all three kids' regret, we had to end the play-date and head back to our hotel. Looking forward to what Acklanta adventures tomorrow will bring!
I wish I could've had that Acklanta day with you instead of the one I had!
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