Aquarium Visit with Daddy

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, we all went to a member event at the Mystic Aquarium a little while ago. Now while Than and I have actually been to the aquarium several times since buying the membership, as yet Ryan hadn't been able to go with us. So when I got an email notifying me of the member's event which had all kinds of activities, was limited to members so it wouldn't be overcrowded, including free entrance to the bird exhibit, and most importantly offered extended hours...the chance to go one evening after Ryan got off work seemed ideal. As usual Ryan liked the idea in theory, promptly forgot all about it, and grumbled a lot when he was reminded, then enjoyed every minute of it.

Now the last two visits have been a little disappointing for Than. His buddy Juno the whale has been off with the trainers while we were there so he didn't get to visit with him and see a whale that likes to hang out close to the people and stare back at them. Instead he has had to content himself with the older females who just do frequent passes of the window. Not as much fun, but as you can clearly see he just enjoys seeing the whales period.

One very happy little boy!

Watching the penguins swim by with Daddy. This was actually pretty cool. Every other time we have been the penguins had just been fed and as a result were all pretty much hanging out on the rocks preening themselves. This time there were actually several of them swimming in the water that you could watch from down below the pool, so we actually saw them swimming not just sitting around where you can't get very close to them.

The difference between going with Mommy and Daddy. Daddy takes him over to the mini-sub Turtle and points out all the machinery. Mom does not do this.

Mom also didn't climb down and take him inside the even smaller mini-sub Alvin. It was lit with red light so I had to clean up the photo a bit to even make it clearly a picture of Than. They had video (from previous expeditions I think) playing behind the port holes, so you could get an idea of what the researchers see when they go down in mini-subs like the Alvin.

Now as I said they had free admission to the bird enclosure. It has been interesting to watch the evolution of Than's reaction to the birds. The first time he and I went, he was delighted by the birds...as long as they were still. If they were flying around he was terrified. He liked to look at them but didn't want them too close to him.

The second time we went, he wasn't as afraid of the birds. It had settled more clearly in the delight category. He was thrilled if they landed on his stick and enjoyed being much closer to them if I was holding a stick they were sitting on. That time he started to actively try to get them to come over by him.

These last three photos are a sort of series and that reflects his current status with the birds. He is obviously thrilled to see them. He wants them as close as possible. But he has decided that contrary to what he previously thought, they are the most fun when they fly around. So this was the pattern we repeated several times. Either he, Ryan or I would entice one of the birds to come over and sit on the stick with food on it. Than would think that was great for about 30 secs to a minute, then he would smack at the stick or bird (fairly gently) to scare the bird into flying around him. Then he would squeal with utter delight and then try to get another bird to come over so he could do it again. After we determined he was doing this on purpose and repeatedly and had no intention of stopping we decided (for the sake of the birds) that it was time to leave.

It was a great time, and it was really nice to be able to do it as a family. It was wonderful to have Ryan get to see for himself how much Than loves the sea creatures and other animals.