Aquarium

Albert, Antonio and I went to the Seattle Aquarium last Saturday. Since Antonio showed so much interest in sea lions at the Oregon Zoo we thought he would really enjoy the aquarium. I know I loved it when I was younger and remember seeing all the seals, sea otters, fish and sea horses. Oh and touching all the starfish and sea anemone's. I particularly remember touching the sea anemone's and watching them quickly close up. Oh and that underwater dome that has/had all the fish, sharks and who knows what else but it was always loaded with sea life! So of course I was so excited to take Antonio! My co-worker has an enterainment book and had a buy one get one free admission and since Antonio is under 4 he still gets in free so it was a deal!

After paying $16 for parking downtown, yes, SIXTEEN DOLLARS for 4 hours, I was glad we only had to pay $20 for all 3 of us to get in! After paying you go around the corner to their HUGE floor to ceiling "wall of fish" that Antonio loved. He was so excited and could have stayed there all day, and maybe should have. Yeah, the rest was a big letdown, for me anyways. They had tons of "fish tanks" with fish to look at but once you've seen one, you've seen them all. :/  Antonio liked looking at the starfish and sea anemone's but after touching one starfish he wanted no more of that. In fact he did not like me touching them either. He tightly clutched my arm and said, "No mama" in a very concerned tone; so we moved one. To more fish..... Finally the huge underwater dome. First of all, it should have been a sign when there was none else there (in the dome area). You had to look for the fish. There were so few that I thought maybe it was being "cleaned" or something but nope that's just how it is now. Really? How sad. Then to the seals, sea otters etc. There was one lonely sea lion and two sea otters. Seriously people, where are all the sea animals? I was so completely disappointed yet so glad we only paid $20.

I hope we just went on an off day because I don't see why people would keep going back. Antonio never stopped to look at anything for more than maybe 1 min, besides the wall of fish. That is not normal for him. We went throughout the whole aquarium in less than an hour, maybe more like 45min. :(  Luckily it was a beautiful day so we walked the waterfront for a bit. Antonio loved watching all the tour busses and duck boats go by. We had to make that SIXTEEN dollars worth it after all!   We'll go back I am sure but it will have to be with a coupon for sure. Oh and definitely going on a Sunday when parking is free! ;)

Portland

Last weekend we went to Portland for the innagural Portland Rock n Roll marathon. It was Portland's first time hosting the Rock N Roll and only only offered a half marathon, 13.1 miles. And for those of you who may not know me well, it was Albert that did the run, not me, I don't run...EVER. Albert did GREAT. He ran the whole thing for the first time! Which was even more amazing since he had been having some lower leg problems! I was/am so proud of him. The weather wasn't the best for the race and it started rainy about half way through but you can't expect to much in the PNW I guess. He does the Seattle RnR in a few weeks and we are hoping for better, well dry, weather!

We also were able to spend a day with one of my best friends, Erin, and her family! She has an awesome little boy, Jack, who is 3.5 so he and Antonio had fun together. Well as much fun as boys that age do when they only see each other twice a year. :) We met them at the Zoo that morning and of course Antonio LOVED the Zoo! The Oregon Zoo has a train that goes through it on actual train tracks and is about a 20m ride. Antonio was in absolute heaven! Happily it was long enough so there was no melt down when getting off! We were there from 9:30 to about 1:30 and Antonio made it through the whole time. I really wish we could have seen more of Erin and her family but between the marathon, the boys and their naps it was hard.

We were a bit worried about how Antonio would do on the car ride but he did great both ways. He never complained, not even a whine! We were so proud of him! He was awake the whole way down but slept about half way on the way back. He also did really well in the hotels and wasn't loud or obnoxious; again very proud! He loved having his very own big bed and waking up in the morning with us right there! The last day (we were there Friday-Monday) he was ready to go home, the resticted space of the room and toys were starting to bother him. It was a nice trial run for California!

Mothers Day!

Today was a perfect day! Antonio slept in until 7am and then Albert got up and made waffles for breakfast! It was his first time ever making them and they were so good!!! Then we all went to the Mukilteo beach for the rest of the morning! It was beautiful and warm by 9:30 when we got there! Antonio ran all over and we even watched a boat pull right up to the dock in front of us to get loaded onto  its trailer! Antonio was SO impressed! We saw more trains than I can remember, watched the ferry come and go many times and even heard it "toot" a few times! We saw lots of people flying kits and bbqing! When we first got there there weren't to may people there but by the time we left the place was packed! There were lines of cars driving in circles looking for parking spots! We had an Ivar's picnic on the grass before we left! We were all tired and ready to go! Antonio fell asleep in the car before we got hime and then continued to nap for another 2 hours!!

Albert asked what I wanted for dinner and that he would take care of it. We had some pretty yummy leftovers so I said I would be fine with that if he made salsa and got an ice cream cake. He agreed! YUM! We even got to Skype with my Mom, who has been traveling all over the midwest and east coast for the past few weeks! It was good to see her! Antonio had made me a Mothers Day card at daycare friday too! It is so sweet and creative! I am so lucky to be a Mom to Antonio; he is such a good boy and so much like his Papa! I am sad to see the day end; it has been both relaxing and fun! Until next year!

So smart!

As I had mentioned in the previous post, Antonio LOVES his current daycare. We see everyday new things that he is learning or has learned. The other night after changing into his jammies he sat with me and just out of the blue counted to 30! ON. HIS. OWN.  I was shocked so together, following his lead, we did it again. WOW! Then a day later he did it again and another day! So he must really know it! He also randomly, while staring out the window watching for the garbage man, rambled off, in order, the months from April to September! Clear as day too! I had no idea he knew them let alone was learning them! Amazing! He may not still have a lot of words but he does know his numbers, colors and is beginning to know his months! Rosemary is fantastic with him and I can tell he loves being there too!

He is still in process of his testing for speech. Hopefully Monday we will finish them and have an idea then if we should continue through the school district or not. His comprehension area went awesome. He had to get 5 wrong in a row to have the therapist stop the test and move to the next one. He went all the way in to the 5 year old range! I couldn't believe it; I was so proud! He had been testing for about 30m and was starting to want to play with his toys; so he was done regardless. I am hoping we can be done with the therapy, for many reasons! He has so much more of a vocabulary than he did just 9 months ago. Sometimes I can tell he really does have to try hard to think of words to use when talking with him and other times it comes easily to him. It's just so amazing to watch him learn so much so fast!