pets and wet sleeves

Breakfast conversation is always interesting with a three year old.  Between shoveling spoonfuls of mush in CJV's mouth, pouring a sippy cup of milk, adding cream cheese and sprinkles to NHV's "princess" waffle, and doing my best not to trip over my (annoyingly) needy cat ... Natalie entertains me with some pretty interesting thoughts.

This morning she said to me, "We have a cat, right, mommy."  "Yes, that's right."  In my head: He's kind of hard to forget when he's rubbing all 16 pounds of feline neediness against my shins and calves!  

"Do you know anyone else who has a cat?"

"Uh-huh, aunt Missy has a cat.  Grammy and Grampy have a cat - he's not very nice.  Sebastian Paul has a cat."  Pause.

"And, mommy, some people - they have a dog at their house."   "Yep."  Trying to figure out where this is going ... not having any luck.

"Cee-Cee.  She doesn't have a cat or a dog.  Why Cee-Cee not have a cat or a dog at her house?"

"Well, Cee-Cee has a fish tank.  She has fish as her pets."  Natalie nods in agreement but seems still to have something on her mind.

"Mommy, people cannot PET fish."  Why's that?

"Because you would get your sleeves all wet!"

Under the Sea Adventure

Natalie and I spent a delightful morning with our good friends Megan and Alison. They introduced us to the Aquarium, and we have to say, "Thank you very much!" for that.

Natalie had a great time. And she continues to mention the octopus almost hourly. It was pretty cool - even I have to admit that! We've looked at the octopus photos on the computer at least half a dozen times. Taking pictures inside the aquarium wasn't easy; there was very limited natural light and flash-photog wasn't allowed. But I did my best. Another challenge, getting Natalie to look at the camera when there was so many other, more interesting things to see.

Making our way to the outdoor exhibits, I had the chance to snap a few of these. The outfit is new - courtesy of a fabulous clearance rack at the Children's Place. She loved the freedom of being able to run along this (well-protected) boardwalk. And I loved that she ran toward - rather than away from - me.