My 34th birthday was one to remember!
Tess found out a week before that my birthday was coming, and she'd been excited ever since. She'd already sung me numerous renditions of "Happy Birfday a Momma." (I didn't know she knew that song!) Apparently "birthday" for her is one of those loaded terms that comes full of expectations. She heard mention of the word "birthday" and immediately started talking about "a BIG cake, a candles, balloons, hats!"
When I got up on my birthday Ryan and Tess were nowhere to be found, so I figured Ry had something up his sleeve. I was getting ready in the bathroom when Tess walked in with a bouquet of roses and said, "Happy birfday a you, Momma!" She then proceeded to spill her guts: "A balloons! A BIG cake! A candles 4, 5!" Then she got a concerned look on her face, threw her arms in the air and said, "A no hats ANYWHERE!" Ryan said they'd been to 3 stores looking for party hats to appease Tess' birthday sense, sadly, with no luck.
We made up for the lack of party hats by spending the day at the Baltimore National Aquarium. I've been wanting to take Tess there since she's developed an interest in the ocean. I wasn't sure how she'd do there, but Ry took the day off from work and we braved it all together.
Knowing how she builds things up in her mind, we were very careful how we presented the idea to her. "Aquarium...it's like a zoo for fish." No good. She'd be dying to see the zebras and elephants the whole time! "Aquarium...it's a fish place." A little generic--she'd probably think we were going to Wal-Mart and expect to see the toys. "Aquarium...it's a fish museum." This is the option I went with, which worked fairly well. She did keep asking to play with the balls and milk the cow like she did at the Children's Museum in Richmond, but luckily the dolphins played with balls and we even found a cowfish to fit the bill!
Overall, Tess handled it better than expected. It is a bit of an overwhelming experience, since it's kind of dark inside with huge tanks of big fish and sharks swimming around everywhere. Her favorite animal of the day was the rescued, 3-flippered Green Sea Turtle, which was swimming around the huge open tank in the middle of the museum.
(It was at this exhibit I sadly realized I'd brought camera, but left my freshly-charged battery sitting in the charger at home. So all these pictures are from someone else's trip. But we saw the same things.)
At the end of our 2-hour visit, we took in the dolphin show. Tess was pretty oversaturated with fish by that point, but I think she enjoyed it. Her favorite trick was when the dolphin shot straight in the air to get a ball.
We got caught in a huge thunderstorm on the way home, stopped for crab cakes for dinner and finished up at home with cake, candles with the numbers "3" and "4," a final singing of "Happy Birfday a Momma," and presents. We were all exhausted, but happy. What a great way to spend my day!
In other happy news, my obgyn appointment went well today. I'm now scheduled to have my sonogram on July 22nd, so we'll finally find out if Tess is getting a brother or sister!
And I'm happy to report that after an artistic dryspell, Tess has resumed drawing. For a while there, she just was not at all interested. Her favorite subject matter is still happy faces, but she often adds additional details, including hair, arms, legs, glasses and ears. I love seeing what comes out of her little head.
It's a good thing we're headed on a big plane to Idaho this summer, or Tess would've been pretty heartbroken to see her Papa go!
