A Special Day at the Aquarium

Reilly loves animals, any and all kinds. He has definitely inherited this love from both his daddy and me...we had 4 dogs before he was born and have added even more animals since then. We are very lucky to live in a city with a wonderful zoo, an aquarium, and an insectarium. Reilly's Pawpaw (another animal lover in the family) volunteers at the Aquarium and over the weekend he arranged a special treat for us.

Bobby left very early Saturday morning for the Ole Miss game, so later that morning just Reilly and I headed downtown to the Aquarium. We were meeting his friend Kamron and his mom there too, so Reilly was very excited.

As soon as we got there, we found Pawpaw and headed to our first special treat...feeding the stingrays! (Unfortunately Mary and Kamron were running late, so they missed this part). Reilly waited not-too-patiently in the line, and finally it was our turn. He was scared to put his hand in and actually feed the stingrays, so he just dropped his fish in. To be honest, I was kind of freaked out to do it too, but I had to set a good example so I acted much braver than I felt.

Next up: petting the baby shark. Reilly was a little scared to do this too, but once he got up the courage to do it, it was ALL he wanted to do..he must have petted the shark 20 times.

By this time, Mary and Kamron had arrived, so we went and checked out some more of the aquarium. We saw penguins, frogs, sea otters, all kinds of fish, plus some birds and an alligator. We took a break for lunch and were walking around some more when Pawpaw called with some exciting news...it was time for us to meet a penguin in person!

We went back into a back room and there was one of the other volunteers with a penguin named Cole (I think). We all got to pet him for a few minutes. I wasn't sure what I thought he would feel like, but it was just like touching any other bird. The boys were really excited, but very good. They were gentle and didn't make any loud noises that would have scared the penguin.

After spending some time in the play area, we rounded the boys up and headed home. It was a really fun afternoon, and one I know that I won't forget anytime soon!

My little prince on a big frog

Petting the penguin

Just being boys...


Petting the baby shark

Checking out the stingrays

The Story of the Pilgrims

Reilly comes home from school almost every day all excited about what he has learned that day. Sometimes, though, he doesn't get the facts quite right. For example, we had the following conversation in the car yesterday...

Reilly: Mama, I want to tell you a story.
Mama: OK, tell me.
R: I am going to tell you about the pilgrims. They wear a hat and a suit.
M: Yes, they do. What else?
R: They came in a boat called the Mayflower. But a lot of them got sick on the boat. They got sick because they didn't have any food and there wasn't a refrigerator.
M: What did they do when they got here?
R: They hunted for turkeys and vegetables.
M: They hunted for vegetables?
R: Yes, they hunted for them in the field next to the lake that I know.

HUH???

Reillyisms

More funny and amazing things that come out of his mouth...



It is often a battle to get Reilly to go potty. He will do anything to avoid going when we ask him too (he gets that stubborn gene from me!). The other day, I told him to go use the bathroom and he gave me a resounding "NO"!! He was wearing a Superman shirt, so I said "come on Superman, let's go potty". He looked down at his shirt and responded with "Superheroes don't go potty!" I guess it would be kind of rough with the tights and all...



One of our family traditions is that on weekend mornings we all curl up in bed together and watch TV. On a recent weekend morning Reilly crawled into our bed and tried to snuggle up Bobby. For some reason, Bobby had slept with no shirt on, which is very unusual for him. Reilly promptly told Bobby to put his shirt on. When Bobby asked him why, Reilly said "I don't like your fur". Bobby has very little body hair, so I'm not sure exactly what Reilly was bothered by, but Bobby humored him and put on a shirt.


Reilly and I were shopping at Sam's recently, when I went to go look for some deli meat. I was standing in front of the big case, trying to figure out what I wanted, when all of a sudden Reilly yells out "Go Meat!"


Reilly loves to take all of his toys out, but hates to put them all away. The other night, we were trying to get him to clean up the big mess he had made in the living room. His answer: "are the maids coming tomorrow? They can clean them up for me". Ummm, no honey, YOU need to pick up your toys.



I put out our holiday decorations the other day. One of the things I put out is an Elf on the Shelf, so that night I read Reilly the book and got him to try and find the elf. I don't think this is going to be a very effective behavior management tool in this house. He told me that the elf is just a decoration and can't fly to the North Pole because he doesn't have wings. I think he is too smart for his own good.

Halloween fun (a little late)

Yes, Halloween was over a week ago, but I am just now finding time to sit down and blog about it. It feels like I have not 5 spare minutes since then, but better late than never, right???


Reilly had a 2 day Halloween celebration. It started on Friday at school, when his class had a party at lunchtime. All of the parents sent food for them to eat, and they all got to wear their costumes to school. Reilly wore his pirate costume again...I just think he looks so cute in it! He (and all the rest of his classmates) had a lot of fun and I think they all enjoyed having so many parents there with them.

Saturday, the next day, was actually Halloween. This is always a big event on our street. Both ends of the block are barricaded off and everyone sets up tables in their driveway and it's a big block party and always a lot of fun. This year we had invited Reilly's friends from school to join us, so we had even more fun! Only a few people ended up coming, but the ones that did had a blast trick or treating, chasing each other around, and eating lots of candy. Unfortunately, Reilly may have done a little TOO much eating and chasing, since he threw up in our neighbor's golf cart, but a good time was still had by all.

Enjoying lunch with his classmates

The look on his face when he walked in and saw the classroom decorated for the party

Playing with friends Halloween night
Looking cute in his puppy costume