Valentine's Day

Now you have to admit, the site of two penguins holding hands (or, fins), on Valentine's Day is pretty darn cute.  He-he.  Since Cole has been "studying" sea life at school, we thought a trip to the NE Aquarium was in order.  When I say Cole was excited, I assure you this was understatement. The boy was jumping up and down for a hour before we left.   Charlotte didn't know what was going to happen of course but when we got there, she was just as excited. Really, the cuteness was almost overwhelming!  Charlotte kept babbling and babbling to the animals.

Charlotte and Cole peer into a turtle's tank.  They watched this one for a long time! Charlotte had to turn around and make sure I was there because at one point I had stepped away to take a picture (of course!) and the turtle swam right up and she literally yelped and started crying. Brendan and I and the people around us had a good laugh (I know, we are horrible parents.), but she was ok after that!

There he is!  I just wanted to take him home, he was so cute!

Charlotte kept waving at the fishes.

This is not a poster that Cole is looking at! This is Cole peering into the great tank that holds the large fish, the 40 year old turtle (Myrtle, of course) and sharks.  I just thought this photo looked so cool!

My love bugs.

Cole was SO excited to see sharks and he thought it was just the greatest when they swam by (and it was often!). Cole also loved seeing the scuba diver in the tank, who he said was taking photos of the fish- but I didn't see a camera- I think he was getting it confused with Nemo.

Holding starfish in the Touch Tank.

I got a lot of these types of photos that day- Cole and Charlotte peering through the looking glass and just getting the backs of their heads. They were so incredibly interested in everything. It was neat to see. This is the third time Cole has been to the aquarium and his interest in the fishes and the sharks and the turtles has grown with each successive visit.  The first time when he was 16 months old he was babbling often like Charlotte was this time and now of course he's talking to us like a little boy and we are able to share stories and excitement over the day.  We had a wonderful Valentine's morning- our little family of four!