Dayjamas

St. Patricks Day at Seattle Center

Dreamy weekend

"I wish I could laminate this weekend."

                  - JJ, relaxing by the fountain at Seattle Center

Here are some highlights:

• Kiku touching sea anemones at the aquarium
• Walking through Pike Place Market in the rain
• Watching Kiku approach the big bearded balloon man who was dressed as a...hula dancer?
• Riding the bus. Yes, the bus (see previous post).
• Homemade brownies and vanilla ice cream for dessert on Sat. night
• Watching Office Space with JJ for the upteenth time and really enjoying it
• Waking up to the smell of pancakes on Sunday morning
• Discovering Kiku's "fruit salad" sculpted out of play dough
• Having lunch with friends and meeting their new baby
• Experiencing 60+ degree weather, sunshine and blue skies at the playground
• Listening to live Irish folk music and watching Irish dancers at the Seattle Center
• Kiku jumping up and down and kicking her legs out trying to imitate the Jiggers
• Riding the carousel
• Sharing a mint chip ice cream cone with Kiku
• Running through the water fountain

It's all about the experience

This morning the whole family hopped on the bus and headed downtown to the Seattle Aquarium.  Kiku had a great time looking out the window and talking to people sitting nearby.  Riding the bus made me feel like we were taking a little adventure.  I know it's a little sad that this is what constitutes an adventure these days, but we almost always take the car (or walk and/or stroller for short distances).  It felt good to leave the car at home for a change. We miss a lot of the real world by isolating ourselves in our vehicles.

When we were walking around the aquarium and pointing out different sea creatures for Kiku to look at, I noticed that she was more interested in exploring the emergency exit doors, or checking out the kid in the corner holding a bag of goldfish crackers.  I think it's *finally* dawning on me that I shouldn't let my expectations get in the way of her having a good time.  If she doesn't give a rat's ass about seeing the jelly fish or eels and would rather spend her time playing on the big octopus board designed for photo ops, so be it.  I mean, why were we there in the first place?  I don't know when I got it in my head that my daughter should automatically be thrilled by marine life.

On the bus ride home, Kiku kept asking about the people sitting across from us.

    "Why are the people different this time?"

    "Where did the other people go?"

As Roger Daltry says in the amazing Wheels on the Bus video, "everybody on the bus is going somewhere, everybody's got something they gotta do."