Overheard at the Aquarium

We spent the day at the Vancouver Aquarium yesterday. We went with Darin's co-worker and his family. It was cool, because Ivan and Julia are Russian. Their boys speak more Russian than English and sometimes, Julia would ask me what the English word for something was, and she would tell the Russian words. I have exactly 0% memory retention of other languages. Really ticks me off.

ANYWAYS.... some priceless moments:

Victoria started out in her stroller, but wasnt really seeing anything, so we took her out. She ran from display to display, pointing and saying "Fish. Fish. Fish"

At the jelly fish tank: "Bubbles. Bubbles. Bubbles"

At the seal habitat: "Max. Psss..sss..sss." (Max is our cat. She calls all cats "Max." She calls pretty much everything with whiskers "Max" then makes the "psss...sss..ss" sound like calling for the cat.)

At the Sea Otter habitat: "puppy. puppy. woof. woof."

While eating lunch, she heard a crow caw. She coninuously 'cawed' until she heard the Peacock call. She wasnt sure how to imitate that, so she growled.

While watching the Beluga show, Vicki sees a grandfatherly gentleman behind us. She is reaching for him and saying "Grandpa. Grandpa." I didnt even know she knew how to say Grandpa. The best part is, though, that this man was Asian, and besides the balding head and grey eyebrows... not a whole lot of similiarities to her Grandpas.

Also at the Beluga habitat, Sammantha asks "how do they do that" when the belugas go vertical in the water then lift their tails straight up out of the water. I answered, "They use their fins to push themselves up." She answered with a bit of attitude that made me think she spends too much time with Lexi, "Well, I know THAT. But how? Their fins are small and their bodies are huge!" I answered that they have very strong fins. "Well, then, where are their muscles?" she asks. I pause, look at the Belugas, then say, "Hey look... that one is spitting water at the people!" Sammantha looks, smiles then looks back at me with a look on her face that said, "don't change the subject". I pretended not to notice. =)

On the way home, Victoria sang and did the actions for the whole "Pat-a-cake" song. Which is really cool, cause she doesnt really know all the words, so she made up her own. Victoria chatters and sings in a language all her own, all day long, every day. Every now and then I can recognize what she is singing, but usually its just her making up songs. It was really cool that I could recognize the Pat-a-cake song. She was so excited when I started singing along with her.

As Sammantha kissed me good night, she whispered, "This was a good day. I really really love you." (edit: for those of you who don't know, Sammantha is my step daughter. She is nine. The significance of that moment is hard to express)