this morning:
"do I have something on my face?"
I gave Keira some rice cereal this morning, and made it a bit thicker than normal. for the most part, she got the hang of it and would even reach for the spoon and open her mouth when she wanted more. I think I made about an ounce worth and she ate the whole thing. there's something about a baby with food all over their face...
we decided to go on a family outing today to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Adult admission is normally $23.95, but a friend of ours gave us a coupon for $10 adult admission. score!!
there was a lot of people at the aquarium and we had brought our stroller with us. we ended up Bjorning her most of the time since it was easier for us to cruise the crowds that way.
it was Mike's first time at the Aquarium (I went there a while back when it first opened), so he got up close and personal with the stingrays and horn sharks.
Keira smells something fishy. must be the sharks on the other side of the glass in front of us.

since Mike is such the fish know-it-all, I suggested that he carry Keira so that he can talk to her and tell her about all the different fish we saw. one day, these two will be having some father-daughter time on a fishing boat, catching some fish of their own.
the Aquarium isn't that big, and we were able to walk a majority of it in about 2 hours. We pretty much agreed that it's not worth the $23.95 per adult price tag and were glad that we only spent $20 for both of us to get in.
We were getting hungry at this point and had lunch at the Yard House at Shoreline Village. Keira was getting tired (and we knew this) so we walked along the water for a bit so that she could take a little nap. poor kid was all tuckered out.
and since we were somewhat in the area, we stopped by 2nd Street on our way home to grab one of these:
it's an ice cream filled cupcake from Frosted Cupcakery. we opted for the chocolate chocolate with mint chip ice cream. the frosting was a bit much, but the ice cream hit the spot. we ordered two cupcakes to go, the strawberry lemonade (flavor of the month) and the chocolate caramel toffee. I ended up pretty darn disappointed when we got home because one of the cupcakes was the WRONG ONE!! instead of the strawberry lemonade (which I was dying to try and knew I shouldn't have because of Keira's skin sensitivity to citrus) one that I requested, they put a chocolate one in the bag. I would've gone back for the right one if the place wasn't so darn far. and since the end of the month is coming up, I probably won't get to try it at all.
Mike and I were being extra gluttonous at the moment and walked across the street to Yogurtland. yes, I know what you're thinking. yes, we did just have an ice cream filled cupcake. and yes, we were going to eat some frozen yogurt too. it's the weekend and we're allowed okay?
overall, we had a really nice day. As busy as we have been the last few weekends, it probably would've been a nice idea to lay around like slugs all day and accomplish nothing. but instead, we spent some quality family time together...and nothing is better than that.