Wordless Wednesday: Little aquarium lover

I've got a lot of posts I'd like to get up in the next week or so, so fingers crossed I get my act together and catch up on weekly baby bump updates, general goings on and deep thoughts from a pregnant lady (is that possible? they're certainly scattered but emotional, so I guess that works) ...

Anyway, we went to the aquarium on Sunday. We have a membership to this aquarium, and while it isn't the flashiest, biggest or nicest I've been to (I'm a bit of an aquarium snob), I love it.

We've had a membership for three years now, and we certainly go enough that it always pays for itself. It's extremely educational and a good size for us. We can show up an hour before the place closes and see all of the exhibits without being rushed. There are new animals there every time. I love that the volunteers always teach us something new, and they've made a ton of improvements and changes in the last 12 months that make me glad our membership money is going to them.

This is one of the first visits that Elle really "got" it ... she had been obsessed with a sea creatures book we got from the library the week before, and she's been on a Finding Nemo kick lately, too. She was PUMPED for this trip. And as she dashed from tank to tank to see the eels, the sea dragons AND sea horses, the jelly fish and the "Nemos and Dorys," she amazed the volunteers with random bits of sea creature information.

It was a nice, relaxed family afternoon. When we arrived, though, I was struck by the rememberance of a scene nearly three years earlier when we took 10-day-old Elle out for one of her first outings:

On that hot summer day, I insisted we get a photo of her at the aquarium's entrance. We went to the aquarium with my visiting mom and brother. I nursed Elle in front of the manatee tank - one of the first times I nursed her in a public place - and Elle had a major blowout that had me wondering how one little person could create so much smelly poo.

This time, though, 2.75-year-old Elle gasped in delight as she saw the fountain. The stroller was unnecessary, and she barely stood in one place long enough for me to get a decent photo. She ran ahead of us almost the entire time. Now potty-trained, she didn't use the restroom at all.

Hard to believe that was "only" 2.75 years ago. And hard to believe how much she's grown and changed!