The London Aquarium And Other News

Nathan and I went to the London Aquarium today for the first time.  It's definitely not as big and impressive as the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, but it was still a really nice cold-weather activity.

Nathan was so excited to go to the aquarium to see the sharks, the turtles, the Nemo fish, and the penguins.  And, although he enjoyed the other fish and sea life there, he pretty much raced around the aquarium looking specifically for those four things.  We even had to go back to see the penguins a second time :)  After spending the better part of a week cooped up inside (see explanation below), we had a great morning at the aquarium!

And, to fill you all in on our not so fun week last week, it basically went something like this: Chris was out of town all week; Nathan and I tackled potty-training, so we were inside for a couple of days working on that; potty-training got a bit interrupted on the second day when Nathan got sick and we had to take a ride in an ambulance to the emergency room (he got a really high fever (104 degrees) and had a scary little episode where he stared off into the distance, went limp, and was unresponsive for a couple of minutes, then came to and started vomiting - mom got a little freaked out and called 999).  And, although that all made for kind of a miserable week, the good news is, Nathan is fine.  His fever went away by the middle of the night Tuesday night and stayed away.  It was apparently just a virus and the little episode he had was just connected to the spike in his fever.  And, despite the interruption to potty-training, Nathan did really well and we are now diaper-free, except at nights!

He was thrilled to see this giant penguin before we even got into the Aquarium.

He's actually on his hands and knees looking down at the sharks swimming below him.

This tank was a favorite of Nathan's, because there was a giant turtle in here.

The penguins!!  This was his absolute favorite part!

Nathan and his friend, Tyler, in the shark tank.

This was last week during a play-date with his friend, Aiden, who was also potty-training.  They were taking a little bathroom break :)

Nathan and Aiden hanging out at Purple Dragon.

London National Transport Museum

Nathan and I didn't have any plans today, so we decided to visit the National Transit Museum for the first time.  Nathan loved seeing and driving all of the buses, trains, and trams!

We finally had a sunny day and Nathan decided he needed his sunglasses to eat breakfast, because it was so bright :)

He kept them on to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse :) 

Standing next to a horse-drawn bus.

Standing on an old train.

Driving the bus.

Driving a tube train.

 

Bowling Adventure

We have decided to take at least one pre-planned field trip every weekend.  Although we have done a lot of really fun and interesting things since we have been living here, we were beginning to feel like many of our weekends were spent wandering around Chelsea (our neighborhood) and frequenting various restaurants on the King's Road (our high street).  And, while we live in a lovely neighborhood, we want to be sure that we are seeing and experiencing everything that London has to offer.

So, thanks to Nathan's recent obsession with the bowling app on the iPhone and and iPad (thanks Aunt Deanna for introducing us to that one :), Chris thought it would be fun to take him bowling in real life.  Not exactly an educational or historic field trip, but Nathan had a blast and is repeatedly asking to go back again!  We went to Namco Funscape--a big arcade with lots of games, bumper cars, and some bowling lanes.  It was actually a perfect adventure for the gloomy Sunday we had last weekend.  Not surprisingly, Nathan loved all of the "sports" games--bowling, football (soccer), golf, basketball, skee ball, etc.

In other news, we found a new music class today (8 months into being a stay-at-home mom and it still cracks me up that this is very exciting news in my life :)  The music class we were taking at the kids' club just wasn't cutting it.  We were in a fantastic music class in Pasadena and the one at the kids' club was a bit of a mess.  So, we tried out a new one today and we both loved it!  We now have a Wednesday morning activity to keep us busy :)

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Oh, and wishing my mom a very happy birthday (her birthday was yesterday).  Wish we were there to celebrate with you!

Here are some pictures and videos from our little family fun day last weekend.