aquarium fun

Because of his lazy eye (amblyopia), Will has to wear an eye patch over his good eye 3 hours each day. The novelty of the patch wore off after about five minutes the first day, and within 15 minutes he was in full-fledged revolt mode. Being the accommodating parents that we are, we instigated a series of rewards to get him to wear the patch.

Initially he got a small treat for putting on the patch (for example, 5 chocolate chips) and a popsicle at the end of the three hours. We rarely have to do that anymore. Occasionally we throw in a few chocolate chips or the like at the halfway point, but that really depends on the day. After a successful 3 hours of patch-wearing he gets to put a sticker on his chart. The chart tracks his progress towards a bigger reward. For his first reward we decided to take him to the Sealife Aquarium at Crown Center (due to to a coupon we received in the mail for a free child's admission).

I give all that background to say, last Monday the long awaited for day arrived. Will finally earned a trip to the aquarium!

 Proudly posing with his chart.

The kids were instantly affected by the underwater mood music and got their groove on in waiting area.

Will stopped and examined each area. He had a lot of questions and seemed genuinely interested in the fish.

Lauren yelled and got nervous if the fish swam too close for her comfort.

 My favorite picture of the day.We weren't sure if the trip to the aquarium would be as exciting as the idea of a trip to the aquarium, but it lived up to the hype.

We visited the aquarium once before, a few days before Will's birthday (because under 3's are free), and the turtle area had since been added.

 Climbing on the fake turtle nests.

 Lauren enjoyed roaming free and hiding in tight corners and alcoves until I put an end to that.

 She raced through the aquarium. Keeping track of her was difficult, being that most of the exhibits were dimly lit and she took my pleas for her to stay close as a challenge. Eventually I just strapped her into the stroller.

We spent quite some time in the tunnel watching the various fish swim back and forth.

 Will was very brave and touched a sand crab and a few sea stars in the tide pool.

Lauren wasn't convinced we needed to take this group shot.

All in all we had a really fun afternoon and I left feeling quite proud of Will. Not only had he earned the activity by doing something he doesn't really enjoy each day, he was very well behaved and polite the whole time.