Toronto, Part 2

Monday we had a family morning at the waterfront, and luckily for us, we left late enough and avoided the rush hour traffic. We took a selfie with the CN Tower:

We opted to skip a visit to the tower, but went to the aquarium instead and we're so glad we did. It was our first official aquarium visit (we see fish at the MN Zoo), and this one was spectacular.

Our favorite part of the visit was standing on the moving sidewalk that snaked through the big tanks and tunnels. We had shark and fish swimming all around us. Even Caroline was excited to participate.

We got to touch horseshoe crabs. I showed Caroline how to do it, but she didn't want to give it a try.

However, Bennett was brave.

He was quite proud of himself for giving it a try.

Bennett trying to catch a jellyfish

Then Bennett touched a shark.

As we were leaving the aquarium, we let the kids pick out toys. Bennett chose a stuffed shark. Both he and I showed Caroline different stuffed animals, but none stood out to her. Finally we walked past a bin of little trinket and she saw a small plastic penguin bath toy. That was it. She found her holy grail and it was all she wanted. Some teeny little bath toy, of an animal we didn't even see on our visit. I told her she could have it, but she could even pick out another memento, but no, no stuffed animal for her. I tried to give her another little bath toy. TWO to take home, but no, all she wanted was the one teeny little $2 penguin. When she has her mind set to something, that is all she wants. I guess it's better that she loves teeny little things, instead of massive items.

After the aquarium we were overdue to have lunch, but the kids held it together pretty well as we walked to Tim Hortons.

After lunch, we all had our energy back and decided to walk to the waterfront.

There was a roundhouse across the street from the aquarium, with steam engines outside. Caroline had fallen asleep, but we decided to walk through all the steam engines. We never made it to the steam engines because we got sidetracked by a little train that gave rides. Bennett and Joel got tickets and they were on their way. I never got a picture of the little engine, but the three minute trip was a highlight of Bennett's day.

The kids both fell asleep instantly in the car. We stopped at the mall, so that I could walk around, while Joel stayed in the car with the kids. As they were starting to wake, we picked up some donuts at Tim Hortons for a snack (some of us didn't have donuts during lunch). Vanilla dip donuts for the kids.

Caroline had a special way of eating donuts, that involved only eating the best part:

Once the frosting and sprinkles were gone, she moved onto a bag of popcorn. It made her really happy.

We went to dinner at an eclectically decorated buffet. Here are the kids looking at the fish:

We asked the kids to pose for a photo, however, August was a monster, Bennett was a Jedi, and Caroline had her eyes closed.

Our other attempts weren't any better, as the boys couldn't snap out of monster/Jedi mode.

We tried a little later and got slightly better results:

Tuesday was the day we left Toronto. When I woke up in the morning, I saw this:

I watched him for a while, and he was really lost in his own little pillow wearing world. I finally started laughing, because it was just too funny. He looked over and explained that it was his helmet. He is seriously the most amusing kid.

Before leaving the hotel, we tried to recreate a picture of Bennett and August from three years prior. It didn't go quite as planned, but at least we have pictures of them sitting in the same green chair.

We spent the day at Uncle and Auntie's house. Naturally, Caroline fell asleep late for her afternoon nap, and we needed to leave about 30 minutes in. Checking into our flight was a nightmare. Despite arriving hours ahead of time, it took us about an hour just to check into our flight, because we needed to speak with an agent since Caroline was a lap baby. So annoying and both kids were losing it. Then we needed to go through security, customs, wait in line at the gate to get a seat assignment. It all took too long, but the flight attendant put it in comfort economy seats... unfortunately, she could only get two seats together, which meant Mommy and kiddo were going to be together alone again.

However, this time, Grandma did some musical chairs and got seats together for Bennett and Joel, while she sat with us. It helped having another person to keep Caroline occupied, as no activity ever occupies her for more than 5 minutes.

The most effective time consuming activity for Caroline is Play Doh.

Once back home, we looked through the photos that Uncle took and saw a family photo with all of us looking in the same direction AND a smiling Caroline. Success!