Aquarium disco

When we were in San Francisco last month for my cousin's wedding, Steve, Aida and I stopped in at  the storefront to Dave Egger's writing school, 826 Valencia. It was midway through a long walk from my friend's home to the Mission. I was starting to get nervous that Aida needed to eat, but finding a quiet place to nurse is often difficult, especially when you're in a busy and unfamiliar city. Inside the store, there was a nice, dark, curtained corner just near entrance with a lighted aquarium and two short rows of theater seating for uninterrupted fish-watching or, if you're me, uninterrupted nursing.

When I walked in, Aida was rapt. The calming lights of the aquarium drew her in and the wandering fish didn't let her go. She was strapped to my chest in the baby carrier, but she couldn't take her eyes off the fish swimming back and forth. I took a seat in the second row, away from the entrance, took her out of the carrier, pulled my sweater up and my shirt down, offered her the goods and was promptly rejected. The fish were way too interesting. After a few more tries, I gave up, readjusted my clothing, put Aida back in the carrier, talked with her about the fish, then left.

A few blocks later, when she started to cry of starvation, we stopped on the street near a fruit stand and I offered up the milk without even sitting down or taking the carrier off. (Never done that before, but, man, was it ever easy thanks to the little head cover on the ErgoBaby carrier my Aunt Lynn got me.) Anyway, the point of this tale is that I knew immediately that it was time for us to take Aida to the Florida Aquarium when we got back home.

This weekend, we did. She seemed to love it, especially when we let her out of the stroller.