Pools

We ventured out on our first day-trip since coming to China 4 1/2 months ago. To be fair, I was hugely pregnant, and then the mother of a newborn. I'm still the mother of a newborn, but since she's almost 3 months old now, we decided to try it.

Plus, Kevin gets Labor Day off while the rest of China does not. This made it ideal to go visit the aquarium just outside of Shenyang.

As far as aquariums go, Monterrey Bay and Sea World obviously top the list. Seattle is near the bottom, right there above my mom's dining room fish tank. This one here in Shenyang, China, is probably third on the list, right below those in California. It was pretty awesome.

Penny's favorite animals were the walruses. They were pretty impressive so close up. Did you know that they have little claws on their flippers? Cool, huh!

There was a dolphin and whale show at (what we thought was) the end of the aquarium. They jumped, counted, carried people, did flips, and waved goodbye at the end of the show.

The other half of the aquarium grounds is a giant indoor water park, which we will have to visit now we know it's there.

I was very impressed with Penny. She hasn't worn a diaper for 2 weeks now, but we put her in one for the day. She kept it dry the entire time! This tells me two things: I need to give her more to drink; she's probably super dehydrated. But also, I think she's finally potty trained!

This has been an epic struggle. It started back when Libya started its revolution in February, but like that conflict (and really, the only similarity), I'm not really sure when to call it a victory. Um... Gaddafi's pretty much ousted and people are celebrating in many parts of the country, but there are still dangerous areas, from what I gather. Penny is pretty much trained, but she still refuses to use anything but the potties in our house. But I'm going to call it a victory today and keep working on the pockets of resistance.