Lucas Camilo

In case you haven’t heard, Lucas has a new favorite animal: the shark.  Which isn’t to say that all other animals have gone out of favor.  He still leads off every singing of Old MacDonald with a request for ducks, and our walks around the neighborhood involve constant vigilance for dog sightings… oh, and we did we mention that we currently entertain about 60 requests a day for the “birdie song”?

But when it comes down to it, Lucas’s primary obsession these days is with sharks.  It all started with a silly book called “Going to the Sea Park” which slowly made it’s way onto Lucas’s top 10 list, and then suddenly became the only book that we could reliably read to him at any hour of the day without ever getting the dismissive “all done” (he can be kinda picky out his books.)  The pages of what we now call the Shark Book have become so worn that we might need to get a new copy at some point, and the page in the middle of the book where the “little critters” arrive to see the shark tank is especially loved.  Lucas often holds the book open himself while pointing with glee at the sharks; sometimes he counts them but more often he repeatedly wacks himself on the forehead with a sideways open hand, emphatically employing the ASL sign for “shark”.  More than once in the past few months one of us has had to call the other to frantically inquire about the location of the shark book, and during the conversation Lucas can be heard in the background repeating incessantly “aark book, aark book, AAARK BOOK!”

Last week we decided it was finally time to show Lucas a real shark.  Krista had recently queued up a few youtube videos of sharks with Lucas and confirmed that it was in fact the sharks and not just the ridiculous book that he was obsessed with.  So we packed up for a trip to the renowned Baltimore aquarium, which we had heard was more than a few steps up from DC’s aquarium (that’s not saying much – the latter is a nothing more than a handful of oversized fish tanks in the dark basement of the Treasury Building.)

Indeed, Lucas perhaps reserves most of his love for sharks, but in general he’s pretty passionate about things swimming around in water.  In the vast aquarium in Baltimore he got to check out many colorful fishies, as well as turtles (another animal that easily makes the Lucas top-10) and jellyfish.  The aquarium is super-accessible, with special handicap elevators to the various exhibits and indoor sky bridges between the buildings.  We flipped Lucas’s chair around so that he could get really close to the tanks, and sometimes held up his head to help him focus in and follow a fast-moving sea animal.

Not surprisingly, the biggest thrill of all was getting up close and personal with the sharks.  Well not too close, but there is an amazing giant tank with a spiral staircase INSIDE of it that allows you to watch sharks swimming all around.  Each time one would come by Lucas would wack himself on the forehead and mouth the word “shark”.  There must have been a dozen different sharks of varying species, and we learned that one type of shark has a 2000 pound liver! (needless to say that guy wasn’t on hand).  In the end we were pretty happy with ourselves for pulling off the trip to Baltimore, and it was especially gratifying to see how enthralled Lucas was by it all.

As could be expected, the trip to the aquarium only whetted Lucas’s appetite for sharks.  The Shark Book remains as popular as ever, and it’s hard to explain to Lucas that we can’t go see the sharks in person every day.  Krista’s mom recently purchased a new shark toy and when she showed it to Lucas via skype the he tried to reach through the screen to grab it.  Ah, the wonders of a 2 year old!

Oh yeah, and did we mention that it was a nice Thanksgiving break?  Dinner at our good friends’ Sha and Matt’s place up the street, a trip to the Randolph’s house on the Shenandoah River, and lots of walks in the park as the beautiful, 60 degree fall days continue.  It’s going to be hard to leave Washington DC…