Learning to Love

Chapter 48

I had been woken up by Mommy really early this morning and was currently sat in the car with daddy while we headed somewhere, I wasn't told where just that we were having "bonding time" whatever that was. The car suddenly stopped, and Daddy looked at me and gave me a big smile, "Alright we are here, let me go around and get you out baby girl, you are going to love this surprise!" I smiled back at Daddy and wiggled in my seat, trying to see where we were. I couldn't quite tell, but there were a lot of people walking by the car. Daddy climbed out of the car and shut his door, then quickly walked over to my side and opened my door, he reached in to unbuckle me, I smiled at him "Daddy!" "Yes, good job baby, I'm daddy!" Daddy picked me up and settled me on his hip, then reached back into the car and grabbed my puppy backpack, "Puppy!" "Yes, that's right little one, your puppy!" Daddy walked over to the front seat and opened the door, he put me on the seat and then crouched down to look at me.

"Cali, I know you didn't really like this that first time it was used, but it's really busy inside this place and I don't want you to get lost, can I put it on you? I promise if you get overwhelmed, I will take it off and we can rent a stroller, or I can carry you." I looked up at him and studied his face, finally I nodded and put my arms up so he could lift me back up. He smiled at me, "Thank you so much sweetie, remember if you get overwhelmed, you let me know okay?" I nodded again and daddy picked me up, giving me a great big hug, he set me back on the ground and put my puppy on my back, once I was ready to go, he stood up and waved to the driver, I watched him and then waved to the driver as well, "BYE!" I heard a gasp and turned to look up at daddy, he smiled at me, "Baby you just said Bye, I'm so proud of you!" I giggled and then held up my arms so daddy could carry me again. He settled me on his hip, then turned the direction all the people were walking in, "Alright you ready for a fun-filled day Cali?" I nodded and pointed towards where the people were heading. Daddy started walking and bouncing me up and down, I was laughing, even if I just got to walk around with Daddy it was a great day!

We walked into a building that had sliding doors, there was a big line of people waiting for something, but daddy walked right past them, then I noticed right in the middle of the entrance a giant fish! It was bigger than I was! I gasped and pointed to it, daddy saw me looking and walked over to it, he let me touch it, then he turned to walk around, I wanted to look at it longer though and I whimpered and turned my head to watch it. "I know baby, I want to show you all the fishies swimming though, we just have to go through the main entrance, we can stop and see that fish on the way out, okay?" I thought about it and then nodded, there were more fishies here? I was good with going to see them. Daddy walked over to another set of doors, and we walked through them, there was so much to look at, how was I going to see it all?

All of a sudden daddy stopped walking and I immediately looked to see why, we had stopped in a line, I whimpered and tugged on daddy's shirt, "Daddy?" I pointed to the fishies I could see in the room, "I know, we are going over there, I promise Daddy just has to give our tickets to the nice lady up ahead to scan so we can get in baby." oh that's why we stopped, I watched as the line slowly moved, it felt like it took forever, eventually we made it to the front and I was wiggling so much, I was so excited! "Hello, welcome to the Aquarium dears, tickets please?" ooooh an Aquarium, I had only read about these, but never visited one before. Daddy pulled out his phone and showed the lady, "Alright dears, enjoy your day!" "Thank you, you have a great day ma'am" daddy told the lady while he walked past her, "Alright little one, where do you want to look at first?" I pointed to the fish I had seen when we first walked in, "The freshwater fish? Alright, let's go look sweetie."

Daddy approached the tank and let me watch them, when I turned to look at a kid who had come up next to me, daddy quickly turned in the other direction, "Should we move on honey? There's so much to see here, they have sharks, and dolphins and turtles and stingrays, let's go see if we can fine one of them." I nodded and daddy started walking into another room, this one had tons of colorful fish in it. I clapped my hands and started wiggling. Daddy set me down, "Alright little lady, I've got the end of the backpack, you head in the direction you want to check out and Daddy will be right behind you." I nodded and took off for the closest tank with colorful fish in it, I watched the fishies swim for a while, then would take off for another tank, I did that through the whole room, when I got to the end, I looked back at Daddy and shrugged my shoulders "Fishies?" Daddy smiled at me, "I think there's another room sweetie, let's go through that doorway, okay?" He pointed to an archway that everyone was going into, I nodded and started going in that direction.