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Cailyn's birthday surprise

It's a short drive, maybe twenty minutes, to get to Cailyn's surprise. I tell her to cover her eyes as we get close and she hides her face with her hands, giggling. I'd originally mentioned my idea to Liam one morning, a week or two before Cailyn's birthday. 

FLASHBACK **

"I'm thinking about taking Cailyn to an aquarium for her birthday, as a surprise." I comment randomly as we're sitting there. Dropping this into a moment of silence between discussing whether letting the girls have sweets is a good reward or just causes them to eat to much sugar.

"Oh? Where did you come up with that idea?"

"Well," I say slowly, gathering my thoughts and tapping my toes on the carpeted floor. "I noticed how much fun she was having when we took her to the zoo with all of us. It was all she could talk about for the next few days, how many different animals she had seen and learned the names to. All she's been checking out at the library have been picture book about animals. She looks at them for hours."

"So you thought, why not show her the sea creatures since she's already seen a lot of mammals and birds?"

"Exactly! What do you think?" I lean forward eagerly. I've had it on my mind the past few days and it's been developing into something that I've almost completely made up my mind about it.

"I think it's ace, she'll love it." he nods and returns his attention to his phone, a text notification popping up and ending his visit. ***

After that I mentioned the idea to mom and even subtly asked Theresa if she thought Cailyn really, really liked animals a lot and would like to go back to a zoo.

And now here we are, a lot of planning and phone calls later we're minutes away from finding out if this will be Cailyn's best birthday ever or if it'll will just be another sub-par one.  I take a deep breath and pull into a parking space on the side of the building.

"Keep your eyes closed!!" I instruct Cailyn as I get out and walk around to her door and unbuckle her. "We're here but don't peek until we get inside, I'll carry you. Let's just wait for Tessie and papa and everybody to get out of their cars."

"Okay mommy." she says, bouncing and wiggling in my arms with excitement. "I can't wait to see what it is mommy. Is it a really cool surprise?"

"I think it is, we'll have to wait and see what the birthday girl thinks though..." I kiss her cheek and wave to my parents who have parked at the other end of the parking lot. Which is odd since there are plenty of parking spots available. I wait for Sophia to help Tessie our of the car and then we walk over to my parents and into the aquarium together.

"Are you ready mi hija?" I ask Cailyn as we walk through the automatic doors and into the lobby of the aquarium. I set her down and make sure she's still got her eyes covered as I lead her over to the display tank they have at the entrance. "Are you ready to see your surprise?!"

"Yes!!!" she drops her hands away from her face and slowly blinks her eyes open. She stares up at the tank that covers the whole wall, full of glowing jelly fish, and her mouth drops open. "Wow..." She walks closer to the glass and places her hand on it as the creatures inside swim around lazily. "Where are we mommy?"

I crouch down to get on her eye level and smile at her. It looks like she's already enjoying herself. "We're at an aquarium. It's like a  zoo, but for fish and turtles and sharks. All the animals that live in the oceans. What do you think? Is it a good surprise?" I rub her back as she turns slowly.

"Thank you so much mommy!! This is...I love it!" she throws her arms around my neck, almost making me lose my balance in the crouch I was in. I hug her back and smile into her hair. I'm so glad she loves it already. 

"Well come on, there's a lot more to see!!" At this she takes off down the hallway and I have to run after her to catch up, throwing a grin back at my parents and Sophia. My mom winks at me and my dad chuckles as they follow behind at a slower pace.

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Did you have a good birthday?" mom asks Cailyn as we're tucking her into bed. Cailyn is too tired to do much more than nod around a yawn and pucker up her lips for a kiss from me. I laugh and lean down to kiss her and fix her blankets around her little body.

"You've worn yourself out haven't you?" I caress her head and blow on her eyelids until she closes them, giggling. "We'll let you sleep now, love you mi hija."

"Have a good rest," my mother adds as she follows me out of the room, closing the door gently behind us.

Cailyn dragged us all over the aquarium, wanting to see it all and then see it two more times. We ended up spending several hours there until it was nearly dinner time and Sophia and Tessie had already left an hour earlier. Her favorites were the shark tunnel, where the sharks swam all around you, including above! She also loved the tropical fish tank, complete with sea anemones, starfish, and clown fish. At those tanks she ended up just sitting down on the floor and staring at the fish swimming around her for at least twenty minutes. It was beautiful, watching her become so enamored with the fish moving elegantly through the water. As fun as it was going to the aquarium in general, I loved it more than I ever had before. Because it made Cailyn extremely happy and awed. I collapse into bed that night very happy and tired.

So there was Cailyn's birthday surprise! Hehe now it's time for some plot twists to happen *evil smirk* just you wait...

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