Yes, Memorial Day weekend was a while ago. I'm starting to think that if I blog about something within three weeks of it happening I'm actually doing pretty well ... And being without Internet service at our house for a week has made it difficult to do anything online. (That was painful. What? I have to wait to find out how to keep house finches out of my bluebird houses? How am I supposed to figure out how to make country style ribs without the Internet? No email at home? Ahg!)
While thinking about what fun thing to do with Jonathan over the holiday weekend, we considered visiting the zoo or a water park, but ultimately decided on taking him to the Minnesota Children's Museum. I told him Friday that we'd be going on an adventure the next day, partly because we didn't actually make up our minds to go there until Saturday morning and I didn't want to be too specific about what we'd be doing, but also because Diego is referred to as a "rough and tough adventurer" in the Go, Diego, Go! theme song and I knew he'd have a general idea of what an adventure was.
Well, that was all he'd talk about Saturday morning. "Going on adventure, Mom. Eat breakfast, then put shoes on, then go on adventure. Yeah." Of course his excitement didn't translate into getting dressed and out the door in a timely manner. But we managed to get there shortly after noon, having stopped to eat at Jimmy John's on the way. We even ate at a table outside and watched airplanes zoom by overhead. Jonathan thought that was a real treat, too.
I think Jonathan viewed anything that was new and different as being part of his adventure: parking in a parking ramp, walking down the sidewalk in "the big city," seeing all the tall buildings, and crossing the street where there was a stop light.
We purchased our tickets, and the cashier asked whether we'd been there before. I answered no (well, I'd been there as a kid myself, but that was ages ago), so he started to go over the layout. I was putting my wallet back together, though, and got distracted when I caught a glance at his name on the receipt: Garrett. It was even spelled the same, with two ts. He had dark hair and a nice smile. I looked for his name tag to double check. Yup, Garrett. My heart gave a little squeeze of affection for this stranger for having such a precious name.
Then we were off ...
Balancing Act
In the first room we visited, the Balancing Act exhibit, we stopped at a table near the entrance that had a few tops on it. Jonathan watched us spin a couple, and gave it a try himself, before taking a good look around and realizing he was in a giant playground. He was strutting around like quite the happy camper when he began to understand what his adventure was going to involve.
In the Our World exhibit, Jonathan enjoyed trying on different hats (although he was less interested in the coats and footwear that went along with the costumes), delivering letters, shaking a maraca and dancing to Smash Mouth's "All Star," listening to his heartbeat, and driving a bus! As great as all that was, though, he was pretty enamored with the conveyor belt he could turn to move dishes from a dining area to a kitchen. I think he did that about six or seven times before we convinced him to come see what other things the museum had to offer.
I think Jonathan could have spent all day putting ping pong balls in the various tubes and watching where they'd go. To be honest, I probably could have too. It took a while to figure out how to get a ball to the top tube in the water pressure feature, but we eventually got it. And Jonathan enjoyed sending boats down the chute even when he didn't have a partner to race against.
Jonathan was scared of the dinosaur exhibit at first. When he saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex, he stopped dead in his tracks and started backing up into me. He was put somewhat at ease when Chris and I explained that it was only pretend, and touched the big teeth to show him he didn't need to be afraid. He still wasn't a huge fan, though. Other parts of the exhibit included tunnels, slides, and friendlier-looking dinosaurs that Jonathan enjoyed more.
The Habitot® exhibit is really geared toward toddlers, with plenty of things to climb on, sunflowers to spin, nooks to hide in, and a cargo net to scale. I was really impressed with how well Jonathan did on the cargo net, and shouldn't have been surprised that he'd decide he was just as capable of going up the slide as well.
Apparently crawling through logs is a big thrill for toddlers, too. Jonathan and another little boy kept going through this one over and over again. They'd start at opposite ends, though, and couldn't quite figure out how to get past each other. Jonathan also has a soft spot for animal puppets and porcupines (at least those in his storybooks -- probably because I call each one a "prickly, pokily PORCUPINE!" and shower him with tickles when we see them), so he was over the moon for the porcupine puppet he found.
Hiding out in the beaver dam was another highlight of the day. That combined with checking out a giant turtle shell, grabbing plastic tadpoles in a stream, playing peek-a-boo with another little boy, and crawling through ant tunnels helped make the Earth World exhibit one of the favorites. And of course the hand dryer was just as interesting as the other features.
The Rooftop ArtPark had a number of areas to check out, but Jonathan was mostly interested in the water (he takes after his mom) -- both the drinking fountain and the stream where he could paint rocks with the water.
After being there for three hours, I think we were all pretty exhausted. Thankfully Jonathan was interested enough in getting some orange juice that he didn't complain at all about leaving. And he talked about his adventure on the way home, that night, and the rest of the weekend. As a parent, it's awfully satisfying to see your little guy have so much fun.
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