Just Us Girls: A Morning at the Children's Museum!

Annabel has been begging to go the "museum with the train and the light drawing"- which I knew to be the Children's Museum. I had been planning on taking her on a Wednesday all along, so that just she and I could enjoy some time there together, although I knew Daniel would really be bummed to have missed it (we may just have to go back and take him again, but really, we've been underwhelmed the last few times we've gone)...and last Wednesday was the day I'd finally marked on the calendar for us to go- it was our day! We had a really great time, just the two of us.

Annabel pretty much flitted from one thing to the next pretty quickly, spending more time with only a few things- the ball ramps, the wind tunnel (oh, this girl and her dance moves, I tell you!), and making "coins." The wind tunnel was a hit because they had scarves and ribbons and such to hold and watch them blow around and she would do these fancy dance moves and poses at the same time- it was too funny! The ball ramp was a lot of fun- she loved building a track and then rolling the balls down over and over.

But the "coin" making- that was her favorite! She must have made dozens of these little things. You had to draw a picture, roll the paper into a tube, put it in this machine, smash it up by cranking the lever, put the smashed product in another machine, get an adult to help crank the really hard lever and out came this little smashed paper token imprinted with a heart on it, ideally for you to share with someone you love. You could also draw something that made you mad and shred it in the shredder to "let it go." The concept was lost on Annabel, but she had fun shredding- she thought that was cool! We also took turns tracing each other's shadow/silhouette, which Annabel liked doing (anything with drawing she loves), the point of which was to "really focus on another person, giving them all your attention." (Can you see my eyes rolling?! Sorry, but...) This was all part of the new empathy building and emotion recognition center upstairs, which unfortunately took the place of all the train stuff she so loved last time- Annabel was really upset that was all gone (like close to tears, you could see the contempt and disappointment in her eyes, if you know her well, you can just see the look she was giving me!) and aside from the coin machine, this exhibit was highly underwhelming and not very interesting for her at all. It wasn't bad, I can see the point of it and it's a nice idea, but it ain't exactly attention grabbing for most kids, at least the kids I mostly see wandering around there- the preschool & under lot...the museum could have done something better, in my opinion. Reminds me why I'm glad NOT to be members here. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Annabel did also really have a lot of fun in the music making room- she did lots of those "poses" she does these days in there, too! It was too funny. And of course she's all- take a picture of me! I loved watching her notice the different sounds she was making- you could really see her gears turning! We did have a really fun morning just the two of us! It was so fun to just follow her lead all morning, have some lunch, and continue the fun until she finally decided she'd had enough. It's so nice to have this time, just us girls.