As is probably obvious, the place was packed. Luckily, I had Jackson in his stroller, so we steamrolled our way to the elevators. (If only that were true. For those of you who know me well, you can see right through that statement. More accurately, we eventually made it to the elevators, letting other, less patient people push their way around.)
Out of all the pictures I took today, not one of them shows Jackson smiling. He has the same look in all of them - a mixture of concentration and curiosity. When we first got in the Tot Spot, he went straight for a row of doors.
I thought he was going to stay in that area for the rest of the day, but he glanced to his right and saw the area with all the balls. He was a goner at that moment. When Jason saw this next picture, he started laughing because this could not paint a more accurate picture of his heart's desire.
The fact that he was walking up stairs, another one of his loves, is a complete bonus. So this little area let kids walk up and down stairs, a ramp, and a wavy patch in between. Jackson was not too certain about the waves at first.
I actually had to hold his hand to get him to walk over them. What makes him fearless about climbing on top of the couch to sit on the windowsill, but cautious about slight waves on the floor?! Once he traversed them a few times, they were no longer a cause for concern.
I took so many pictures in this area because he was holding on to the sides! He was being cautious! We have to relish these moments.
The next area he played in was tiered and cushiony! Wouldn't the world be a better place if all the floors looked like this? What Jackson loved most was one of the small circular cutouts in the floor which he tried to cram himself in for over five minutes.
Once he got in the circle, he realized he was missing something. So he got up, searched the ground for a minute, and returned with these.
Jackson spent a little time at the windows which had really neat spinnable "stars" so you could create different colors on the overlapping parts (anything with points is a star to Jackson, just like grapes are balls).
When we first got to the museum around 10:45, there were quite a few tots in the spot, but as the day wore on, the area thinned out, leaving Jackson enough room to build a house. (Sorry I only have one picture. I was contracted out as a builder.)
Probably the most surprising part of the day was when Jackson decided to go down a slide by himself A first.
The least surprising part? When Jackson decided to climb up the slide, and then down the stairs.
At least the padding ruled out any chance of rug burn after falling (which happened last week at church). Moving on! For the last 20 minutes or so, Jackson played at the Lite-Brite wall. It didn't take him very long to figure out that the colorful pegs looked like claves, and they were almost as loud.
After two and a half hours of playtime, we left the museum. Jackson wasn't excited to go at first, but once he was back in the stroller and cruising along, he relaxed and fell asleep quickly in the car. We did stop by the gift shop on our way out and I picked out an opposites book while Jackson picked out a ball. After a very long nap, Jackson told Grams and Grandpa Kaiser all about his day and even conducted a few bars for them. I think we'll be heading back up to the museum very soon!
That is the coolest childrens museum ever! The light bright thing is awesome!
ReplyDelete