The Tucson Children's Museum

On Thursday afternoon, Henry and Miss R went to Grammy and Poppy's house. Grammy says that Poppy goes through Henry and Miss R withdrawals when he hasn't seen them for a day.

On Friday, it was Green Day at school. We made sure that Henry and Miss R wore green shirts. We picked them up around 4PM. We got Miss R first. She was happy to see us. Then, we got Henry. Miss R gave him a big hug when she saw him. Miss Stephanie reported that Henry had been a monkey all day. Every time she turned around, he was trying to climb on something (e.g., counters, bookshelves). He'd climb up on something and then lay down on it.

We took the kids to Monkey Business after school. They were very excited to return there. The flashing lights on the games seem to make them extra loud and extra crazy. It was exhausting. We had a big dinner. My dinner salad came out first. While I had gotten up to get us utensils, Miss R helped herself to the cheese on it. I ended up giving the kids the cheese and croutons while we waited for the rest of the food to arrive. Henry enjoyed the turkey and bacon from Jeff's very large sandwich. Miss R enjoyed the bread from it. She also liked the spaghetti. She ignored the strands that I had cut into small pieces and opted for single large strands that she could slurp into her mouth.

Jeff took charge of getting the kids to bed when we got home. It was an hour long event.

This morning, Henry and Jeff woke up some time after 6AM. Miss R and I slept until 8:15AM. I made the kids pancakes for breakfast. Henry had had crackers before we got up. Then, he had a dish of sweet potato puree (his request; we still have some baby food in the pantry). Then, he had two pancakes and some fruit leather. For him, it was a lot of food.

We took the kids to the Tucson Children's Museum for the very first time. It's only about 15 minutes from our house and is located downtown. It was a lot of fun. We were pleasantly surprised. There was a room just for children under 4 years of age. In the room, there were soft blocks to stack, beanie frogs to put on this belt that, with the pull of a cord, would move toward the ceiling making the frogs hit a fan that sent them flying all over the room, areas of the floor that lighted up with the touch of a button, soft stairs to climb, and other neat things.

The kids played in a room based on a sea theme. Henry crawled through a tunnel and climbed into a cubby hole filled with puppets. The kids played on a computer.

There was a room with a tangle of ropes to climb around. There was a room filled with drums to play. Another room had these lights that left writing on the wall if you touched the lights to the wall. The writing would fade after a minute or so.

Miss R's favorite room had the front of a fire engine in which to sit. She was actually a bit of a fire engine hog and got very mad when I took her away from the stirring wheel so that another child could have a turn. I let her return to it after the family had left. Henry and Miss R also sat on a police motor cycle complete with siren and flashing lights.





Miss R's second favorite room had a train that traveled around a track near the ceiling. She sat for several minutes pushing a button to start the engine if it stopped. Henry and Jeff played in a maze. Jeff reported that Henry cheated a bit. When he got stuck, he'd just get on his stomach and crawl under the barriers.

The last room that we visited was very large and had a shopping area, cooking area, doctor's area, and dance area. Miss R liked playing with the pretend food. Henry enjoyed pushing a shopping cart around the room. We liked the museum so much that we decided to become members. We are members of the zoo, but the zoo is just too hot this time of year.



We didn't get home until after 1PM. Miss R only slept for about 40 minutes. Henry took a much longer snooze. After getting Miss R some lunch, I took a nap on the couch. All in all, I'm doing much better health wise, but the excursion was exhausting. I wouldn't say that Jeff and I are over whatever we have. Every time I think that we are over it, one of us has a coughing fit. As I've mentioned before, we aren't contagious, but our lungs just haven't quite healed yet.

We took the kids to Grammy and Poppy's for dinner. We dropped them off around 6:15PM and picked them up at 8PM. When we arrived, they were watching Harry Potter at Henry's request. I think that Grammy was surprised at his selection. They like how he says "Harry Potter" with an English accent (probably b/c of the books on CD; the narrator, Jim Dale, is British). While we got the report from Grammy on how the kids ate, Henry went to their pantry, helped himself to some Trader Joe's Pirate's Booty, and walked around with the bag with his arm in it. With the bag up to his arm pit, his hand could just reach some of the puffs at the bottom. It was pretty cute. He graciously shared with Miss R. He also dished out some Pirate's Booty for the rest of us.

Grammy reported that she had told Henry that he needed another haircut. He said, "Todd!" That is indeed Henry's hair stylist. Poppy mentioned something about a "fountain" because there is a fountain in front of Gadabout. Henry said, "Pennies!" because he'd thrown pennies in the fountain the one and only time that he was there. He has a good memory.

That's about all from here. Tomorrow, we have an outing scheduled with Aunt Carolyn and Poppy.