In Which We All Go To The Museum

Connor had another fantastic day at school today!  Apparently he not only had his feet put in a tray full of rice and was (marginally) okay with it, but he also actually had his hand encased in playdough and didn't cry. 

Wow.  That's my big boy!

After school he went down for his usual Quiet Time during which he (of course) didn't nap at all.  Once the hour was up Jeremy and I loaded him up and we drove to Seattle with the intention of meeting some friends at the Seattle Children's Museum.  Unfortunately it ended up being closed, so instead we went to the Pacific Science Museum.  Connor and I have been there before, but this was the first time Jeremy had seen it.  We had a blast!

The Pacific Science museum is a very different experience with Jeremy along than it is when it's just me and Connor.  When Connor and I are by ourselves, we usually move at a fairly leisurely pace, taking plenty of breaks and spending a lot of time reading the exhibits.  When Jeremy is along, it's all I can do to keep up-- every time I stopped to take a picture they'd leave me behind!

Like this picture of the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum building that we passed on our way to the PSC.  They were supposed to be in it, but were walking so fast that they were out of the frame before I hit the shutter button!  Most of the pictures I have are of vaguely Connor-and-Jeremy-shaped blurs.  Boy that is a really weird and awesome building though.  I always do a double take when I see the back of it because I think it's melting.

We visited the dinosaur room, the health area, the space exhibit and the outdoor water area.  We also spent quite a bit of time in the butterfly house and in the toddler music room, both of which Connor thoroughly enjoyed.  I got some good pictures of the butterflies, because unlike Connor and Jeremy they would hold still.  Connor also, believe it or not, enjoyed the tide pool!  I didn't get any pictures because I was helping him stick his hand in the water, but he got to touch a sea anemone, some shells and a hermit crab.  He thought the sticky anemone was pretty cool!

After the museum we stopped by the Seattle Center food complex and discovered to our great delight that they made beignets, which we haven't eaten since we moved up to the Pacific Northwest.  There was a tiny cafe in the little Texas town we went to college in that specialized in beignets, and we used to eat huge quantities of them so we were excited to see them again-- though probably excited for different reasons.  I love the taste of beignets.  Jeremy loves beignets for the large quantities of powdered sugar on top, and also because he knows that if he pronounces them as "bagnets" or "you know, those b things" he can always get a rise out of me.  We sat and ate our horribly mispronounced (on Jeremy's part, anyway) pastries and I listened to Jeremy pass the time by telling Connor further happy falsehoods about the museum complex** that I then had to correct.  We spend a lot of time doing that sort of thing. 

All in all we ended up staying about three hours in the Seattle Center complex, and this was after a full morning of school activities on Connor's part so it was a really long day!  We thought the little guy was going to fall asleep in the car, he was so bushed.  But he made it home and fell deeply asleep the second we put him to bed-- no melt downs!  He's come such a long way in the past year; I can't believe that we were able to cram so much in and he not only took it in stride, but really enjoyed himself. 

What a busy, but great day!

~Jess




**Connor, all the dinosaurs didn't go extinct, they went to live in museums!  They hold really, really still because they are hunting.  When kids wander away from their parents, the dinosaurs eat them.  That is how they get their food!