Daddy's Flying Solo -- Long Weekend Edition

Ann had both kids several times when I was back in Chicago enjoying my Cubs season tickets -- and now it was my turn, as she spent the weekend at a work conference in Washington, DC.

It's tough simultaneously taking care of a little guy who doesn't like being alone, and an, at times, strong-willed little girl.. but we really did have a great weekend. For the most part there were happy moods all around.

Things began Saturday morning with a trip to Ellie's school for their Fall Festival fundraiser. Ellie met up with several friends for face painting, jumpy house time, lots of games, some people-watching, and lunch -- which included a candy apple dessert!










(Oh! Ellie also got run over by a mini Mars lander, courtesy of the folks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is just up the road in La Cañada. Pretty cool!)







After an afternoon at the Fall Festival, we went off to a playground to burn off all that sugar energy. Cal enjoyed getting down on the grass.




The night was capped off with a trip to In-n-Out. Cal tried reaching for everything Ellie and I had. Kid's got good taste.


On Sunday morning we headed over KidSpace, a children's science museum right near the Rose Bowl here in Pasadena, for its special Halloween Hunt. Ellie trick-or- treated in the museum's garden area, while Cal trekked along with me in the backpack. What made this a little different was the fact that most of the people handing out the goodies were dressed as scientific historical figures. Not every day you get Smarties from Einstein.. or a glow-in-the-dark centipede (next stage of evolution?) from Charles Darwin. Ellie and Cal did well playing together on the road & train track construction mat.




















After that.. it was time for ballet. Ellie did a great job rehearsing her "pirate dance" for her upcoming performance. And Cal practiced crawling.
















Yogurtland was our destination of choice after all that. Cal was jealous that he only got to eat his Peas, Spinach, and Pears baby food.




And.. we're not done yet! The weekend fun spilled over into Monday morning at KTKA, where the kids played key roles in the annual KTLA Morning News Halloween costume segment. You can watch the video here.














It was a busy, but fun (long) weekend!

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Seven Months Old!

Today our little man turned seven months old. And he has developed a personality and changed so much even over this past month.

He has been loving his solid foods, except avocado and broccoli. Peaches and pumpkin are his two favorites. But broccoli...I have to trick him to eat that.






He is still rocking the top of the charts. We don't have an official weight and length measurement but unofficially he is "a big one!". I think he's over 21lbs, maybe even 22 lbs now.

He gives the best kisses.



We have rolled over! He is rolling from tummy to back. Well, I haven't actually seen him roll over but Nick and Ellie and his daycare teachers have. I have left him on his tummy and walked away only to find him on his back. He is also moving from a sitting position to his tummy. After a few very ungraceful belly flops complete with bumps to the head, he has figured it out. He can get up on all fours, but doesn't move forward, he is pushing himself backwards though. Today at daycare his teachers told me he developed another method of locomotion, hopping on his bum while he is sitting. Apparently he gets SO excited he starts hopping and moves forward!





We took him to Disneyland last weekend and he was amazing.
He is very social and hates being alone, unless he is occupied by a ball. He is very chill and easily entertained. He loves playing with stacking cups and any kind and size of a ball. His teachers all day he is their favorite baby and teachers in the next class up have already asked to be his primary teacher when he moves up. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is his favorite song and it will calm him down no matter what. He makes me and everyone around him laugh. He laughs, he vocalizes when you ask him questions and he gives high fives. He is pretty awesome.












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Exploring L.A. :: Orange County Discovery Center

So like back in August we took a family trip down to Orange County to go to the Orange County Discovery Center. We knew pretty much nothing about the Discovery Center except that it was a children's science museum. Oh! And that it was set inside of a giant black cube that you can see from the freeway.

Upon entering we immediately just started wandering and were a little overwhelmed. At first all the exhibits and activities seemed like they were aimed at an older age group than Ellie. Things were very physics based which were really interesting, except that its a little difficult to explain pulleys and the finer points of aerodynamics to Ellie. But she had fun exploring. And they say that children learn the most just by playing (I read that as experimenting) on their own terms.

Then we went upstairs and saw some more permanent exhibits which were more themed. An exhibit about hockey took up about 1/3 of the upstairs area. There was part of a Zamboni to pretend to drive and get up close with. An exhibit showed how the ice in the arenas is made. There were some uniforms so you can see how heavy they are (both dry and full of sweat...gross). There was also some games where you can either take penalty shots with a virtual goalie or be a goalie and deflect pucks which are shot at you.  Ellie didn't want to do either one of those, but enjoyed watching her parents don helmets and try their best. I did not miss my calling of being a hockey goalie by the way.

The museum also had the typical childrens science center stuff...buckets of Legos, dinosaurs, earthquake exhibit (maybe that's just a Cali thing), rock climbing wall, rocket launching (just air rockets, not a water rocket...because we are in a drought) and a couple things that looked like they would be really cool, but it wasn't working. The dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool. There was fossil hunting, and lift size stucco brontosaurus with cut-aways to show the blood circulation system, muscles, stomach, bones, etc.

There was a temporary exhibit about the 50 states. There was something to explore from every state. Some were actually really cool and fun and easy to teach a science lesson to a kid about. The first one and probably the most interactive for parents and kids was the one for Missouri where you built the arch. I can explain a keystone to a 5 year old like its nobodys business. The exhibit for Massachuetts was pretty lame and we were dissapointed...I mean a baseball diamond shaped mini pinball game, not cool enough. I think it was New Hampshire that had some cross-country skiing (in place) and Montana had kayaking. Louisiana had a cool interactive build-a-band and music mixing. I can't remember what Illinois had. Each little mini-exhibit was fun to explore and I'm pretty sure we checked out all 50 of them.

Ellie's favorite exhibit and something we spent a lot of time at was the life-skills, pretend play, kids get to do adult things with child size things. The best part of it was a pretend grocery store where the carts, while real carts, had computers and screens in them. Depending on your age or what level you wanted to play the "game" you got different questions and had to "shop" the different departments to find the items and scan them with your barcode scanner. Of course the questions and tasks had to do with being environmentally friendly (which is more wasteful, buying single serve milk or a gallon? which product is better for recycling the packaging?). Ellie loved it and after doing the 4-6 age group questions (find the donut packaging that holds the most donuts) she did the elementary school level. There was also a game where you had to sort "products" that came by on the conveyor belt by plastic, garbage, green waste, or plastic. She really enjoyed that as well until it got crowded.

So there was nothing there for Cal except for some awesome lights to stare at. He was happy though. He took a couple great naps and was chill for the rest of the time. I think we all had fun and will probably go back, but maybe we will wait till Ellie (and Cal) is a little older. The whole museum seemed to be aimed at the advanced 6-12 age group. And we will probably try and coordinate our next visit on one of the days where if you have a BofA card you can get in for free. Until next time Orange County...