An Afternoon at the Children's Museum

My mom gave me a coupon months ago to buy one get one tickets to the Children's Museum which is 10 minutes from our house.  I had been saving it for when Matthew was what I thought to be old enough to enjoy it and before the baby was born.  It expires at the end of this month, so today was the day!  But it gets better...when I got there I learned that neighborhood residents get in free on Wednesdays from 1-5.

We had such a blessed day.  I will let the pictures/videos do most of the talking:

The first room we zoomed to was the car room where they had cars that could go on tracks, a big toy car, and a car wash.

Beep!  Beep!
Matthew carries many of the traits of his Papa Geoff including a
love of cars.  We spend a good 20 minutes just in here!

Matthew is sitting while I am "pedaling" the make air blow up a huge balloon

He was able to pump this lever to get air to fill another balloon!

When I saw the water room I knew Matthew NEEDED to go in there because water = heaven to him.  It led to water-soaked sleeves but his joy was totally worth it!

What happened here?  Matthew got a face full of water when he shoved his
hand through the waterfall!  Surprised for sure, but was greeted with love with the biggest smile!

Pulling the handle made water pour out.  I shouldn't have to explain this to you.

Pressing the buttons made water spew out which spun the wheels

As I mentioned above, Matthew has similarities to his Papa Geoff.  This time, the shared interest was science, so we definitely made it to the energy room:

Papa Geoff, I may have explained to him that what caused the ball to remain
suspended in air was something called fun.  You may want to tell him
something different the next time you are here.

Matthew just had to press a button to set the sails to sea!

Okay, not my best parenting moment in the video just played.  Telling your child they could lose a limb and encouraging them to put their face into a place where it is inevitable that they will catch pneumonia and die are not techniques I recommend you try.

We made two more stops before leaving.  The first was "Potbelly's" where Matthew wore a uniform and made sandwiches (with pickles of course) and shakes.  Mmmm...

May I take your order please?

The last stop was the grocery store but he was tired and ready to go home.  And so we did.

I love my little boy so much and truly love spending time with him.  This day was so wonderful as the near future will bring less time where it is just the two of us.  I have and will continue to truly treasure our time together.