averygoodun42 | Busy, busy

But not so busy I can't post. *wry grin*

Yesterday was a long, looong day. Despite the fact that I went to bed two hours earlier than usual.

Geoff had a work assignment at the Ecotarium out in Worcester (Why can't they spell it Wooster and be done with it?) and invited us along for the ride. We'd been there once before (again, a work assignment), and so we knew Babe would enjoy it. He's a bit young to understand the displays and get the most out of them, but that doesn't mean the displays lack appeal. In fact, the displays are pretty damn cool, and manage to get kids from Babe's age to adults having lots of fun.

Very cool place.

So, we left pretty early in the morning with a slight delay in departure because I hadn't finished packing a comprehensive diaper bag. (4 sandwiches - 2 ham, 2 PB&J? Check. Five diapers? Check. Sunscreen? Bugspray? double check. Wipes? Check. Apples, banana? yep. healthy-ish candy cookies? check. Ten pound diaper bag? check. Looking around moving car for water bottle? Oh, phooey.) But our delay was small and soon we were on the road.

It's a relatively short drive, as drives within New England are all relatively short. Geoff immediately went to work, and Babe and I explored the place again, rediscovering some displays, and having the time to discover ones we hadn't seen before.

In fact, we had time to do that several times over. Which we did.

It was fun, and Babe had a blast, for the most part (the last two hours he was begging me to go outside, but the museum had closed by that point and I didn't really want to get locked out, so I had to deny the little guy). After lunch and talking with Geoff to find out that it wasn't going terribly smoothly so he didn't know how much longer he'd be, we went outside to see the polar bear. Babe enjoyed that. She wasn't swimming (too cool a day? *snort*) but she was pacing a bit, so that was pretty cool for Babe. (I don't like zoos, for the most part. I find that zoo-kept animals are almost always very sad or unhealthy looking. Perhaps it is anthromorphizing them, but it does seem like wild animals are far more beautiful than their captive relatives.)

We then continued along the nature walk till we got to a playground, and Babe had fun on that. Then the sandpit. We both had fun there, him playing in the sand, me taking a cat-nap which helped burn off a bit of the benadryl daze I'd been suffering all morning. The diaper bag was actually quite a nice pillow. :-)

It was starting to get cloudy, which perhaps affected my perception of time a little, so after about an hour outside, I urged Babe to coome in to see how Geoff was getting on. It was also a case of not wanting to be locked out. There's no cell reception in the area Geoff was working. I was also getting thirsty, and we were out of water.

It took a bit of persuasion, but eventually we did get back inside. And the rest of the evening seemed to pass in a daze. We played with the displays a bit more, we played in the preshcool room, we played a long time on the spinnie time motion photo thingy. We both looked at the white black rat snake (it lacks pigmentation), and Babe was very interested, and very good about not touching, although he did hover. We also did quite a lot of going up and down stairs and using the elevator. I felt bad about the elevator use, but at some point I stop caring so much about how much of the museum's and earth's energy is being used, and more about how to save my own energy whilst entertaining a toddler.

For the most part we avoided the gift shop, although I was lured in to look at the pretty door knockers (which made me think how nice a homewarming gift that would be for my parents who just found their dreamhouse, and bought it!) The prices weren't marked, and I didn't ask, however.

And then it was close to closing time, so I thought it would be good to see where Geoff was in his process. I also thought it might be good to be out of the main museum area where we would probably get herded out.

We played around the planetarium a bit (telling Babe not to touch anything, not to kick the seats, to sit on his butt in the seats, and to NOT touch the keyboard while the database is open!!!) and then it became a bit tougher to keep Babe entertained. It was growing dark outside, and most of the lights in the musuem had been turned off, so it was getting a little spooky. Only a little, though for me. Babe, in an adventurous mood, took my hand and wanted to go into one area we hadn't been in before. This was after the museum closed, but before it had grown very dark outside, though this area was in an area without access to natural light. We got to the threshold of it, and Babe stopped and shook his head. I looked it, felt reluctant to enter any further myself, and so I asked him if he thought it was spooky. He said yes, he was scared, and so we both happily turned around and went back to the more brightly lit areas.

We did make friends with the museum's mackaw. We said hello, played peekaboo for a while and then goodbye.

We also, when Geoff finally got it up and running, watched a kids planetarium show, which I was really surprised grabbed Babe's attention for the entire show.

And then it was 8:30 and it was finally, finally time to go! Babe was praised by all of us (including the planetarium director) for being so incredibly patient (he'd fake cried a couple of times, whined a smidgeon and otherwise demanded to go outside, but was otherwise inordinently good. I would say almost angelic, actually) and then we headed off to a much needed supper. Babe was so tired he wouldn't eat, although we got a sundae to go, and he was more than willing to have tastes of that. :-) And then he was asleep. And then we were home. And then we all went to bed.

And it was good.

It was exhausting, and I don't know if I'll go with Geoff next time, but it was a good day. I'm still not good at playing with Babe, but it's fun watching him have fun and interact with everyone. It's also fun to hear how good and polite he is (he got a surprised chuckle out of a sulky looking youth who was polite enough to hold the door open for me with Babe in my arms as we were leaving the restaurant. I said, "Thank you very much," and Babe repeated it. I don't think the kid was expecting that.)

So now for catch-up. I think I'll bake that pumpkin pie first, then go outside to work on the patio for an hour, then come in and make bread, and maybe, if I have any energy left over, I'll get to the laundry. These work jeans are getting on the scary side, after all.