Pretend City

A few weeks ago we drove down to Irvine to go to Pretend City.  This children's museum is an interconnected "city" where kids can pretend to be everything from a fireman to a farmer.  There is a pretend fire station, post office, restaurant, hospital, supermarket, construction site, beach, farm and theater.  All of the exhibits include appropriate props and costumes.  Additionally, there is a large water table and a well stocked arts and crafts room.  The museum is relatively new and everything was clean and in good condition.  At 3 years old, Baby M was in heaven.  He spent a lot of time pretending to be a dispatcher in the fire station, served me about 20 plates of spaghetti in the restaurant, worked the sound and light board in the theater and got to hold a real live chick at the "farm."

Irvine is a bit of a drive for us, but my mother lives in San Diego so Pretend City was the perfect half-way meeting point.  Aside from being a chance for us to visit, it was great to have my mother around to do some of the pretending (4 hours of make-believe play with Baby M is pushing it for me).  She also watched Baby M while I fed Baby S in the nursing room.  The nursing room is equipped with a glider rocker and since there aren't a lot of quiet places to sit in the museum, it's a nice amenity.  We had lunch in the cafe, which was the only real disappointment-- it's just a group of tables, a microwave, some vending machines and a woman selling sandwiches and salads out of cooler. Our sandwiches were fine, but next time we'll probably pack a lunch.

There are a few padded play areas for little ones, but Pretend City is really best for kids between 2 and 8 years old.   Tickets are $11 per person (free for babies under 1 year), but you can get a 2-for-1 admission on the second Friday of every month here.  If we lived closer I'd consider getting a membership.  We were in the museum for 4 hours and Baby M could have stayed longer, plus the museum has a full calendar of events and classes.

So how is it with 2 kids?

Before I had Baby S I worried about how I'd do with two kids.  Would I have enough patience, attention and energy to go around?  Would Baby M regress?  Would my house completely fall apart?  Would we ever take a vacation again?  Was a second child a bad idea?

Well I'm happy to report that two kids is fine.  Better than fine.  Great even.  I'm not one to wax poetic about the happiness of children, but having two kids is pretty wonderful.  Now it may just be that I am on a double upswing of the happiness curve (according to studies parental happiness climbs from birth to six months and again after age 3) and I'm going to come crashing down again in a few weeks, or maybe it's a hormone fueled, sleep deprivation mirage, but for now, I am really enjoying having two.

On the Baby S side, the second time around I am so much more relaxed, that I can really enjoy every little cuddle, coo and funny expression.  I'm not obsessed with tracking how often he's nursing, peeing and pooping.  I'm not compulsively reading sleep books trying to figure out an optimal sleep routine.  And I don't have time to get bored with the monotony of caring for an infant.  There is no spinning him around in an office chair 10 times a day in order to improve his spatial reasoning like I did with Baby M.  I'm just  making funny faces and stealing kisses between playing Thomas the Train and coloring pictures with my 3 year old.

On the Baby M side, I appreciate how far he has come in just 3 years.  He can talk and reason, run and climb.  All the things I can't do with Baby S yet.  And I can't describe the warmth I feel when I see Baby M act lovingly towards Baby S-- bringing him a toy, singing him a song, talking to him about the bunk beds they will share someday.  I'm getting glimpses of what I hope will be a strong sibling relationship.

Of course everything is not chocolates and roses.  I'm still tired.  I don't get enough time with my husband.  I spend an inordinate amount of time doing laundry.  My three year old whines a lot and seems hell bent on destroying my home.   The baby is teething.  He doesn't sleep through the night.  But at the end of the day I know without question that it's all worth it.

My New Favorite Breakfast Recipe

Baby M adores pancakes, but I generally don't have enough time or energy in the morning to make a big batch.  Plus, traditional pancakes are not the healthiest way to start the morning.  I love the recipe below because it is easy, healthy and Baby M gobbles them up.

Oatmeal- Banana Pancakes
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 banana mashed up
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix everything together and cook on a lightly greased skillet.  Makes about 4 pancakes.

Today I added a handful of frozen blueberries and used soy milk instead of regular milk and they came out great.

Letting it All Hang Out at the UCLA Language Lab

I took Baby S to the UCLA Language Lab to participate in a study this week.  I'd been to the lab before with Baby M, but this was Baby S's first trip to campus.  As with my previous visits, a grad student met us at the parking garage and escorted us to the lab.  The researcher explained the study to us, I answered a short questionnaire about the languages spoken in our home and Baby S got his picture taken for a certificate of participation.  We also go to pick out a baby T-shirt as a thank you gift for our participation.

The goal of this study was to determine when babies begin to distinguish their own language from other languages.  Baby S and I sat in a small, dark room while recordings of people speaking English and Japanese played.  The researcher watched us over a video feed and recorded whether or not Baby S paid attention to the voices.  I wore head phones blasting Frank Sinatra tunes so that I wouldn't inadvertently influence Baby S as I held him in my lap.   About 2 minutes into the session Baby S let out the loudest, smelliest fart ever.  It was so loud I could hear it over Frank belting out My Way.  Then Baby S proceeded to have an explosive bowel movement. It was one of those situations where you marvel at how much noise, odor and poop one tiny baby can produce.  I held him, grimacing, and tried to decide if I should stop the study or not.  These experiments are usually pretty short so I thought we could just tough it out, but it kept going on and on and on.  The Way You Look Tonight.  Luck Be A Lady.  The Girl From Ipanema.  All punctuated by loud noises from Baby S's bottom.  Eventually the researcher came out from behind the curtain and told us we were done.  I don't know if they'll be able to use our tape or not, but at least they'll get a good laugh watching it.