The Unhappiest Place on Earth

We took Baby M to Disneyland last weekend.  It seemed like such a good idea.  He is a few months away from 3 years old which means he is tall enough to go on most of the rides but still gets into the park for free.  He is familiar with some of the Disney characters from YouTube videos and really likes Goofy.  Baby M has generally been good with crowds, loud noises, and new experiences.  I thought he would have a blast.

The trip did not go well.  It started off so promising.  We met up with some of my extended family and took the shuttle bus to the park.  Baby M could barely contain his excitement.  He happily walked down Main Street, watched a marching band and walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  We rode the carousel and then tried to convince him to go on the Dumbo ride.  He took a look at it and shook his head no.  So, and here is where we made our big mistake, we decided to try Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  Now this was one of my favorite rides as a kid, but I'd forgotten how scary it could be for a young child. Baby M happily climbed into the little car with his dad and grandpa, but once the ride started getting dark and loud, crashing through walls and descending into hell he was more than a little frightened.  He kept repeating "I want to go back" with increasing frequency and volume until finally the ride ended.

After that he just wanted to leave the park.  Every few minutes he would say "I want to go back to the shuttle bus and go to our car and go home."  We dragged him on the tamest ride we could find-- The Storybook Land Canal Ride, a slow moving boat that floats past miniature villages in broad daylight, but he cried to get off the whole time. We tried Toon Town, which has a small playground I thought  he might like, but it also has firecrackers going off every few minutes so that was a no go.  Honestly, I'd never seen Baby M so agitated.  I felt awful.

We decided to give up on the rides and get some lunch on the Tomorrowland Terrace.  We had a great table near the stage where cast members were putting on the "Jedi Training Academy" but Baby M refused to sit anywhere near it so we found a table behind the stage and next to a well placed pillar that completely blocked the show from his view.  Baby M picked at his Mac N Cheese until, suddenly, a hidden platform rose up next to us revealing in a cloud of mist Darth Vader, waving around his light saber and threatening the Jedi.  That was it.  Baby M was out of there and my husband carried him around Tomorrowland until the rest of us finished eating.

We walked around the park a little more, hoping something would entice Baby M, but he had made up his mind-- Disneyland was the scariest place on earth and he wanted out of there.  He was even scared of the paddle boat that steamed by us as we strolled down the sidewalk.  Aside from the carousel, we did find two other activities that Baby M enjoyed in Frontierland- the petting zoo and a cabin with free coloring pages.  We probably should have just gone to Griffith Park.  On our way out we stopped for dinner at one of the Main Street restaurants and once Baby M saw there were no more rides with "scary tunnels" he enjoyed eating a hot dog while watching the parade.   We even stopped and took a reasonably happy picture with Mickey Mouse.

I always thought of Baby M as this fearless explorer, but looking back I realized that I missed some of the signs that his personality is evolving.  I remember him as the baby who would crawl over to the big kid playground without looking back and not the toddler who was frightened during the planetarium show;  the boy who comforted the dog during our neighbor's illegal firework display and not the one who refused to the enter the darkened room showing a film about storms at the museum.  It seems Baby M is becoming more cautious, and yes, more fearful as he grows up.  He now requires a nightlight to sleep, greets new experiences with trepidation and literally requires hand holding when entering unfamiliar places.  This may all just reflect an increased awareness of his surroundings and a more developed imagination that allows him to conceive frightening scenarios.  Or maybe Disneyland really did scar him for life.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Baby on the Way

So, I am 21 weeks pregnant.   Everything is going well with the pregnancy and it appears that in November we will be adding a new baby to the family.  I am not very good at telling people that I am expecting.  My general approach is just to show up in my maternity wear, mention nothing and make everyone slightly uncomfortable until some brave soul finally asks, "So, um, you're pregnant, right?"  I know this is weird, but I can't seem to find another way to do it. Because of my past history with miscarriages we put off telling people about the baby and now it just seems we waited too long.  We delayed announcing partly because untelling people that you're pregnant sucks, but mostly because I never feel as excited as everyone else expects me to be.  Four months into the pregnancy, I'm still worried about finding a heartbeat while everyone else is wants to talk nursery decor.   But now that we've made it past the 20 week mark, I am feeling more confident.  I'm still getting there on the excited thing, but I'm making progress.    

We did tell Baby M that we'll be bringing home a baby brother for him soon.  His reaction was, "I hope it has duck feet."  He also offered a name suggestion- "Flombu".  We took him to our 20 week ultrasound where we hoped to set his expectations on the feet thing ("Look!  You can see the baby's totally normal human feet!") but he got bored and asked if he could go back out to the waiting room and play with some toys.  Since he doesn't really seem to be getting this whole baby thing, I've been on the look out for some age appropriate books and toys to help him prepare for the upcoming change.

The first book we got was Baby on the Way by Martha & William Sears.  It's a very sweet book which describes pregnancy as feeling like "love is growing inside [you]" and tries to give a children some insight into what's happening to their mother.  Pregnancy symptoms like queasiness, hunger and fatigue are related back to the child's own experiences.  However, with Baby M this approach backfires. When the books states mommy's tummy feels yucky like "when you eat three slices of birthday cake and ice cream" it completely loses Baby M.  How could there be too much cake?  Granted, Baby M has never had 3 pieces of cake in one sitting, but it sure sounds good to him.  And birthdays are fun too.  And I'm going to be 3 on my next birthday.  Can I have a fish superhero party?  Baby M completely loses focus.   I've started just skipping that section altogether.  But I do think Baby M is making progress too.  A friend crocheted Baby M a doll with a removable hat and diaper and he spent an entire afternoon changing the baby's diaper (the doll is awesome, you can check out her etsy store here).  And tonight Baby M walked over, planted a kiss on my belly and said it was for the baby.  Now who couldn't get excited about that?

Granola

I keep reading about these toddlers who just love helping their parents.  They happily clean up, fold laundry, and set the table.  For the most part, this is not true of Baby M.  If I say, "Hey, do you want to help me with something" he will most likely answer "No" and go about his business.  If I leave an unfolded basket of laundry out it will soon become an upside down laundry "cake" in the middle of the floor.  However, there is one place where he does love to help, the kitchen.

The minute I start prepping something in the kitchen he is there shouting "I want to help yooouuuu!"  Of course, when I suggest that the best way for him to help me would be to pick up the crayons all over the kitchen floor, he is not interested.  He wants to crack the eggs, saute the veggies and chop the carrots.  I don't want to discourage his culinary aspirations so this lead me to seek out safe activities that he could help me with.  We ended up doing quite a bit of baking, which is fine, but we really don't need another batch of cookies in the house, even if they are the healthy oatmeal ones from Alicia Silverstone's cook book (which I must note are my favorite oatmeal cookies EVER).  So I was happy when I came across this recipe for homemade granola at wholeliving.com.  I feel a lot better about letting Baby M snack on granola than cookies, especially granola made with flaxseed meal, egg whites and natural sweeteners.  I love this recipe because we can easily customize it with different fruits and nuts and most importantly, Baby M can help with almost all the steps.  There is lots of measuring and stirring and not much contact with a hot stove.  He still fights me over cracking the eggs, but I win out most of the time.  Hope you enjoy it too.

ReDiscover Roller Coaster

Last Saturday our family visited ReDiscover in Culver City.  ReDiscover is a non-profit that recycles discarded materials to use in hands-on art and learning projects for children.  Every Saturday from 10am to 1pm their warehouse has drop-in art hours where your kid can go crazy with glue, wire, tile, fabric, wood scraps, etc.  The cost is $5 per project, and you can use as many materials as you'd like.

Our visit to ReDiscover was actually prompted by the fact that I finally convinced my husband that we no longer needed his AYSO soccer trophies from 1982.  After calling around I found that ReDiscover would accept the box of trophies as a donation.  So, after lovingly photographing all of the trophies, on Saturday morning we headed over to ReDiscover to drop them off and decided to stay and make some art.

The amount of materials in the warehouse was a bit overwhelming.  Bins and bins of fabric samples, plastic do-dads, wall-paper, ribbon, ceramic tile, wires, buttons, etc.  The staff person gave us a quick tour and while pointing out the boxes of wood scraps suggested to Baby M that they might be good for making a roller coaster.  From that point on Baby M was set on constructing a roller coaster.  And not just any roller coaster, a "very scary roller coaster."  So we helped him glue pieces of wood together and decorate it with stickers, fabric, beads, etc.  Ultimately we only took home a small section of the roller coaster, because we just couldn't manage taking home all 6 feet of his masterpiece.  We were there for a little under 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  While we were working, several adult artists came in to pick up materials for their professional projects as well as a few other preschoolers and a 10 year old who was building an X-ray machine for a school project.  The mood was festive and cooperative and we never felt crowded.

Baby M is 32 months old and I don't think I would take a child much younger than this to the drop-in art at ReDiscover.  The area is not child proofed-- there are lots of potential choking hazards, a hot glue gun within easy reach and many of the materials requires the use of wood glue or wires.  This is not a place you go for your basic crayons, glue and poster paint art project.   But for preschoolers and older kids ReDiscover is a great chance for them to explore new materials, express their creativity and learn about recycling.

All Aboard! Surfliner to San Diego

For Memorial Day our family decided to take the train down to San Diego for the day.  Baby M loves trains and while we've ridden trains at parks, malls, farms, etc., we'd never taken him anywhere on a full sized train.   So on Sunday night we logged on to Amtrak.com and bought our Surfliner tickets-- 3 round trip tickets from Union Station to Solana Beach, where we would meet up with my family for a BBQ.  It turns out the tickets were a little more than I was expecting ($170 for the 3 of us) but at that point I had already talked up the trip to Baby M so there was no turning back.  

We arrived at Union Station 30 minutes before our train departed and parked in the $7 lot across the street.  Our train left right on time at 8:30AM.  Baby M loved seeing the big double decker train and the train tracks.  I loved the fact that we had plenty of room.  Our coach seats had so much leg room that the only way I could kick the seat in front of me was if I stretched my legs out and pointed my toes.  Baby M couldn't reach the folding tray table on the back of the chair in front of us, which the person seated there should be very grateful for.  Although most of the time there was no one seated in front of us or behind us.  The car remained pretty empty for the majority of the trip. We had brought our car seat along and it fit nicely on the floor in front of the seat next to me.  (There is no way to install the car seat on train, we just brought it to put in my parent's car in San Diego).  We rode past train yards, construction sites, recycling plants and Angel's stadium-- perhaps not terribly scenic, but totally interesting to a 2 year old boy.  Once we got down to Orange County we cut over to the coast and had a lovely ride along the beach.  We took a walk down to the cafe car, had a snack (they mostly had pre-packaged food items) and before we knew it the 2 hour 10 minute ride was over. 

Once in Solana Beach we walked down to the beach and Baby M played on a nearby playground.  As an aside, there was tons of free beach parking-- I couldn't believe it.  You never see that in LA!  Then we headed over to my parent's house for a traditional Memorial Day BBQ.  We came back to the station just before 7pm to catch our train home and were disappointed to find that the train was delayed.  We stood on the platform for 30 minutes watching the Estimated Arrival Time increase in 2 minutes increments until finally it held steady at 7:36pm.  Entertaining a toddler on a cold, narrow train platform is a challenge and this was the low point of our trip.  If we had known how long the train was going to be delayed we would have waited in the station, but since the ETA was changing every couple of minutes we were never sure.  Once the train finally arrived we were back home in a little over 2 hours.

Traveling by train is actually a great option for toddlers.  They aren't confined to the car seat, can walk around to the different cars, eat snacks as needed and visit the toilet whenever they want.  As parents you don't have to deal with surly security agents eyeing your sippy cup or a packed cabin full of harried passengers.   Since Baby M does fairly well on a 2-3 hour car ride, we probably won't take the train to San Diego too often, but I would definitely consider it for trips to San Francisco or other towns in Northern California.

Underwood Family Farms

So, it's been awhile since my last blog post.  I got into a tussle with an avocado and a chef's knife and I lost.  I cut my hand, severed a nerve,  ended up in surgery and have been recuperating ever since.  I'm still typing with one hand, but hopefully I will get full motion back in a few weeks, although I was told to expect the numbness to persist for a few months.

After surgery I went and stayed with my in-laws for a few days so that they could help out with Baby M.  While we were there we had a chance to go to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark.  What a great place for kids!  The farm has animals to feed, mini tractors to ride on and fields where you can pick your own produce (not certified organic, but pesticide free).  It's beautifully landscaped and not nearly as dusty as you'd expect a farm to be.  We went on a Tuesday afternoon and the farm was not crowded at all.

Tickets are $3 to get in (under 2 is free) and you can purchase tickets to ride ponies, pan for gold or ride the little train.    We skipped the rides, but did spend a dollar to buy food to feed the goats, alpacas and chickens.  We brought a picnic lunch which we ate in the grassy play area while Baby M enjoyed digging in the sand and riding the tiny toy tractors.  Then we took a walk around the animal pens, stopping to feed a few animals and to watch the biggest pig I have ever seen have a bath.  We also stopped to play on the big wooden train across from the pig pen.

Finally, we headed out to the fields to pick some strawberries.  It was a bit of a trek to the strawberry fields and luckily we had the foresight to grab one of the wagons provided by the farm.  Baby M was happy riding in the wagon, but I don't think he would have made it if he had to walk the whole way.  The vegetables (beans, lettuce, broccoli) were much closer to the entrance.  Fresh picked strawberries are delicious and these were no exception.  They were big, bright red and juicy.  Baby M really loved looking for the berries and helping his Lola find the biggest ones.  We paid $1.99 a pound for a nice big basket.  If you don't want to pick your own, you can buy the farm's produce from their stand near the entrance, for a slightly higher price.  But why miss out on the fun of running around the fields?

We spent 2 hours at the farm, a good length of time for Baby M.  Moorpark is about an hour's drive from West LA, so I can't see us going back often, but I will definitely try to incorporate a trip to the farm the next time we visit my in-laws.  Underwood Farms also does birthday parties which I would totally consider if we lived a little closer.  If you're looking for a fun, educational experience I definitely recommend Underwood Farms.

Library Books

Baby M and I go to the library nearly every week and in the past I have spent a fair amount of time carefully picking out books for him.  I'd wander the children's section while Baby M played with blocks, looking for the perfect mix of books-- a variety of artistic styles, some with simple text and some with rhymes, some about trains and some about children from foreign lands.  If he expressed an interest in turtles I would find a book about a turtle.  But now that Baby M is two and a half and Mr. Independent he insists on choosing his own books to take home.  I am pleased that he is interested in books and reading, but I am not always happy with some of the lessons that the books he chooses impart.  Here are a few ideas found in some of the books Baby M has picked up that I could do without

1. Vegetables are yucky and should be fed to the nearest pet dinosaur
2. There are scary monsters in your closet, under your bed and peeking in your window at night
3. Ice cream is a good reward for just about anything
4. Little brothers are annoying
5. "Shut Up"
6. Girl trucks talk too much and might just be insane, while boy trucks are bent on destruction, or at a minimum, getting really dirty

Now I understand that some kids already think vegetables are yucky or that monsters are hiding in their bedroom, but I would really like to avoid introducing these concepts to Baby M if I can.  Sometimes when reading I'll change the story around, but then worry if I am hurting his literacy skills by not reading the words on the page.  Sometimes a book will mysteriously "get lost".  I still pick out books for Baby M and try to sneak them into his pile, but somehow The Stupids Take Off  always ends up on the top of the stack.

So how about it?  Have you ever been surprised by a message in a children's book?  How do you handle  it when you dislike the books your child chooses?