A dream day for Little Man A

On the first Tuesday of every month, B & O Railroad Museum in Baltimore offers 1/2 price admission. So when hubby had the day off, it was the perfect day to take Little Man. Unfortunately, I had a doctor's appt in the morning which left the afternoon to drive up there and spend the rest of the day. The bad news: they close at 4pm ... on the dot. The good news: Little Man could have cared less because he was in heaven.

We decided to leave right after lunch and let Little Man sleep in the truck on the way there. This was delayed by all the big rigs on the road and of course, construction trucks (he's taken to watching construction trucks on YouTube lately). Once we were into Maryland on I-295 where there was nothing but trees to look at, he fell right to sleep.

Once we were off the highway and making our way toward downtown Baltimore, I was reading the directions for hubby. When I got to the last line that stated, "You have arrived to the center on Baltimore" I gave hubby the evil eye. For some reason the B&O Railroad website didn't copy their address and therefore had given us directions to "Baltimore". Thankfully, I had written down their phone number and we were able to find our way. It also helped that there was a police station right where hubby had stopped.

About that time, Little Man awoke from his nap, probably because we had to stop for directions. I assured him that we were going someplace really cool! His eyes widened as we rounded the corner of the parking lot and pulled in front of a huge black steam engine. I'll never forget that look.

Once inside, it was like a kid in a candy store, except better. He couldn't figure out where to look first. All the model trains, the real, big engines, and of course the people smiling at him because well let's face it, he's too cute for his own good.

When we found the box car with the model train that was moving and with lights blinking and sounds as the train moved by, I think he told himself that we was in heaven. By the time we made it to the "Theatre Car" that was playing a short video, he was dancing with joy. Literally.




On our way out of the museum (I think they were following us to make sure we left because we were the last ones to leave), we talked to an employee who convinced us that it would be a great idea to become a member. We already knew that we would be back at least 3 more times (once with Gramma and Pop-pop at the end of the month, in December for Breakfast with Santa which happens to be on his birthday, and in April and/or May for the Day Out with Thomas). This weekend, 13th and 14th, is Kids Fest at B&O Railroad and we plan on going. This time around we plan on getting there as soon as they open at 10am and letting Little Man go wild until he falls over. That way he can sleep on the way home after lunch.

And if you live in the area, there is also Ellicott City Railroad Museum. Not quite as big as B&O in Baltimore, but apparently a very quaint little town with a fantastic display of lights for the holiday season. With a membership to one railroad museum, you get into both. We'll be checking out Ellicott City this Christmas season as well.


P.S. I would have had photos to upload for this post except our digital camera decided to call it quits, so I was forced to use 35mm film. I should have those photos this week.

Going with the flow

For the past few days, hubby has taken the truck to get to the train for work, leaving me and Little Man to fend for ourselves. Wednesday wasn't too bad since we had just experienced 4 fun-filled days with Daddy (more on our adventures later). We took our time walking to the park, walked to the grocery store, and the infamous Dollar Store. I'm always a sucker when it comes to taking Little Man to that store. Although I know if he were to find something that seemed really cool at the time, five minutes later he'll have forgotten about it. But that bright, shiny blue balloon just had to come home with us. And it has been well worth it since. He runs wild around the house with it, just giggling in delight that it's following him around.

Thursday was another hot day, so I made sure to be out the door by 9:30am. We made it to the park and only 35 minutes later he was either bored or just plain done with the park. It didn't help that the temperature had started to rise. So we headed home and tried to hang outside playing with chalk or blowing bubbles as long as I could handle getting bitten by those pesky mosquitos. All in all it wasn't too bad of a day. It definitely made me realize it is time to re-evaluate our leisure activities with Little Man because some of them he's starting to outgrow.

So on our third day at home, I'm just going with the flow. Taking my time walking to the park. Making sure to walk by the "spiny trees" so he can reach out and touch the pine needles. Walking up to the grocery store just to walk around and look at the fruit (especially since I didn't bring any money). Seems like Little Man is just going with the flow also. He found an old toy, Leap Frog Spin A Letter. Today he actually waits until it stops, listens to the letter or sound of the animal that starts with that letter, and repeats it! Then he decided it would be fun to sit on it and roll off of it!




Of course this is when our digital camera starts to act up, hence the lovely purple striations across the screen. But at least it captured the moment.

Thankfully, it's the weekend and hubby will be home to help entertain this weekend. Which, since we have a weather advisory starting tonight for this weekend due to Hanna possibly heading our way, we may be in for a long weekend. Hope everyone else has a great weekend!

A night in the life of a boring Mommy

Last night, I tried to spice things up a bit for Little Man A. We couldn't go for a walk - it was raining and cold, we had already watched 3 tv shows (I try to limit it to 60 minutes per day - even that I think is too much when I total it), and I was bored. As he was sleeping, I tried thumbing through "The Toddler's Busy Book" I got for Christmas.

It has ideas for "rainy days" (perfect! that's today!), Kids in the kitchen (too young), Water play (more for outside), Outdoor adventure (hello? it's 30 degrees and raining!), music and movement and a few others. Some of these ideas I have to seriously question the people who made them up.

Ice cube bags: Mix water and food coloring (enough for two ice cubes of each color) and pour into ice cube try. When frozen, place a yellow and a red ice cube into one Ziploc bag, a red and a blue into a second, and a yellow and blue into a third bag. Younger children will enjoy moving ice cubes around in the bags, while older children will enjoy watching what happens when the two colors melt together.

Seriously?? My child would take one look at it, throw it across the room and proceed to a different toy. And I'm sure an older child would sit still long enough to watch them melt? Come on.

Anyways, I happen to come across one that involved balloons. I have balloons, I thought! Let's just blow them up and bounce them around the room. Little Man A loved looking at all the balloons from his birthday. This is a no brainer. I'm excited.

I carefully blew up three balloons (I've had them for awhile and didn't know if they would be any good). And waited for the perfect moment to show them to Little Man A.
At first, he was really excited. He even started to kick them around. And he loved to watch Mommy bounce them back and forth like a punching ball. Five minutes later....

Running around with my slippers or chewing on Mickey's foot were more exciting for him.

He was off to play with some of his old toys. Which by the way, he's already getting bored with as well.

Or try to steal the camera from Mommy is always more fun.

So much for a brilliant idea by Mommy. Let's pray for the sake of this child that his daddy doesn't get deployed again because this child would end up in therapy from pure boredom. I think if hubby does get deployed again sometime soon, I'll have to go back to work and let outside help give him enrichment for the day, because I'm starting to get bored myself. I'm sure once the weather starts to get nice again, we'll have fun outside. The other day before the cold front came through, we sat outside in the driveway watching the pinwheels in our front yard and walked up and down the driveway for 30 minutes.

So, wish me luck for tomorrow.

An evening at Borders

Since Little Man A has really taken off with this walking thing, I decided we needed to take him someplace to just walk around... besides outside (more because it's still cold outside ... except for today). The other day, when he wouldn't take his second nap because God forbid he slept past 10:30am, we decided to take him to Borders. I wanted to get some Baby food books anyways, and Little Man A loves books, so we loaded up in the car.

Here's a pic of hubby walking with A as soon as he got into the store:



They headed back to the kids section, with Gramma in tow while I looked for my books on how to make more baby food... that he'll actually eat. Between finding new things to play with, seeing all the other children reading books, and just being someplace new where he can walk around semi-freely, I think he really enjoyed himself.



Gramma reading him a book while he's sitting at a table - with Gramma's support of course.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or if he's just that good at reading titles on the sides of the books, but he picked out a Backyardigans book and handed it to me. That's something new that he's doing that's too cute. Especially when I finish the book and he hands it back to me to read again.

Needless to say, we'll be going back to Borders (too bad there's no Barnes and Nobles around - I like them better) again in the future!

Tootles!