The KidsQuest Children's Museum

Our little princess getting ready for bed


Gerritt with his entourage of stuffed animals to sleep with (it's pretty crowded even though our bed is king size)

Last night Sophia slept for 8 hours straight (went to bed at 8 pm, woke up to eat at 1 am, then didn't wake up again until 9 am(!)). Yesterday afternoon she took the longest nap ever (1 pm - 4:30 pm)! I am not sure what to make of this. Could it be the work of the amber teething necklace? Or maybe almost 2 years of sleepless nights finally earned us some rest? We are keeping our fingers crossed & hoping this is a beginning of the trend. My husband feels like a medical resident, I am sure, subsisting on 5-6 hours of sleep on most days of the week for the past 21 months.


"Fish, Mommy, fish!"


A moment of pure happiness!


Light it up!


Playing with more water


Gerritt was thoroughly fascinated with the Scarf Shooter


Riding Clifford the Big Red Dog outside the museum

Mondays are my days off & luckily for us the KidsQuest Children's Museum was open for everyone this morning (not just for the members). It turns out, many Moms & Dads had the same idea, as I kept losing one of my kids in a relatively small space just packed with other parents & kids. Gerritt even managed to run outside the museum to ride in one of the automated toy cars in the mall without me noticing. Needless to say, I wasn't happy looking for him frantically, with Sophia in my arms, inside the tree house, the truck, on top of the climbing rocks & multiple other potential hiding places. I kept running into someone & tripping over small bodies everywhere, so many "excuse me's." He finally returned & heard me lecturing him about a "boogeyman" who could take him away.
I am very protective of my kids & have to have them in my field of view at all times. I wish I could just sit & read a book, talk on a cell phone, text the whole time or just chat like some other Moms, but I just can't. So watching the kids constantly is the most tiring part when we go out. This is more difficult when we are in a really crowded place. I think I am just going to get bright neon orange t-shirts for Gerritt & Sophia this summer, so all I have to do is throw a quick glance to know their location vs. scan the crowd slowly over & over again.
The kids had a blast & enjoyed playing with the water stream & multiple water sprinklers. Sophia kept hitting the water with both of her hands, creating big splashes & laughing, so most of her top became wet quickly. I didn't even think to pack a change of clothes. Gerritt climbed inside the tree house & checked out the inside of a real truck. There were at least 5 kids vying for the driver's seat, but somehow Gerritt ended up in it. :-)


Gerritt's new favorite toy - the glow-in-the-dark insects

Last night Gerritt & I went to Target. I am officially addicted to the Target's $1 item section! The items change every month, & I always look forward to discovering something new. Yesterday we bought a few playdough sets, adorable refrigerator magnets, pink stockings for Sophia, several sets of colorful plastic Easter eggs, 2 sets of soft Easter bunny ears (I am already planning the Easter egg hunt :-)), a dozen of plastic glow-in-the-dark insects, a bug net (!), a plastic ruler, a pair of waterproof gardening gloves & a set of pink, white & red foam hearts (for the next year's Valentine's Day). Another productive day for us!