A visit to the Children's Museum

Last weekend we headed to the Children's Museum located on the waterfront downtown. It's been pretty cold here, so we've been trying to find places where Annie can go and burn off some steam that does not involve her running around and destroying our apartment. Seriously. And since our apartment is pretty compact, especially when you close off the bedrooms it takes Bananas all of about 30 seconds to trash the place. First, she starts in the living room, where she gets all of her toys out of the corner. Then she empties out all of the toys that are under the coffee and end table. After that, she picks up a few puzzle pieces and balls from the floor - places them in her Halloween pumpkin candy bag - puts that in her baby stroller... and the terror really begins. Heading out of the living room she stops in the dining room, checking to see if anything on the table is within arm's length - if so it's on the floor - then onto the kitchen.

Most of the cabinets in the kitchen we have secured, however there are two she has access to. The tupperware cabinet, natch. And a misc. baking supply cabinet you might remember from the "Over-under-inside-on top of' pic, because she likes to climb in. Once in the kitchen it takes her about 45 sec to have both cabinets completely emptied and strewn throughout the kitchen. And if we're really lucky, then she takes the empty Poland Springs 5 gallon bottles and rolls it like a steam roller operator over everything. And if this is a Saturday or Sunday - picture this happening over and over again for the next five hours. So you can imagine our dismay when it's cold out. Because Annie needs to burn off steam, and we need it not to be at our house!

The good news is that there are tons of places around Boston where we can let Annie run amok, and the best part is that we don't have to deal with the mess!

So, back to the Children's Museum. It's a great place, with tons of activities for children. One of the coolest activities Annie was still too small for. It's the giant vertical maze-like structure that's probably two stories high and encased in netting. A few years ago when our nephews Jackson and Sam came to visit we took them there and they loved climbing through it. Although watching it from the sidelines is a bit wrenching thinking that at any moment a kid is going to come tumbling down and down and down, etc. But it looks pretty safe actually and in the times we've been there we've yet to see any kids taken out on stretchers so, that's good. But there were plenty of other exhibits for her to enjoy, and in one of the play areas one of the employees was blowing massive amounts of bubbles that Annie went crazy for, she loves bubbles! All of us had a great time, and I'm sure we'll be back soon!