February 20, 2005 - Sunday
I was just trying to get the boys to eat fast and get out the door promptly when I said we'd miss the train. It worked, Jeremy ate his breakfast as fast as he has in a long time and and both he and Harry were very diligent about putting their shoes and socks on, but I think I put the fear into poor Harry. He kept asking if we were going to miss the train until we got there.

It was a day for adventure: trains, subways, a museum, and a special lunch. We'd told the boys last night that we'd be taking the train into the city. It seemed like a good diversion for the long weekend and it was originally just going to be a train ride in the morning, a brief walk around, then a noon train back in time for Jeremy's nap. But Jeremy's been having a hard time falling asleep at night and we're starting to think that he may be nearing the practical end of naps. He's certainly shown little sign of trouble on the occasions when he's missed his nap. When we got to the Children's Museum, a late addition to the itinerary it quickly became clear that an hour would probably not be enough time.

The golf ball roll room (above) was what both boys said they liked the best, although it was certainly more fun when we went in the morning and it wasn't so crowded. When we went back in the afternoon after we had a special lunch, the room was packed with kids and many were hording the balls. Disturbingly, it seemed like a lot of parents were often doing little to stop them. Harry and Jeremy ended up being so worried about losing their precious yellow balls - most were white, they liked the yellow ones - that they probably wouldn't have even used any of the ball rolls had we not been waiting at the bottom to retrieve them immediately. In the afternoon it made more sense to discover new things, like the weaving exhibit. The boys did like the tool area, too.

Rather typically, there were a few other things that Harry didn't want to try at first, like the Blue Man Group pipe/drums. We actually have a DVD of the Blue Men that Harry has seen and I would have thought he'd have loved using the drums, but he said he didn't want to the first time by them (although that was almost the first thing we saw, so maybe Harry hadn't settled in yet). The second time he was a bit more enthusiastic, but not budding-drummer enthusiasm. The same was more or less true of this climbing wall. Harry pretty much refused to try them the first time, but when we went back he took right to it. Unfortunately, it was really too difficult for Jeremy's still-developing hands and fingers.

On the way home we did a little loop on the subway so that we could ride on each color train - red to green to blue to the orange line - followed by the purple line commuter rail train home. I guess we never did take a bus shown as a yellow line, on the system maps. Fortunately, those yellow line bus routes aren't on the same map as the subway and rail trains and that probably or else Jeremy would have insisted on riding the yellow line.


Comments, Opinions?