Now Entering Parenthood...

The sound only Charlie can make… There are no imitations.

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:31:45 -0400

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The sound only Charlie can make… There are no imitations.

Simon and Mommy go on a farm date… Summer begins

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:08:12 -0400

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Simon and Mommy go on a farm date… Summer begins

"Train’s coming mommy! Better go faster!!"

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:50:08 -0400

“Train’s coming mommy! Better go faster!!”

- Every time I hear the Greenfield Village steam engine, 15 times a day, 5 days a week… I think of you Simon and where I’d rather be

Old McDonald renditions… Herda Oink Derda Oink

Tue, 29 May 2012 18:05:59 -0400

Old McDonald renditions… Herda Oink Derda Oink

10 Things A Mother Loves

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:34:00 -0400

I had a fantastic Mother’s Day weekend that I will remember for quite a long time. Who doesn’t love an all day adventure with a toddler and a giant animated blue train engine? But I wanted to spend a few minutes today to talk about the every single day gifts… the things that keep me going as a mother on a daily basis through the poop accidents, morning meltdowns, and brotherly aggression.

Admittedly, I kinda need this list today. After a fabulous weekend, today was filled with illogical tantrums over not eating the right banana, timeouts for headbutting the baby, twenty bedtime stories, and one baby who just had to cry it out as a last resort. So here goes the happy sappy things that keep me going:

MY MOTHER’S DAY TOP 10 LIST

1. Our Secret Handshake (sort of…)
With each of my boys I have a special secret way of saying “hello”, a non-verbal way of communicating that only the two of us knows. With Charlie… it’s smacking my tongue against the roof of my mouth. With Simon… it’s slowly tilting my head to the side one way and then the other, back and forth, smiling at each other sideways.

I might start it, or one of them might start it, but as soon as the other responds it sets us both into smiles and giggles. In a moment we know the other one understands exactly what we are looking for, exactly what we need, and it leaves us happy and connected.

2. Undeniable Pure Sincerity
With children this young, they don’t yet know how to fake emotion. Well, they might amp up the drama to get attention, but happiness, gratitude, and enjoyment shine through their little bodies and faces like a shining light. And it’s a type of infectious joy that gets under your skin and heart. To hear Simon say “Thank you Mommy!!” or to see Charlie look into your eyes and then break into an ear to ear grin… well, it’s just awesome.

3. The Sleeping Baby In My Arms
This one is so special because it doesn’t happen very often at all. In fact about the only time it happens anymore is when a kid falls asleep in the car on the way home for a nap. One of us will remove the sleeping child and do the slow careful walk from car to crib. At some point during the journey, our eyes will meet and we will give each other the look like… “Do I HAVE to put him to bed? Or can I just hold him like this forever?”

I never understood until I had a baby, but my god there is something about the way they look when they are sleeping that just melts every inch of your being. All that vulnerability and innocence. Their lives and trust in your hands. Their little sleeping faces and sweet baby breath. And when they get a little older, how they find a way to squeeze into the crevice of your neck just a little tighter to get a good snooze.

4. The Boob-feeding Snuggle Time
Alright, so there is one other way I get to have the sleepy baby snuggle time that Tom doesn’t, and that is the “laying down” breastfeeding hold… my favorite hold. It’s the one that allows me to fall asleep while baby gets fed (yeah for mommy). Or one that at least allows me to get some rest while snuggled up close to a sleeping little baby. I call it the “Charlie Snooze” in the morning, because I can get an extra half hour of cuddles and sleep before I need to actually wake up for work.

5. Morning Wrestling with Charlie
At some point after eating in the morning, after the alarm clocks have gone off for real, there will be this inevitable moment that Charlie drags his sleep head up and with closed eyes begins to crawl around the bed. He will usually bang into one of us and then with his face pressed right up against ours, he will let out a giant grin. This is inevitably followed by smacking his tongue, babbling and wrestling whichever one of us is awake enough to indulge a crawling happy baby in the bed.

6. Watching A Mind Get Blown
That was a lot of Charlie specific stuff above, but there is an equal amount of things we can only enjoy with Simon. Once of which is watching his little boy toddler mind get blown. There are the big events… like going to see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland or Thomas the Train at Greenfield Village, characters he loves being live and giant in front of him. Or simple stuff we take for granted, like seeing the night sky for the very first time.

7. A Child Obsessed in Task
This isn’t a Simon specific one, but he was always the more OCD kid than Charlie (who has a lot more to distract him). How fun is it to sit back and watch a little creature discovering the world around him, cause and effect, and willpower? Charlie trying 20 times in a row to stack one block on top of the next. Simon meticulously putting the flashcards away in an order that apparently only he knows. In that moment, all that exists in the world is them and the task ahead.

8. A Growing Imagination
Whether he’s pointing to the trees on the ride home from daycare, telling me he sees Daddy in the tree ready to go flying or he is telling me that he is “scared” of the Whatzit in the basement… it is so exciting to see Simon’s imagination growing exponentially every day. Finally there is an excuse not just to encourage imitation, but to encourage pretend.

9. Daily Car Conversations with Simon
I’ve posted a few of them here before… I just love the random hops from topic to topic that a toddler conversation takes. I can’t get enough of it.

“Charlie eat orange cereal. Simon eat orange cereal too. Ducks eat cereal… ducks eat bread. Ducks sleeping other one pond. Fire trucks sleep at our house, Simon’s house. Wanna watch the fire trucks, Mommy. Wanna ride the fire truck. Fire truck says “Weeeee-ooo, weeee-ooo”.

10. Giggles of All Flavors
From the “machine gun laugh” that tends to accompany hard core tickling or the funniest face you ever dare make… to the one breath “heeeh” and grin that seems to indicate a general approval in what you just did, the “Oh Daddy, stop being so silly” in baby-speak. I love them all!!

Swinging Charlie is best :)

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:08:16 -0400

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Swinging Charlie is best :)

‘All Done’ caught on camera… Babies always act...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:24:39 -0400

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‘All Done’ caught on camera… Babies always act different when you try and catch it but I swear Charlie is starting to sign

"Mommy! Wanna go fly in blue sky"

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:03:08 -0400

“Mommy! Wanna go fly in blue sky”

- Simon, putting my aspirations to shame

Still working to decipher this one

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:08:26 -0400

Still working to decipher this one

Back seat ramblings… Simon tells me what fire trucks say...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:06:21 -0400

Back seat ramblings… Simon tells me what fire trucks say and then recites passages of ‘Click Clack Moo’

Intimacy + Breastfeeding

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:37:00 -0400

This post could also be called “Why I started bawling my eyes out tonight at the thought of inevitable weaning of Charlie”…

I stopped breastfeeding Simon at around 8 months old. Charlie is now 9 months old, and when he was born I thought I’d give it my best shot to get all the way to 12 months. Slowly but surely as the months passed by, I’ve become comfortable with the idea that despite the way society likes to look at “those moms”… despite how I might have once looked at “those moms”… there is no reason at all I can’t keep nursing, even just once a day well into Charlie’s 2nd year of life.

But at some point… it will end. And when it does, I feel like a part of me is going to die. An intimate part of myself and my way to express love that I will never regain.

WTF? Breastfeeding, what’s all the fuss about?
Let’s throw away all the health benefits for a minute… for baby and mom. Let’s forget the ease of having an always ready food source. Let’s forget about the 500 calories burned a day. Breastfeeding now represents to me the most intimate way that I can connect with this other human being for whom I have such a deep profound feeling of love and vulnerability around.

I’m sure this is starting to sound “icky”… but it’s hard to put these things into words without comparing them to other acts of intimacy like sex. You have to imagine that you haven’t seen your significant other in an incredibly long time or you’ve just had a huge fight or a powerful emotional experience with them. In those times, you feel this gutwrenching desire to become as close as humanly possible and connect in a physical as well as an emotional way.

Don’t think that there aren’t those moments with children as well. Moments where you have an epiphany and realize their innocence, their meaning in your life, their fleeting childhood, their complete dependence on you, their blossoming personality… moments of pride and wonder and love. And yet all you can do is squeeze them tight, kiss their faces, often times before they push away and run off to do the next thing.

Breastfeeding gives you an excuse to soak them in
With breastfeeding you are able to have that physical connection… chest to chest, breathing together, rubbing their hair, them wrapping their fingers around yours, laying kisses on their face. It feels amazing to have something that you can provide them that they want and need. To feel their happiness as they drift off to sleep on your body.

And I guess all these things can be achieved by bottle-feeding, by cradling a baby and rocking them to sleep in your arms. But every month that goes by where they get a little more independent, self-soothing, self-feeding… so goes another way and another excuse you have for that intimacy.

As Charlie turns away, crawls off… with every day I feel him slipping from me. Simon is long gone beyond my reach and Charlie’s clock is ticking down. The day I decide is the last day of nursing, I’m going to have to give up an act in my life that has had such meaning. I now understand why some moms have such a hard time, I am now one of those moms.

It’s amazing how your perspective changes.

Simon Mommy car talk, my favorite part of the day

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:37:52 -0400

Simon Mommy car talk, my favorite part of the day

From Baby Babbles To ABCs

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:33:00 -0500

There is nothing better than waking up to a little smiling baby face saying “muh muh mumma”. Those simple sounds coming out of a chubby face is enough to melt any momma’s heart. Only, this morning, Charlie then went to grab Tom’s hair and began to utter a simple “dada” while he did it. A happy acknowledgement of mommy and daddy… or was it?

This is Charlie. This is my nearing 9 month old little baby. Could he really be moving on from those initial baby babbles… the “blah blah blah” and screeches… to his very first words? It’s in these moments as a parent where you have to decide if you believe in delightful coincidences or in the magic of a young baby’s brain… far more advanced than you think, and his language just struggling to catch up. Just how smart are these little men?

And then you know…
It’s somewhere around 15 months to 2 years, depending on the child, where kids get over the language hill. They’ve been pedaling hard uphill for so long. And you’ve been counting every word… from those initial “mama” and “dada” that start as just babbles and then turn into real intended words. Then it’s a rollercoaster, what new word will be next. It’s “all done” and then, did he say “kitty” but it sounded like “keee-leee”? Did I just hear him say “food”?

Between slips of the tongue, which you won’t hear again for another 3 months, and the everyday phrases that take on so many different meanings (“all done” with the food, with the car, with the bath). It is a SLOW uphill crawl until you turn around one day and you realize you’ve lost count of the words. And the next day he says 10 more, and then 20 more, and then he can say anything you say, whenever you say it and is having fun with his new found form of communication.

It’s then, when the verbal diarrhea begins… when you know it’s not just babble but true language… that you come to realize just how much smarter, more aware, and more personality these little people have than you ever gave them credit for.

5 ways Simon has surprised us with his words
1. SHOWING US WHAT GOES ON WITHOUT US
This is probably the biggest one. When you have a kid that goes to daycare, there is a whole world that goes on without you. Until your child has language, you aren’t really invited into that world. It sounds simple, but just Simon’s ability to answer “Yes!” to questions has allowed me to have conversations with him on the way home… “Did you learn about rainbows today Simon?” “Yes! Rainbow. Rainbow color”

But a lot of the time, I’m not proactive. I don’t look at the sheets to see what he is learning, and it just sort of slips out. All the sudden out of the blue, he starts singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, or he starts signing “PLEASE” in addition to saying it. He knows colors, he knows shapes. And the one that blew me away, he started spelling his own name “S-I-M-O-?”

2. A DETAILED MEMORY
Daycare is fresh, it’s new, it’s ongoing. What I wasn’t prepared for in a world where they tell you that your child doesn’t remember anything earlier than 2 years old… is that my child would remember things, very very detailed things at this age. I pull out a thermos to use for work that he hasn’t seen in 8 months, and he gets insanely frustrated because he knows that used to be HIS thermos for HIS milk… “Please mama, milk, please mama, please”.

Seeing a purse or a car that looks like my mother’s and being able to recognize it, and connect it back, “Amma purse?” The stroller compartment that held dried apricots (one time!) during the summer, that he expects still to this day to magically produce apricots on demand.

3. EXPRESSING OPINION
Which leads me to my next one… opinions, desires. “Too bright! No light”. The tricks that used to work not so long ago, no longer work now. “Do you want water or milk?” “Juice!” Asking to eat as soon as he gets up. Wanting to seek out and put on his pajamas as soon as he gets home. These are ideas he came up with all on his own, and preferences he wants indulged.

Sometimes opinion is cute, and sometimes it is a pain in the butt. “No Daddy coat… Mommy coat” as Tom tries to help Simon put on his coat. And you have to decide when to give in and when to stand up. If we indulge the request to play “Devo” because he asked, but then he explains “No! Devo downstairs” because he wants to listen to it in the basement and not at the dinner table… then you have to explain that it’s either this or nothing at all.

And it is amazing to me how much that little brain comprehends about choices. You want X… but you can only have Y or you can have Z (and Z really sucks - i.e. “go straight to bed”). And he can do the mental math to understand that Y is a good substitute for X considering the situation.

4. HAVING EMPATHY
Sigh… this is my favorite. Because if I can teach my kid anything at this age… it isn’t to be obedient, it isn’t to be smart, it is to be empathetic. And when Simon demonstrates to me that he understands what others are going through, it tells me I’m doing something right. When he sees that daddy is naked and runs into our closet going “Daddy cold! Daddy cold!” and grabs him a robe, I just want to squeeze him. When Charlie is crying and I hear “Charlie sad. (grabs a toy) Der ya go Charlie. Thank you. Welcome.”

It’s not just people… it’s become his stuffed animals too. They are “sleeping” and we can’t wake them up. They are “hiding” and we need to find them. They need to poop, need to eat. And he talks to them as he goes to bed. It’s a new found empathy for even the pretend creatures in the household.

Unfortunately this new empathy has also resulted in us being unable to send Simon in to wake the grandparents up and give mom & dad a break. He’ll just tell me “Grandma sleeping” and refuse to go into the room. He’s also been getting “scared” lately… at loud noises, at mommy catching him doing something he shouldn’t… covering his eyes and generally looking concerned.

5. HIS UNIQUE PERSONALITY
And finally… there are just aspects of his communication that give me deeper insight into not just what it means to be a little human, but what it means to be Simon Strickland… an absolutely unique person, with his own ideas of what’s funny, meaningful, enjoyable. Things he’s inventing all on his own. Things he isn’t parroting back from us or imitating, but genuinely creating.

The first thing I noticed was the bedtime routine. He began to name off pieces of his body… it took me a minute to get it, but he wanted me to touch whatever body part he named to his… My eye fluttering against his eye. My nose against his nose. Our heads bumping. Our cheeks touching. A gentle kiss. All his idea.

He finds things I do funny, and has even started telling me so “Mommy funny”. But more interesting is the stuff he does to be funny. Whether it’s really weird faces that catch you off guard… a stare down, out of nowhere. Or his insistence on drinking bath water, and when I tell him to stop, he insists “Yummy yummy. Try it! Like it!” At that point, how can you argue?

The Secret World of Boys
I guess this is all leading up to the day where I am no longer in the loop when it comes to language. Where Charlie and Simon will have worked out their own codes, their own words, their own speaking without words… and mommy and daddy are left guessing as to what is going on before our eyes. In the meantime, I will just continue to enjoy these newly forming talking humans as they decide to let me peek into their minds and hearts. And I will continue to be surprised, always, at the amazingness I find…

Singing styles of Simon Strickland

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:20:15 -0500

Singing styles of Simon Strickland

Muh muh muh mumma

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:50:04 -0500

Muh muh muh mumma

Almost crawling up in here

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:57:21 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Almost crawling up in here

My Head @ 2 AM

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:28:00 -0500

I will teach my child to be more patient
I will teach my child to be more empathetic
I will be more patient and empathetic
~~I will encourage my husband to be patient too~~
I will stop being a backseat parent

I will make my child healthier meals
I will make my child eat those healthier meals
I will not use bargaining or rewards
I will make mealtime more calm and enjoyable

I will spend more time with my kids
I will pay more attention to my kids
I will enjoy my kids, and care less about _______ (work, house, finances)
I will care less about what other people think

I will stop feeling so guilty
I will start thinking about what I’m doing right
I will go the fuck to sleep… I need to go to sleep

This Unconditional Kind of Love

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:34:00 -0500

Kids are a pain in the ass. Kids are the most amazing thing you can do in life. Sure, I haven’t saved a life or climbed Everest or given a year to humanitarian aid… But I still feel like at the end of all that I would come back feeling like having kids was the most meaningful thing I did in my life. For people without kids, I’m sure that sounds at best cliche and at worst self-centered. For people with kids, I am sure it strikes one of those chords deep in your heart, one of those ones that aches.

It’s all because I read this article which should be required reading for anyone who has kids, anyone thinking about having kids, or anyone who wonders why the hell any of us have kids…

“As an adult, you may think you’ve roughly mapped the continent of love and relationships. You’ve loved your parents, a few of your friends, eventually a significant other. You have some tentative cartography to work with from your explorations. You form ideas about what love is, its borders and boundaries. Then you have a child, look up to the sky, and suddenly understand that those bright dots in the sky are whole other galaxies.”

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH SIMON
A friend of mine once asked me, “Don’t you feel like this is the first time you’ve experienced unconditional love.” And when I hesitated, she asked, “You don’t think you really had unconditional love with Tom, now do you?”

The question resonated. Was she feeling something more with her son than I was with mine? Or did I just love Tom more than she realized?

My love affair with Simon has always been what I would call comfortable, observant, respectful. There was this moment I had when Simon was barely a week old, and I laid him on my chest as he fell asleep and started singing him a song. I began sobbing uncontrollably. The love I was feeling was so new, so raw, so deep and scary that I think from that moment on I tried to keep it in check.

There is no mistake. I love Simon with all my heart, but because I was so afraid of that deep raw uncontrollable burst of love… I think I rushed my love affair with Simon straight from honeymoon to old married couple. Simon and I are an awesome team. He can have his bad days, I can have my bad days and we both know we are still made for each other.

We have our secret language, our jokes, our way of communicating even without words. He’s confident that when he wakes up in the morning that I will be right there waiting for him. He’s so confident that he is not afraid to wander off in the mall, go explore the world, do his own thing… Mommy is home base, but Mommy is not the most interesting thing in the world. We are comfortable.

And the only time I have ever been scared for ‘us’ is about a month before #2, Mr. Charlie, came into this world. I started getting really scared about how Simon would feel. And I made this completely secret, and also completely naive, promise to myself to always put Simon’s needs first. Simon trumped this unborn baby, but that’s because I had not ever met this baby…

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH CHARLIE

“The Cancer man knows exactly how to a take a woman into his Crabby grip and keep her there forever. Maybe he squeezes a little too hard, pulls you a little too close. But you don’t mind.”

Let me start by saying I think astrology is bunk, but this quote had me believing. My little Cancer boy is clingy, rough, tough and I love it. Every time he entangles his baby fingers in my hair, pulls HARD, and dives his little baby face with hot breath into mine… I feel alive, I feel in love. Charlie love is visceral, in your face, here and now, and for some reason I am allowing myself to soak in it, I am letting it seep into my bones.

I love Charlie like a new obsession. Like the freshest of crushes. If I spend a day without him, I find myself obsessively thinking of him, guilty I cannot be with him. If he has a bad day where he isn’t in the best of moods, it hits me hard… Does he doubt my love for him? Does he feel like he isn’t getting enough of me?

It’s deliciously toxic and intense. I am letting myself experience all the vulnerability and insanity that I felt in that one moment with Simon and terrified me. With Charlie, I swim in it. I let it get to me.

There are these odd moments in the day, when I am holding him, where I envision terrifying things. Like, what if I just let go and dropped him down the stairs? What if I just left him here out in the cold? I don’t know why my subconscious inserts such horrors in my head, but I think it is the equivalent of putting your finger on a shocker. It’s a quick painful hit that gives you adrenaline.

I feel that shock, and I squeeze Charlie close, hard… Like someone is trying to take him away from me. Like tomorrow he won’t be there. And I realize how I no longer can survive without him. This small little man that I was so willing to put his needs below Simon’s… Now I just honestly couldn’t live unless he was alive as well.

I am nurturing a mama’s boy. I no longer care about independence. I just want his crabby claws dug into my heart forever. But I know I need to begin to let go some day, I am just nowhere near ready yet…

MY NEXT BIG LOVE
No, this doesn’t mean I am thinking about having another kid. Although I have learned that there is room in a mother’s heart for many many loves, I do think that I have hit my personal limit. Everyone has their personal limit.

What I mean by my next big love is that I am starting to feel this warm swelling in my chest, this new fluttering crush sensation, this wonder and this peace… And it is attached to this new idea. It’s brothers. Every time I see Simon and Charlie interacting without me, when I see the sense of wonder in Charlie’s eyes watching Simon or Simon doing something sweet… “Der ya go Charlie”. Handing Charlie toys, trying to make him laugh.

I crave more of it. It’s addictive, and I get teary eyed just writing it. I want so badly for these two boys to find love in each other the way I have found love in both of them. Nothing in life could make me happier…

THE EPILOGUE
Yeah, yeah… So I guess there is also some big life news and stuff too. Charlie turned 7 months old, and is starting to get up on all fours (just barely). He finally cut two teeth and is starting to sleep through the night on occasion again. He loves Ollie probably more than any other living creature in the world. The mere thought of that cat sets him into squealy giggles.

And then there is Simon. Now the two year old. A big number, and yet that still scares me less than the idea of Charlie turning one this summer. Simon is such a big boy now… Dancing, imagining his stuffed animals are real, jumping, watching movies, making up his own delightful routines, like naming off every body part on his face for us to kiss before bed (eyes, nose, cheek, chin, other cheek, head).

But best of all… Simon Giles Strickland is potty trained. Let’s hear it for a delightful little man and no more diaper changes. Sigh :)

That’s all I’ve got. May each of you enjoy your children and the loves in your life in your own unique ways. After all, why else are we alive? I’ll end with another quote from that awesome article that keeps echoing in my head…

The first four years of your life. Do you remember them? What’s your earliest memory? It is fascinating watching your child claw their way up the developmental ladder from baby to toddler to child. All this stuff we take for granted, but your baby will painstakingly work their way through trial and error: eating, moving, walking, talking. Arms and legs, how the hell do they work? Turns out, we human beings are kind of amazing animals. There’s no better way to understand just how amazing humans are than the front row seat a child gives you to observe it all unfold from scratch each and every day, from literal square zero. Children give the first four years of your life back to you.

Video

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:05:00 -0500

A Toddler's Guide To LA

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:31:00 -0500

I meant to put this up the minute we got back from visiting Uncle “On” and Aunt “Rocky” in California, but I got distracted. Without further ado, here are our tips and tricks for what the toddler-approved activities are in the greater LA area.

GRIFFITH PARK
With Lon and Roxy living right next door, we found ourselves at this LA iconic park multiple times. More specifically, we visited a playground called Shane’s Inspiration, Travel Town Museum, and went for a hike up to Griffith Observatory. There is actually even more to do in the park, including a current zoo and an abandoned zoo, merry-go-round, pony rides, and so much more. And the best part of all… it’s all FREE.

What Simon Loved
Running up and down the big empty train cars in the Travel Town Museum, bouncing on the tracks, hearing his echo. Picking up a walking stick and venturing into the woods. And you can never go wrong with a big large playground safe to let a toddler go wild.

What Simon Didn’t Love
Having to walk for too long, especially when Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t let him venture off the track for fear of falling off the side of the mountain.

SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER
This place is a hdden gem for sure. You have to get tickets ahead of time, and they aren’t particularly cheap for a museum where you will only be going to one exhibit… but the Noah’s Ark exhibit is amazing and you can kill a solid few hours just in it’s four incredibly interactive rooms. Religion not required!!

What Simon Loved
Loading all the animals two by two onto a track that you could move to pull them up into the ark. Using brooms to sweep up the fake poop. Making your own storm sounds. Playing with animal puppets (actually Charlie at 5 months old LOVED the puppets and lightning even more than Simon).

What Simon Didn’t Love
Not much. He wanted so badly to climb up the ropes into the upper part of the rooms, but wasn’t old enough or coordinated enough. He also wasn’t too interested in the lady trying to make him dance like an animal. But for other kids, it would be great.

LA BREA TAR PITS
This museum was incredibly small and far too much money when considering all the amazing free LA activities. It might be worth a visit if you are nearby, just to walk the grounds. Or if you have an older kid really into fossils. But in general it’s a pretty skippable stop.

What Simon Loved
Running around in the big open spaces outside. Climbing the giant staircase to get a look at the trees on the roof. Hiding in the jurassic sized plants in the gardens.

What Simon Didn’t Love
Having to stay away from those interesting looking bones and stuffed animals. Blocked only by velvet ropes which seem pretty easy to get around, except mom and dad keep pulling me away.

CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER
Huge, interesting to adults and kids alike and OMG… FREE!! I don’t think I’ve ever been to a cool science center that was free, let alone one this awesome. We only got to explore the Ecosystems and Living World exhibits, but that was enough. Good for kids of all ages (well, except maybe Charlie’s age, but even then they had designated “family” rooms with puppets and puzzles and things to chew).

What Simon Loved
Jumping on the big bed in the Blues Clues looking Family Discovery Room. Building puzzles with puppets. Running around. Touching a giant ice wall. Watching a flash flood, waves, giant fish. Seeing bugs eating away at rotting dirt. Standing in front of a giant wind machine.

What Simon Didn’t Love
There is a good number of exhibits that are too tall, too complicated, or too boring for a 2 year old… microscopes, movies. But there were so many that were enjoyable that I am having a hard time remember what was bad.

SANTA MONICA PIER & BEACH
This was one of the few places I had been before. I knew I wanted to come back, but didn’t know how much time we could really kill here. The answer = pretty much the whole day. Between the beach, the playgrounds, the rides, the shops, and the pier itself… you can do a lot. And we didn’t even get to the giant carousel or the aquarium.

What Simon Loved
Running up and down the pier chasing pigeons and listening to his feet on the wood. Cheesy rides where he could control the plane he was in moving up and down. Free stuff like the sand, the sun, and the ocean… especially running in the sun to throw clumps full of muddy sand in the ocean. Good thing we had extra clothes.

What Simon Didn’t Love
Having to walk for very long up and down the beach because the stroller sure wasn’t cutting it in the sand. Simon also really wanted to figure out the paid binoculars, but couldn’t understand how to close one eye and look through the eye piece with the other.

DISNEYLAND
The mother of all childhood experiences. Does it work for a 2 year old? Answer is a resounding YES. Disneyland pretty much works for everyone. Our top Disneyland moments included meeting Mickey Mouse and watching Simon’s face as we went through some amazing rides. He got so excited by the end that he would say “more ride” the minute we got off one.

What Simon Loved
Who knew, but Simon LOVED Mickey Mouse. He gave him a big hug, he honked his nose and tried to touch his eye. He was super shy and happy and then very adoring. Simon also loved all the colors, sounds, movement, music, spectacle. He loved the rides… Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion.

What Simon Didn’t Love
Waiting!! And worse yet, rides becoming broken after you waited. We minimized wait times by arriving early, using fast passes, having a wait time app. We made the waits we did have enjoyable with snacks and having entertaining stuff to look at (videos on phones help). But in the end you have to balance rides with run around and explore time, or you will have an unhappy toddler.

FINALLY… DETROIT METRO AIRPORT
I hadn’t even really thought about it until looking through my videos, but Simon LOVED the airport. Detroit McNamara Terminal is a real winner. Not only do you have a giant tram, but endless series of moving walks, and who doesn’t love that psychedelic light up tunnel. Simon and I got to spend a good hour here by ourselves killing time while Tom ran back to the house to get his forgotten cell phone before our flight. Yeah DTW!!