Seattle with kids

I wonder if I should have bought a season pass?

Ever since my son was born over eighteen months ago I’ve had this odd desire to take him to the local kid-centric places.  You know, zoos and museums and what not.  The problem with this whole thinking is that my Sweet Babboo is far too young to give a crap about zoos and museums.  Seriously, he’d be just as happy sitting in his stroller at The Gap as he would be sitting in his stroller at the Woodland Park Zoo.  But still, I was dying to take him to see these places.

I’ve tried my best to hold off until I was sure Babboo would be old enough to actually appreciate a trip out.  But after realizing how close we lived to the Pacific Science Center I couldn’t hold off any longer.  Unfortunately, since my best friend recently moved awayI had nobody to go with us.  And you know, I couldn’t go alone.  Everyone knows it’s more fun to do something like this with other moms and kids!  I started sending e-mails out to different ladies from church, hoping (praying!) that one of them would be willing (and able) to meet Babboo and I at the Science Center.  I’m not lying when I say I asked more then four different ladies to go with us.

None of them could.  Or would.

Jerks.  I didn’t really want them to go with us anyway.

Except that I did want them to.  So I waited until someone was available to go with us on a Saturday.  It only took a month or so for someone to finally agree to meet Babboo and I for a Saturday afternoon at the Pacific Science Center.

Mary said her and her daughter Sarah would meet Baboo and I at the front door of the Science Center after Sarah woke up from her afternoon nap.  She wasn’t sure what time that would be, so Babboo and I waited by the phone.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, about an hour and half before closing time, they called.  Babboo and I loaded up the stroller and headed over to meet them inside the front entrance. 

Once we got inside and paid the $11 for my ticket, we waited for Mary and Sarah to arrive.

Apparently I’m a pretty fast walker and made it there in record time.  Much faster then they could drive there and park.

Babboo decided right off that he liked the Pacific Science Center.  What’s not to like?!  Brochures are always exciting to him.  I think it’s because he loves to pull them out of the stand and throw them all over the place.  Good times (for him.  Not for me.)

Since we got there so late, we didn’t have much time to hang out and check out what the Science Center had to offer.  We first ran to the children’s area so Babboo and Sarah could play with the water exhibit.  We all know that water is like crack to kids.  If there is water anywhere within a 2 mile radius, they will find it and get covered in it.  And that’s what they did.  The kids were able to push boats downstream and learn how water can be used for movement.  And you know, get soaked.

I looked up from the water and realized there was an entire room devoted to instruments just across the way.  I pulled Babboo away from the water.  The kid loves, loves, loves music.  Much more then water.  The music room was full of tons of different sizes of wooden xylophones begging for him to pound away on.  Plus, the walls of the room were covered with steel bowls/instruments.  Dude, let the pounding begin! 

Again, since we were in a hurry (and because I’m a horrible mom) I ripped my kid away from the thing he loves and forced him to go into the dinosaur room, which ironically, he hated.  And again, because I’m a horrible mom, I made him stay in the dinosaur room long enough to get a picture of us with the dinosaurs.  And maybe long enough to eventually start crying because he was so afraid of the ROARING sound the full sized (obviously fake) dinosaurs were making.

(Are we, as humans, sure that dinosaurs ROARED like that?  That sound just seemed too fake.  Plus,  very scary to kids.  I don’t know that dinosaurs would have wanted to scare little children like that.)

(Except that maybe they would.  I wouldn’t know, since I didn’t have time to actually read anything about the dinosaurs.)

This was the point of our little excursion that a security guard approached.  I was pretty confident that he was coming to arrest me for forcing my crying kid to stay in the dinosaur room.  Alas, he was just letting us know that it was closing time and we needed to get the heck outta there. 

But dude, we hadn’t even sort of seen half of what was there. I got nervous.  I definitely hadn’t seen $11 worth of sciency-stuff.  I started to race around, dragging Babboo with me, to try to see more exhibits.  All the while the security guard was following us around. I kept running from room to room, taking picture of anything and everything on our way to the exit.

Things like random robots.

Yeah robots.  So exciting!

(Not really.  But like I said, I was desperate to get my money worth.)

Was the trip to the Pacific Science Center fun?  Heck yes.  Would I do it again?  Sure.  But next time I’ll go way before closing time. 

And I won’t bother inviting anyone to go with us.  We might just have more fun on our own.

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