To introduce this person, I've decided to keep it short and simple. The guest poster is my wonderful husband, Geof, and he is going to tell you about his big day out with Connor at the Louisville Science Center.
Connor & The Louisville Science Center, or how to make a toddler miss naptime
While Bela & Cayleigh were busy at the ABC Kids Expo, I finally managed to take Connor to see his Uncle Jared at the science center downtown. I had tried to visit him before (without Connor), but it just didn't work out. Anyway, they have an exhibit of science-teaching activities going on in the main gallery. It is designed for ages 3-7, but as it turns out, a precocious 2 year old does just dandy.What they had:
A magnetic board that let you put various metallic objects up to it and watch them stick. This was Connor's least favorite thing, partly because it was a little tall for him. His verdict: I will stick this metallic potato masher in my mouth and try to run instead. Luckily, this exhibit has specially marked slobber buckets for easy clean up.A build-your-own ball roller coaster. You drop balls down guided ramps, where you can put loop-the-loops, curves, hills, and a launch at the end, and see what happens. Connor loved this, and got to the point where he was climbing up the little step to drop balls from the top of the top ramp (around four or five feet!). However, we were both disappointed to learn that dropping a ball from the top ramp didn't have enough velocity to get around five loop-the-loops. His verdict: Apply WD-40 and let me play with it more.
Two block tables. Blocks of different shapes and sizes and colors, all wooden. He quite enjoyed separating them out by color and shape. In fact, he got very irate when there was a whole bunch of green triangles, a whole bunch of blue squares, and one solitary green square. He kept moving it from pile to pile and yelling at it. Jared was there to witness. His verdict: Please paint the green square blue or better yet, cut in half for two green triangles.
A pile of *giant* blue building blocks, of various shapes and sizes. These were much too large for Connor. His verdict: why did Daddy build the monolith scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey with them?
A series of tubes that shot compressed air through it, with diverters and guides. This was super fun. You put a scarf in the opening (or a fuzzy koosh thing), and watched it shoot through the tubes, and out one of the exits. By adjusting the diverters, you could change which hole it shot from. By the time Connor got to this display, he was no longer the only tiny one running around the exhibit, and a couple of the slightly older kids weren't letting him play. He waited his turn very patiently until they ran off, and their dad gave them a little lecture about sharing with little kids. His verdict: I wish I were taller so Daddy didn't have to help me put the scarf in.
The part you've all been waiting for: The Second Part!
That was about an hour and a half of what we did there, but there was a second section of this area that Jared took him to while I ran and got my wallet from the car.In here, there were tons, and tons, and tons of shapes. There were cubes, squares, eggs, butterflies, flowers, almost anything you could think of. Connor also got a topography lesson when I explained that all shapes in the world are deformations of either a sphere (no hole) or a torus (like a donut). He spent a good forty five minutes pulling shapes from different bins and putting them back into bins. The staff there chatted with Connor a bit. I think everyone but Jared who works there is a 20 year old girl. Anyway, Connor started to throw the ball pit style balls (but only the dark green ones), so I took him to the KidZone, which is also coincidentally their permanent exhibit designed for up to 7's. His verdict on the shapes thing: please provide more green ball pit balls. Seven is an insufficient number for fun.
Slightly further adventures
The KidZone was pretty awesome, but I don't actually remember most of what was in there. I remember a rocket ship play zone, and a airplane play zone, and a ambulance play zone, and a construction play zone, and there was some more stuff. Also a lesson on poison control and a reminder that pills and candy are not the same thing. That part was a little weird. What I do remember is that when they had the old, somewhat smaller KidZone, when Jared and I were little, he was always under seven when we went, but I never got to go. Not even when he was under seven and went and I was under seven and didn't go. So, my excitement on going to the KidZone may have outweighed Connor's at some points. Anyway, he had fun climbing stairs, and making the rocket do its little countdown by pressing a button. He also liked moving all of the little wooden play cars around the airplane zone, and laughed when I started stacking the little wooden buildings. His verdict: Please make rocket actually blast off. Would be extra extra fun. Also, ramps too steep for 10th percentile toddlers. Please correct.At that point, we were already 40 minutes past nap time, so we waited for Jared to have his lunch break at 1, then ran to Subway for food. Jared is apparently a regular at Subway (as there is an entrance directly from the science center into it, and the science center leases the premises. Connor barely ate, and didn't touch his olives, not even when I let him dip them in the hot sauce. I could tell how tired he was, so at that point, it was time to go home and finally catch up on his nap. Verdict: Subway should provide a sandwich that is just bread and olives. Would buy.
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