The San Diego Children's Museum

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit us since we wouldn't have a chance to see them before moving to Israel. While they were here we went to a new museum that gave me some real insight into our American culture and my role as a father. We went to the San Diego "New Children's Museum" that opened a few months ago. This is an interactive art and play museum downtown, and as my mom and Maria put it, it is more of a "children's creative experience museum". You can read about and see pictures of exhibits below. First, however I want to point out a few interesting observations:
1) there was an oddly high percentage of non-Americans there (much more so than Sea World, for example)
2) almost all of the exhibits required creativity on the part of the child
3) the children who seemed enjoy the museum the most tended to have either friends/siblings there and/or very interactive parents who didn't mind playing around.

As I played there with Anabelle, Maria, my parents, and Thomas and Tori (my nephew and niece), I was intrigued by the responses of other adults, including those I read prior to coming to the museum...

When we were thinking of going, my brother looked up reviews of the museum. He was wondering why there were some reviews raving as to how cool the museum was, while there were some very critical reviews that complained about various aspects of the museum, including how some parts of the museum seemed home-made (tape pathways on the floor, home-made cars for racing, etc.)

When it came down to it, we decided that in a way reflects the lifestyle and expectations of many families here in southern California. Our society has become very entertain-me oriented. Movies, television, computer games, and theme parks all entertain us. It is not as common, especially for us as adults, to have to entertain ourselves with our own creativity and imagination... in fact, because of our expectations for others to entertain us, I think many of us have stifled imaginations.

Anyway, enough for my soapbox... it's made me realize that I really want to encourage my daughter's imagination. Most of the activities in the museum are projects that a parent could easily do at home with their children, and thus, I want to start doing some of these things during the hour or two in which I'm up with Anabelle before Maria gets up, or in the evening before Anabelle goes to bed. That means I have to discipline myself to decrease the instances in which I plop her down in front of the tv in the morning so that I can work.

Anyway, here are some pics from the museum:
They have a big bubble area in which kids can make many sizes of bubbles with a number of different items (normal plastic bubble makers, pipe cleaners, etc.)
There's also an area where kids can race cars made there down a track... I got all the kids to collaborate a few times to line up all of the cars and push them down the track at the same time.
There is a cool climbing area... though Anabelle enjoyed climbing a little, I think Thomas had the most fun.
There's a pillow-fight room in which the entire floor and all the walls are mattresses, and there are TONS of tire-shaped pillows. I started stacking the tire-pillows onto Thomas until he was covered and then pushing him over. Then Tori wanted me to do it....
Then they did it to me... I realized I'm getting old when I hurt my back when I fell over...
Anabelle, however, wasn't too keen about having more than one tire stacked on her.
A mattress as a slide...
Thomas got buried...

Anabelle loved the area in which they had a bunch of capes and an area in which they could act out stories, walk down blue tape-roads, etc.
There was a forest area with trees in which one could climb into, bouncy mushrooms to sit upon, and ponds in which you pull up pillows and find fish underneath...
Tori laying on a pond...

What better way to end a morning than painting an old VW bug... I was panicking, though, since she was wearing my favorite dress... errr... not MY dress.. but her dress that I like the most... um... not for me to wear, but that she wears... there I've cleared up potentially embarrassing rumors.

Moving, Hiking, and Lots of Ice Cream

Yesterday Anabelle and I had a good set of adventures... we first helped Mike and Kristi pack up their truck to move 25 miles away (he just graduated, and so they were getting kicked out of student housing). Like usual, when Anabelle helps me move, I throw her in my hiking backpack and she gets a ride while I move boxes, furnature, etc. However, this time, she made sure I knew that she wanted to help carry stuff, so that's what she did... that and play with Mike and Kristi's kids toys. We then joined Jen, my sister-in-law, and Thomas and Tori for a few hour hike in the hot afternoon sun at Mission Hills Park outside of San Diego. Anabelle was bugging me to let her walk for a while, but every time I went to set down the backpack, she said, "No! No! No! Mountain lions! They eat you!" She'd heard Jen mention that there were mountain lions in the park, but they were asleep during the day... so needless to say, I got to carry Anabelle the whole time, except for the last little bit. We ended the little trip with some ice cream and a nap. Later that evening, while my computer was busy running some simulations, Maria, Anabelle and I took a last walk for the day to get pizza and ice cream... looking back I almost only ate junk food yesterday, but I had a lot of fun.... It's nice being back home after being away for a few days (I was in DC for much of the week).

(posted by Nate... not Maria... I guess I should check who's logged in before I post)

My fellow Fellowshippers...

This past week I went to DC for the orientation for my Israel fellowship and met my cofullbriters. They're all really cool, and we're looking forward to the fun this coming year.... and research too, I guess. Nahum talked me into doing the Tiberias Marathon, with him, so look for a post this coming January!

screaming kids in big stores

Anabelle and I went to Ross the other day and when we were getting in line to pay for our stuff we heard a little boy crying. His mom seemed to have reached the end of her rope and was unable to console him. Anabelle was very concerned and approached him to see what was the problem. The little boy was just standing there crying, so she went up to him, put her arms around him and told him, "No cry, it's ok, no cry." She just held him and patted his head (the good mommy that she is) and eventually the little boy stopped crying. Once he stopped she let go of him and told him, "you Ok, no crying. You happy now?" Needless to say, the mom was very grateful and proceeded to tell me what a great kid I had. Anabelle came back to me and grabbed my hand and said, "Nene (spanish for little boy) happy now mommy." My little Polyanna, spreading joy wherever she goes!!! Gosh I love that girl.
* Posted by Maria *

"Sponges", or "At mevina ivrit Anabelle?"

I just wanted to point out the obvious and state that kids are sponges... while they tend to leave more puddles on the floor than they soak up, they absorb everything else. A package came in the mail today, and Anabelle wanted to help me open it. When opened she saw it... it was a Hebrew-English dictionary. Jokingly I passed it to her and asked her if she could read it... after thumbing through the pages she said, "It's a shoov bevacasha book!" Needless to say, this surprised me a lot for a few reasons: 1) I've only been studying Hebrew for a few months now, and I almost only study it by listening to mp3s, 2) while I've taught her some phrases (e.g., shoov bevacasha or "again please") I've haven't really pointed out hebrew text to her, 3) she's not even 2.5 years old yet.... In other words, kids are sponges... they learn things from us even when we don't make a real effort to teach those items to them.

July 4th and July 4th on the 7th

So being the OCD grad student that I am, I was in the lab on the 4th of July this year. However, when I finally came home, Anabelle and I went to see the fireworks at the La Jolla Cove. I did take the 7th off and we went to Sea World... I know this is the ~15th time I've posted Sea World pictures, but we're cheap and only have Sea World season passes this year. Anyway, on that day, we petted rays,
saw the penguins,
and sang along with Jack Johnson.