The Big D

Forgive me for the lack of posting. Aside from using my extra time for nesting purposes, the only other topics I could write about lately is shocking toddler behavior. I started a post about it, but never finished it. Maybe I will, but hopefully we've moved on and that's that for now.

We took a last minute trip up to the Big D on Friday and Saturday. That's Dallas to the rest of you. B had to renew his sedation license so that his patients wouldn't get angry when he told them that he had to do their root canal without anesthesia. Originally he was going to drive up and back on the same day, but we agreed that spending a few extra bucks on a hotel room and not falling asleep at the wheel or in the class might be a better option. Thanks to our buddies over at Priceline, he got a great hotel for $50. When I found out how nice it was, I decided that J and I should tag along and have some fun.

Here's what J thought of the experience. I said, "J, would you like to go to Dallas and see a new city and go to a museum while daddy goes to school?" J said, "Yeah! I think that would be AMAZING!" His enthusiasm just cracks me up. He was so excited that he didn't sleep at all on the way up there even though we left right before his bedtime. There were too many neon lights to gaze upon. When we got to the hotel room, which for some odd reason, he called, "the church hotel", he said, "Wow! This is my new bedroom? I am so excited to be here." Thankfully we were all able to fall asleep rather quickly.

The next morning, we dropped B off at his class. As we drove through downtown Dallas, J said, "This is the biggest city I have ever seen in my life! Look at how big the buildings are!" All I could think was just wait until I take you to New York City, kiddo. J and I returned back to our church hotel for a leisurely morning of breakfast and Mickey Mouse. We then ventured over to the Museum of Nature and Science. Given that we spent about three hours total inside, I'd say the museum got two thumbs up from J. It actually was a lot of fun. The upstairs is geared towards older kids, but still fine for younger kids to browse. J especially enjoyed the giant nose that you could stick your head into and it would sneeze you out. There was also a place where you could experiment with sound. It took about 2.2 seconds for my music loving child to seize the microphone and belt out an echoing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Other people in the exhibit area cracked up because the microphone was meant to be used for testing simple sounds, but whatever. His confidence drew a crowd of other kids that then wanted to sing their own little tunes.

The downstairs part of the museum was a children's museum fit with a firetruck and fireman apparel, a giant xylophone, tarantulas, snakes and other creepy crawlies, a giant cow that could be milked, a farm area with tons of activities, a building station, sand pit, water exploration area, hot air balloon, and dental exhibit. The best part was we were there at lunch time so there were very few people around and J got to linger and revisit things numerous times.

It was a gorgeous day. The only meltdown we had was when I told J we couldn't ride a swan boat. I didn't think taking a toddler in a boat by myself while I am pregnant was the best of ideas. I did allow a quick jaunt out on a rock to look at turtle in the middle of a pond. After some munching and walking, J said he wanted to go back inside again, which was fine with me because I was wondering what we were going to do for the next 2.5 hours. It was back to xylophoning, firefighting, and cow milking. So fun.

The museum is actually on the state fairgrounds and is the home to a variety of museums. We also checked out the American Railway Museum. J and I were both of the opinion that it was a complete bust. The trains were really cool (and old) but there were only a few cars that were open to walk through and J really wanted to steer a steering wheel. We managed to find one on the back of a caboose. We weren't supposed to climb up there, but we did anyway. Thankfully that satisfied the steering wheel need and we called it a day. J fell asleep in the car for a bit before we went to pick up B and head back home.

The ride from Dallas to Austin is incredibly painful. It's straight for three hours. There's nothing to look at. And I had a kicking kid causing multiple rest stops, and another kid in the back saying, "I can't see home! Where is it?" The fun was over, but we had a pretty good time.