My son is a daredevil

This Moment

Christmas 2011

I'm going to keep this short, but we had a pretty nice Christmas. Max was thrilled with all of his gifts, and if I could get my phone to cooperate, I would upload a video of him on Christmas morning, seeing all his presents. But I can't, so just imagine an excited little guy.

We spent the morning at our place and the afternoon at my mom's, where all the family that was

in town gathered. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Creative Gifts from a Student

I received some great gifts this year from my students and their families, as always. One of my favorite surprises was a goody bag full of these homemade gifts:

The tree is made out of paint color samples! Reduce, reuse, recycle! You know I gotta love that!

Some Guatemalan worry dolls, with a kid-decorated box.

And this oh-so-simple bookmark, will definitely come in use, and I won't feel bad when I misplace it- because I will misplace it. I'm amazed at how many bookmarks I go through.

There was also a picture frame, magnets, and some sticky notes. I go through sticky notes like no other, and I need new magnets to hang up the kids' art, so really, these were very useful gifts for me! I love the thought behind them!

2011 Christmas Cards

I decided to make our Christmas cards this year, because I have soooooooooooo much extra time on my hands, apparently. But I was very happy with the results:

Happy holidays to all!

This Moment

This Moment

Review of the Bodyology Exhibit

Last weekend Max and I went to the new Bodyology exhibit at the Children's Museum Tucson, and we were not disappointed.

Our first stop was the Vegetable Garden, where Max got to harvest veggies like cucumbers and carrots. He enjoyed sticking the veggies in the slots, but it didn't hold his attention for long.

The Juice Bar, however, was calling Max's name. This little mini kitchen was decked out with sinks, refrigerators, and blenders. Max loved loading up the blenders with all the fruit, then pushing the button to turn the blender on. Then he'd pour the "smoothie" into a cup and drink up! It was so neat to watch the imaginary play.

The check out in the Market is not a new attraction, but it's updated and looks very nice. It would have been nice if they could have added a noise element to it, like a "beep" when a grocery item was scanned, or a pretend little handheld scanner. I know Max would definitely play with that. They also need little baskets for shopping, not just carts. The rest of the market is very nice looking, and has the feel of an open air market, not some big chain grocery store.

The big news of Bodyology, I would say, are the over-sized body parts hanging on the wall. Obviously, in this picture, Max is interacting with the mouth, but there is also an ear, nose (complete with boogers! yuck!), eye, heart, and lung. All very cool.

I didn't get any good pictures of the Orchard, but my favorite part was that the fruit is magnetized and hangs from the trees so the kids can pick it! Max's favorite part was the tree house; he liked climbing up into it and looking out the windows. Anything with stairs and Max is set.

Again, when we went, it was $2 admission day so it was crazy busy. We didn't spend as much time as I would have liked in Bodyology, but we'll definitely be back to play again!

This Moment

I like Max's hand placement in this photo, so I had to include it too.