Iowa Childrens Museum

Yesterday Jonah and I headed to the Iowa Childrens Museum with my Moms group. It is a huge interactive, playful museum with tons of things for the kids to get into (in a good way!). We went months ago with the group, but Jonah was still a bit too young to appreciate it. That is certainly not the case anymore! He ran through the place like a mad man and actually played with things they way they were meant to be used (versus just putting everything in his mouth...which he still occasionally did).

The first area you come to after checking in is the grocery store. Everything about thins place is so detailed, it's amazing. Complete with tiny carts, different sections of the grocery store to shop, a weekly ad on the wall (that the kids can rewrite over and over), questions about what foods they are buying and cash registers to check out. At this point Jonah is still just racing his cart around, but it was neat to see the kids of different ages drawn to different parts of the experience.

 
Across from the market is an ambulance and the mock childrens hospital. The ambulance has a video screen that shows the kids where they are "driving" and is full of real EMT equipment.

 

 The hospital is broken into a nursery with babies (complete with clothes. blankets, tubs and a rocker) , an exam room, an x-ray room with realistic sounds and a large skeleton, and a dentists office. My favorite part of the dentists office was the big artsy dummy with huge teeth that the kids practice brushing with a huge tooth brush. Jonah tried to brush his teeth a few times before he began to brush the dolls.

 

There is a track room with tons of tracks to send golf balls and cars zooming around. In one area you can build your own little wooden boxcars and race them against other kids. Jonah is a bit to young for the building, but he was certainly drawn to the cars themselves!

The airplane room is a huge room with big model airplanes and full size old airplanes for the kids to play in. The room is all about flight and besides the planes there are lessons about air and wind in there too. Jonah took a ride in a mini plane and tested out the mini wind machines that juggled balls in the air. We had a minor meltdown in this room when a rocket balloon that was released came whistling and howling towards Jonah. It ran into him and sent him flailing and crying through the room (in the opposite direction of me I might add). You had to laugh out loud at his dramatic flight response, but after a few moments cuddling and consoling, he was out of my arms and back to himself...fearless as ever.

 

Outdoor adventures

Yesterday, while Vanessa was at work, Jonah and I decided to brave the 15 degree weather and head outside for a while.  Amazingly, this was one of the first times that Jonah actually played in the snow.  Last year he couldn't walk, so letting him crawl around in the snow didn't sound like a good idea.  This year, the weather hasn't been particularly conducive to playing outside in the snow.  Iowa in January is always going to be cold, but 10-15 degrees and windy isn't fun for anyone!  Well, yesterday wasn't much warmer than the previous days, but at least it wasn't windy.

As we've mentioned before, Jonah is quite the fan of the outdoors.  Here he is surveying his surroundings.

It was fun watching him "experiment" with the snow.  He'd pick up a clump, break it, and then examine the broken bits in his hand.

Jonah trudging through the snow.  He loved watching he feet make tracks.

As you can tell from his rosy cheeks, it was pretty cold outside.  That being said, the cold weather doesn't seem to bother him.  After half an hour or so, I had to be a responsible parent and cut our playtime short.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have plenty more outdoor adventures in the upcoming weeks.

Walking in the snow is difficult, especially for a 19 month old.  Here are a few of Jonah's "outtakes".

Christmas Wrap-up

This is quite late, but here are a few pictures from Christmas that we thought we really great.

Jonah and Pop Pop facing off.

 Mimi getting a kick out of her sweet boy.

 Dapper Jonah playing in Mimi's kitchen.

 Cuz Noah looking through his stocking. (I love that the gifts are reflecting off of his glasses.)

 Cutie Patootie Cuz.

 One of the MANY time Jonah was sliding various objects down the slide.

 Here comes pantsless Cuz!

 Sandbox at Nana and Papa's.

 Jonah is a sucker for a swing!

 Peek a boo! Nana and Papa's indoor tunnel tent.

 Laughing during the Christmas Tree Lane ride.

 Out to breakfast with Mimi, Pop Pop, and Great Gramps. (I ADORE this picture.)

Christmas Cousins

While in Fresno, Jonah got lots and lots of awesome play time with his Cuz Noah. Since Nana and Papa's house is a veritable playground, there was no shortage of things for the boys to do together. (Slides, trampolines, new toys...oh my!) Sometimes they played independently, but near one another. Sometimes they tenatively let each other play with the toy they may have had first. By the end of the trip they were beginning to "fight" over toys the way good cousins should! (They also both spent a fair amount of time with no pants on for one reason or another. Not sure why that became a trend.) It was such a joy to watch them forming a bond with one another. It felt like a little glimpse into our future as family.

 

 

 

 

Stacking blocks

For Christmas, the Akinas gave Jonah a set of nesting and stacking blocks.  He had so many new things to play with in Fresno so we didn't open the blocks until we got back to Iowa.  When we did open them, Jonah was immediately interested in them and very quickly started to play with the blocks.  After a while, he learned how to stack them pretty high.  I was only half paying attention to Jonah while he was playing so it took me a while to realize how well he was doing.  As you'll see in the video below, he was able to stack all the blocks to make a tower that was taller than he is.  I didn't have the camcorder handy, but I was able to take a bunch of photos and put them together into a short video.  In the video, you'll see Jonah putting the last two blocks on the tower and then "inspecting" his handy work.

After he was finished playing with the blocks, the pushed them all up against the laundry door.  Apparently this was his attempt at putting them away.