Scrapbook: San Jose Children’s Museum

During Anthony’s recent vacation we went to San Jose for two reasons: first and foremost, to visit with our friends Jose and Lupe,  to sleep on their floor and rifle through their artwork, but secondly, to take Isobel to the Children’s Discovery Museum.

The beauty of this museum is that nothing is off limits. Everything is meant to be touched, explored, and climbed upon.  The museum celebrates curiosity and imaginative play. There were kids everywhere, naturally, and children of all ages and development were engaged by the displays.

I know the photo below is really terrible, but they even had a designated area for crawlers, creepers, and scooters to explore and play in a minimally-dangerous way. I used to WISH AND HOPE AND PRAY TO SWEET BABY SIR PICARD JESUS for a place like this near my house. Not that I live anywhere near San Jose, I just imagined a place like this but thought it didn’t exist. I think someone should pass a law that there should be three of these per hundred babies throughout the nation.

Some areas of the museum were more popular than others, which was nice. Isobel liked playing with the other kids, but I liked having more individual time with her as well.

The photo below is also a totally crappy shot, but it was the only one I took of the pizza area, and that place was so cool I had to show you, crappy picture and all. They had an area set aside with plastic vegetables and plastic cheese pizzas and tables and plastic pitchers and an oven and a register and basically all the things a child needs to open up their own pizza place. That girl with the pony tail? She was the ring leader, directing all the toddlers in their pizza shop duties, clearing tables and taking orders, and generally being Miss Bossypants. This area was awesome.

You can kind of see the pizza area in the background of this shot. Also the girl in the car was mean, but I’m happy to say she was only negative kid experience of the day. Well, except for the girl that screamed in Isobel’s face, causing a Meltdown of Terror. But that girl came and apologized whereas this girl remained Car Nazi forever.

We had this rainbow hologram room all to our selves, which was nice. It reminded me of very early parts of my relationship with Anthony.

The mammoth room was another deserted area, and Isobel played in there with these animals all by herself for a really long time.

This sand table was a one of our favorites. I’d love to have something like this at home, but it would be used as a litterbox immediately, I am sure.

The kids in this area were very good at sharing. Especially because the adults were very attentive. Involved parents make for great kids. That’s just how it is.

The cafeteria had a lot of healthy options, but Anthony and I split a pizza. It wasn’t bad if you like lots of puffy bread with a little bit of cheese and sauce. I should have gone for the chicken bowl.

Isobel’s absolute most favorite thing that we had to keep going back for was driving the ambulance. She LOVES driving and now asks to drive our car at every chance she gets. There were times when I was loading her into the car for swimming lessons and she’d say, “Mama, you sit. I drive,” and then I had to convince her that as the responsible, legal, licensed adult it was my duty to drive her around, not vice versa.

My god did she love driving.

I like how she feels free to just stand up while driving. She’s all, “JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL! I’ll BRB.”

Her second favorite thing was playing in the water table room. You’ll notice from the photos that that room was almost all boys. I’d say we had a 90% testosterone level in that room. Isobel didn’t care and almost certainly didn’t notice.

She got to organize and sort balls and watch them flow through tubes and splash in pools.

Look at the pure joy in that face.

The apron was way too big for her and Anthony had to keep adjusting it and putting it back on.

She didn’t like the toddler water area as much as she liked the big kid water area. Too many threats of getting splashed in the face. DO NOT WANT.

And this is how we know that the museum was a success: before we were out of the parking lot, she was done for the day. I wish we lived closer, because I would visit the hell out of that museum if we did. It’s $30 per person to get in (including children) and worth every penny.