Rainy Days

Well, the weather up here in New England is becoming cliche. Windy, rainy, frigid, etc. This is anti-stroller, anti-park, and anti-swings weather. So Finley and I have been exploring our indoor options after I pick him up from daycare each afternoon.

The Children's Museum is always a hit.

Lots of the local libraries between daycare and home have good crawling and playing spaces. Staples was nearly thirty minutes of fun in the desk-organization aisle (so many plastic things to bang together!).

Arlington has a nice toy store that we can tear apart in no time.

Costco has aisles of great stuff to look at and free samples to snack on.

I'm trying to get better at scheduling playdates, but for some reason I'm hesitant to plan things in advance when two babies are involved (between health, nap habits, etc, it can get dicey). Luckily Gabi and almost 2 year old CJ are very reliable for our Wednesday get togethers!

Anyway, we tried somewhere new this week. Watertown's Indoor Playground. Yep--what a genius idea. Find an old warehouse, paint it bright colors, put a bouncy house in, paint a"track" on the floor for scooters, and a soft crawling space for little ones and POOF: you're a millionaire! For an (outrageous) $10, we had unlimited access to the space. Finley took a few minutes to take everything in, but then he was off to the races (literally). He showed off his walking skills and ended up standing right near a little green ride-on thing. So I plopped him on and pushed him around and around on the track.

The look on his face was priceless! When I was tired of running around bent over, we stopped and he looked sad. Then, he started jumping up on the seat and trying to make himself go. He actually pushed up and used his feet to move an inch or two, but wasn't pleased with the significantly slower pace. I gave in and we took another couple of laps.

Then, it was off to the ball pit. I jumped in and Finley hesitantly checked out the scene from outside the pit.

He leaned over and put his hands in, but just couldn't take the plunge.

I got inpatient and grabbed him. He was certainly uncomfortable with the balls all around his legs, but like a trained seal-he smiled for the camera.

He crawled out (on his own!) and the play kitchen area. We spent quite a while there as Finley opened and closed the pretend dishwasher and clanged pots and pans together. Then, he spotted a mirror, one of his new faves.

Whether it's the mirror, he loves, or himself is unclear!

This was a fun experiment, cross it off our list. However, what will we do tomorrow??

This can't be a good way to kill time before dinner!

Or can it?