A Museum for Babies?

Last Saturday, as part of our fun but exhausting trip to the city, we took Nick to the Chicago Children's Museum. I have to say it was amazing. I had been there once before, when I was teaching third grade about four years ago. But when you're supervising 27 kids and trying to ensure that none of them get lost or fight, it's hard to pay much attention to detail. This time I only had to watch one baby, and that was much easier.

I didn't even know that they had exhibits geared towards babies. The newest exhibit is for fort building. I used to do this as a kid, using sheets and overturned chairs. The whole exhibit has furniture with hooks and sheets to hang up. The kids can crawl around underneath and find a cozy spot. Nick enjoyed crawling around under the sheets and playing peek-a-boo.

This particular exhibit was exclusively for non-walkers. For Nick, it was baby heaven. He was so excited, and this area was very well designed. It had textured carpeting in one section, a baby obstacle course, and lots of things to touch and fondle. Nick loved the squishy blocks. I need to find him some of those; he was fascinated with them.

Just to make the area even more interesting, there were lighted panels and ballet barres placed at a perfect baby height. The squishy gym mats on parts of the floor were at different heights, so Nicholas could practice climbing up without bonking his head. Don't get me wrong, he does this kind of climbing at home, he just hits his head on the hardwood instead of the soft cushy gym mats.


I think this area confused Nick a little bit. The object was to dig dinosaur bones out of the little plastic thingies that were meant to look like dirt. Nick,

I think this area confused Nick a little bit. The object was to dig dinosaur bones up from the "dirt," which was just little rubber pellets. Kids could use gloves, cool vests with pockets, and brushes for excavating the dino bones. Nick liked banging the brush, and he kept trying to eat the little rubber things. He liked it, though.

The baby pond was probably Nick's favorite. Between this little tube of joy that he got to shake, and the squishy walls that he used to stand up, Nick was completely enthralled. He crawled all around exploring.




Here is Nick sitting on the wavy gym mat squishy stuff and staring at that baby in the mirror. Everytime I'm holding Nick and I bring him by a mirror, he gets all excited. He seems to "get" that he is the baby in the mirror, and he always grins at himself. So here he is, checking himself out in the mirror. All guys get that same look when they check themselves out. He'll be doing the same thing in about fifteen years, as he goops on the hair gel and spritzes the teen cologne.