5 Hours at KidSpace

Last weekend, we met 5 of my coworkers, their spouses and kids (9 months - 3 years old) at the KidSpace Museum in Pasadena. We got really lost going there because the directions on their website are not correct (take note). Anyways, I had been hearing about it for a long time and wanting to go. We had a fun day. Unfortunately our timing was a little off with Maiya running our show, so we didn't really get to spend much time with friends from work, so the pictures make it seem like we went by ourselves. Next time I will be sure to get a group picture when we arrive!

Maiya looking at the insects and shouting, "pica pica pica" which I thought in Spanish meant bugs or insects, but it actually means bite, but it's something that all the kids at childcare say when they see the humongous roaches outside in the playyard at childcare.

We spent a lot of time, and when I say a lot, I mean hours, at the outdoor play area for kids under 4. They had cool water toys and of course Maiya's favorite, slides. She wanted to ride the mini-tricycles, it seemed, but once she got on the helmet, she didn't want to ride.

Back inside, Maiya and Tony went up the climbing towers, it goes several stories high. I don't know how high, but about mid-way, I saw Tony crawling through it because the levels were so close together. A long time later when they re-emerged, Tony came out sweating.

We also spent a lot of time in the indoor kids play area, it was so fun to see Maiya squeal with delight when we entered the room of all soft and cushy things and lots of shopping carts to push and cushions to bounce off of. Here we are reading a book under the canopy, and wondering if the girl will ever nap. By the way, if it looks like she is hoarding toys, she is.

Here are Josh and Jolynn, along with their one year old Tomie. They organized the outing on our work/parents club listserve. Here they are on their way out of the museum. I think their family kind of looks like ours. Jolynn is JA and Josh is a hapa dude like Tony, which makes our girls both 3/4 JA. Josh had come up with a term for them, which I'm trying to remember at the moment. Something like "hapa hapa" or "half a hapa." Another famous "hapa hapa" is my former boss and friend, Nobuko.

Here we are outside in the parking lot. Because we were having a family dinner about 20 minutes away, we ended up hanging out about 2 1/2 hours after we were done with the place. While it was tiring, it was nice to have no agenda and to just hang out. Tony took a whole roll of film camera, and lots of video, and i took a ton of digital pictures. Maiya had been carrying this red balloon for a long time, running with it and then just as we were trying to take pictures, the balloon escaped into the sky. We had been trying to tie it onto something, but Maiya insisted on holding it and wouldn't let us put it around her wrist. So, here we are saying goodbye to the balloon.

Here we are in San Gabriel after dinner for Uncle Bill's birthday. Unusual for Tony's family, we went to someplace new and different, a Chinese food restaurant that Uncle Bill had read about in the newspaper. Maiya was of course, having a good time being the center of attention. Her legs aren't short, they're just bent in that photo, in case you are wondering.

Ok, that's the report for last week's day for Maiya. I'm enjoying finding the balance between doing stuff as a family that combines activism, cultural and kid-friendly, and I think we're doing pretty well. I'm off to continue nursing my weeklong illness (see comment from my last post if you care) and do some homework for my online class (which I'm dreading because it's getting crazy).