Road trip across the Bay

Today we packed up our car bright and early and headed across the Bay to Sausalito for a trip to the Bay Discovery Museum at Fort Baker. I have been somewhat terrified about taking both kids on long day trips (anticipating tantrums and lots of crying in the car), but I decided to get over it and do it anyway... I hate feeling like I can't do things or need someone else with me to help me. Today was empowering.

We made it across both bridges and over to Sausalito in about 45 minutes since we went during off hours. We met up with my friend Priya and her two kids (ages 2 and 4 months) who live in the city.

First stop... instruments! We could've stayed here all day.

Andrew is a little monitor these days and one girl was drumming with 4 mallets... he informed her that she can't use 4 and that she needed to share. She disagreed. Fortunately her little sister decided to be nice and give Andrew some mallets so that he could play the xylophone.

Andrew has been all about being a frog lately, so the Tot Spot was a hit (for a short stint... he is almost too old for this room now). This morning he jumped around the house with a laundry basket on his head being a frog. Whatever keeps him occupied while I shower is fine with me!

He loved the water area too. Fortunately he's a little OCD so when I tell him to not get his cute big brother shirt wet, he actually listens... and only got a little wet... not drenched, which was what I was expecting.

The weather was insanely gorgeous. There was a light breeze and I was warm in my light sweater- mostly because I was carrying my little chunk in the Baby Bjorn. The view from the playground was awesome.

My little digger had a grand time... although he kept sucking on random things (arm of the shovel and handle on the broom). Yuck! I really hope he doesn't come down with some weird illness this week! With the number of weird things he sucks on he is probably immune to everything now anyway. :)

The art room held his attention for the longest period of time... although he was more interested in cleaning the painting area than actually painting.

Squirting with the water bottle to clean the walls.

Andrew and Paige played in the sand area a bit as well... but Andrew was so excited about all of the new activities that he barely stayed in one place for long. Fortunately Paige didn't mind moving around a lot!

Painting together

Andrew continued his trend of climbing to the highest point to scare me (this one is for ages 4 and up... but he climbed up and down it so easily that I couldn't say no).

After a few hours, we said goodbye to Paige (or "Paigey" as Andrew liked to call her) and Ryan (Caitlin's future boyfriend :))... and then we went to some other exhibits while our buddies went home for naps. The train room was a huge hit... especially once the daycare groups left and Andrew had the entire huge train table all to himself! He also liked collecting all the crabs.

There were no other kids in the wave room, so I played with Caitlin while one of the workers had fun showing Andrew how to build boats and float other cool items in the water.

We ended the day with a trip to the "money machine"... Andrew's favorite part of the museum. You put coins in and they are donated to the museum... and they go around and around. He was SO ridiculously excited about this thing that we almost had our first tantrum of the day as we tried leaving.

The only hiccup of our adventure was when Caitlin decided to scream the entire way down Van Ness to 101. Now, if you know the city and know Van Ness, then you would probably want to do the same thing anyway. There are SO. MANY. LIGHTS!! We hit basically every single red light! Andrew and I wanted to scream too. Instead, we just looked at each other and smiled and I said, "Caitlin is really cute when she cries, isn't she?"... and he agreed!

Little man spent the rest of the drive home keeping me informed of how Caitlin was doing.

"She's sleeping now mom"

"Caitlin's eye's are open now. She's happy"

"Caitlin is being a grump mommy"

The other highlight of the day (during the screaming) was when we were driving down Lombard and I reached into my purse to get Andrew another fruit snack and I discovered an UNOPENED small Cadbury mini-eggs bag. It was like a miracle and totally helped me stay happy for the rest of the drive... even when there was an accident on the Bay Bridge.

Now that we have survived a full-day trip solo to Marin we can totally do anything. ;)

When I asked Andrew if we had a good day today he said, "Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't."

???? Okay?

Love my little buddy! When we got home he said "After you feed baby Caitlin and she takes a nap, I want to cuddle with you and watch a show mom."

Yay for cute and cooperative kids!