Losing our Marbles...

This weekend, we took Sadie to Marbles Museum in Raleigh. Formerly home to the bizarrely executed Exploris Museum, Marbles is another typical children's museum with multiple play stations featuring a play ambulance with a plethora of tiny babies swaddled in blankets, a fire station with a fire engine, a grocery store, a garden, a log cabin, several craft and building areas, and the ubiquitous train table area where children slug it out for their favorite engines. It was extremely crowded, and it was a sociological experiment in watching clashing parental philosophies play out.

I don't feel like I overparent, but Redmond overheard two ironiclad hipster parents complaining about these "helicoptering" parents who just don't let their kids work things out for themselves, while staring right at me. I was attempting to keep my daughter from bogarting all of the Thomas engines, and was gently trying to teach her how to share, while making sure some of the younger and less assertive tots had some engines to play with. The hipster parents in question were slinging an infant and pretty much ignoring their three year old boy while he bullied the other children and yanked engines from all the other kids. I try to not be one of those know-it-all parents who believes their own parental style is far superior to other parents, but it rankled me to know I was being judged for "helicoptering" when I was just trying to make sure that my daughter begins to learn to share and not to annoy the other children and their parents. What they call helicoptering I consider basic courtesy. Judgmental parents need to realize that there are as many valid parenting styles as there are children, and that the vast majority of us share the same common goals and love for our children. Children also have vastly differing temperaments, and sorry, but if I didn't "helicopter" my particular curious and high energy two year old, I probably would lose her in a crowded museum. Anyway, enough venting. ;-)

Here is a demonstration of Sadie's incredible attention span at Marbles in Raleigh.



Fireman, save my shopping cart! Note how quickly Sadie abandons her cart when she sees the train table!



Some pictures from the museum.

Giant Leggo structures plus secret tunnels equals happy toddler.


Sadie against an artsy backdrop.


Sadie conspires with other curious toddler girls in a Leggo tunnel.


Holding up a wall...

This is the fun graffiti wall. There are all kinds of crayons and markers and kids can draw whatever they want on the wall. Sadie has decided to take the high road and drags a chair over for more clearance.


In the "musical instruments of the world/parents needing Tylenol" room.


These maraca-type shakers make a fetching hat...

Fireman, save my ginormous stuffed dog!


Sadie rescues a baby from a burning building...

And then proceeds to deliver twins...


Sadie, train table diva.
We really had a hard time getting her to leave the fireman gear behind...

There were several craft areas in the museum. This was an exhibit sponsored by the Scrap Exchange, a nifty warehouse in Durham where all kinds of scraps are donated, and rather than taking up landfill space, kids and adults alike can make crafts and projects from other peoples' discards.

Drawing, coloring, and attempting to paint giant blobs of color on one's hands.


I think it's time for a bangs trim. She looks like a little baby college student after a long night clubbing, which isn't really the look most of us mommies are striving towards with our two year olds.

Enjoying an artery clogging lunch at Gypsy's Shiny Diner afterwards...

Here's a few pictures from the weekend before, when Pee Paw came to visit.

Pushing Sadie in the wagon...


Playing in the canoe at the pond. Note that our ponds are beginning to fill up with water, and after the rains we had this weekend, they may be almost back to normal now.