On Sunday, we went to Mesa to check out the AZ Museum for Youth. Target sponsors the first Sunday of the month making it possible for people to go to that museum, the Museum of Natural History, and one other museum, all within walking distance, for free! Nice deal. Downside–it’s crowded!!!!
There were some things I liked about this museum better than the Phoenix Children’s Museum. It’s smaller (which is good and bad). I LOVED the monster exhibit. It’s a dark room lit with black lights; monster eyes are painted on the wall, glowing eerily; stuffed monsters are scattered about for kids to play with and throw around; plus there were a couple scary hats–all glowing under the black lights, of course. Maria’s pants and shoelaces were bright white. We sat on the floor and just took it in for quite a while. She seemed to like it, then all of a sudden got overwhelmed.
The other thing I liked better is their art room. There were several tables of different heights. 2 of them were the right height for the stroller to be pushed right up to the table. They have the stones that you can paint with water at one table, and textured pictures (one was a fish) for rubbings at the other table–you know, where you put a piece of paper on top and rub the design into the paper. The lower tables had colored pencils and I’m not sure what else. It was a calmer room. Lots of the exhibits weren’t appropriate for Maria because of her vision and cognitive stuff.
There was an under 4 room. They were very gracious about letting us take the stroller in there (strollers weren’t allowed). I much prefer the Phx Children’s Museum under 4 room, it’s bigger and calmer. This one was tight and crowded with people who weren’t all that polite. The best things we found were the peg puzzles like Maria does with Chris (OT); we started playing with one, but I thought it seemed too much like work/therapy and this was supposed to be a fun trip, so we went to the coolest thing in the Under 4 room–a light box with colored translucent blocks. Trouble is there were a couple kids that were there for quite a while and did not want to move. We sat next to them for a while, but it was too crowded. Great thing for a kid with cortical visual impairment or other vision issues.
No gift shop, which is a shame (not that Maria needs anything else!). I would have liked to have gone to the Museum of Natural History because there were dinosaurs out front, but Maria was getting tired and I didn’t want to overdo it, like I often do with her!
After lunch and a nap we went for a swim in Sue’s pool (they’re in Vegas). I think she liked it, a little chilly for me. She did a lot of yelling at first–a lot for Maria. (cold water? no Sue? excited? scared?) But after about 10 minutes or more of swaying in the water, she finally relaxed.
Those antibiotics sure mess up her system. She gets an upset stomach, or so it seems, and wicked bad diaper rash. Poor thing. But she never complains! If only the rest of us were like that, eh?
I’ve managed to mostly avoid politics in this blog, but I just can’t believe that idiotic AZ school superintendant and all the other paranoid, right-wing wack jobs that didn’t want their children to hear the president speak to the kids today. Pretty dangerous stuff-kids, pay attention in school, wash your hands, and do your homework. Wow. But I digress…
I met with Maria’s school speech therapist and she gave me some good ideas for the TechTalk communication device. Can you say simplify?! We really got off track with it. We’re going to stick with 2 messages for school (hi and some other word that would be appropriate for circle time with the general ed kids) and 2 pictures for home of things she wants and will only get if she pushes the buttons (her Elvis dog and music). So far, I’ve liked all Maria’s school therapists. I still need to meet the OT, the vision teacher and the new hearing teacher (I thought it was going to be the one from last year, but they switched her).
sounds like a great place……..wish they had something like that here in Reno……………..I gotta just tell you I so totally agree with you on the presidents speech yesterday……….what is wrong with these paranoid, right-wing idiots……..anyways glad Maria is feeling better!!!!!