Recipe for wearing out a 3 year old

I won some tickets to The Phoenix Art Museum, so Daddy, Jack and I decided to take a trip on the light rail down town to have a visit. Jack was so excited to get on our brand new light rail for a morning ride. His favorite part was not having to wear a seatbelt...go figure. People watching proved to be very interesting...moms with babies, college students cramming for exams, old men dressed in their "sunday best" on a Thursday, and many other, let's just say, unsavory types. It is amazing the things you notice when you are a passenger instead of the driver...makes me envy Jack's carseat view!


After a brief stop in the business district downtown for a quick bite, we were on to the museum. Jackson's education began the moment we entered and nearly walked into a nude female statue. Jack asked, "Mommy does she have private areas?" So funny! He stood there for several minutes looking at her from head to toe very interested in all her...um...parts.

Next we perused the European, Latin American, Native American and American exhibits. There were paintings, photographs, miniature dollhouses depicting early American and European furniture and sculptures big and small. When we saw a painting of George Washington, Jackson proudly explained that he was the 1st President and then he saw another painting and assumed it was Barrack Obama...not so much! We had a good laugh. There was one painting in particular called The Wolves Descending the Mountain that particularly interested him. It was painting depicting a man and a sick woman on horseback being chased by wolves. Jack was very upset about it and continued to go back over and over to the painting to ask me more questions about it. So, it made me ponder. What makes art art? What makes art good? For me, art is art and art is good when it evokes strong emotion. This painting certainly fulfilled that requirement for Jack.

My favorite exhibit was the fashion design installation. They had the dreamiest dress made by Givenchy. One can dream.

After over an hour of look, but don't touch, we headed outside to the museum's courtyard to take a break before making our way back to the lightrail. Jack loved that he could "touch" all the art outside and run and play and be loud like little children should be.






We all headed back to the light rail station to head home. Jack was happy to get back into his stroller as his tired little legs could carry him no longer. As we waited for the train, we fed the very friendly pigeons and watched the traffic go by. Once we were safely boarded on the train, Jack fell asleep within minutes.



Finally, we were home, fed and ready for bed. So, the recipe you ask, 3 round trip tickets on the light rail, a quick lunch, a visit to see nude statues and an interesting painting...combine with dinner and pj's and you have a child so tired he falls asleep half in and half out of bed.

Cheeri....uh ohs!

We don't often have cold cereal in the pantry, but this week we had Cheerios. Jack brought the box upstairs(he isn't supposed to have food upstairs)to beg very loudly for a bowl. As he was running with the box, he was shaking it and all of a sudden, the box flipped open and it was RAINING Cheerios! Scared that he would be in trouble, Jack hid under his Dad's desk until I coaxed him out for a picture with his mess. Then we called in the big guns(Libby) for a little clean up! Thanks goodness for dogs!

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

In need of a little quality family time, we headed to Tucson to visit the Sonora Desert Museum. What a place! The drive in was spectacular as the desert is alive with color-purple, white, orange, yellow....for anyone who thinks Arizona is a brown clump of tumbleweeds, this is the drive for you! Once we arrived at the museum, why they call it a museum I don't know since it's not like any museum I have ever been to, we got a map from a nice older gentleman and began our journey. We saw the friendliest hummingbirds in their own pavillion, an amazing aviary with more than 40 different species of birds(we even saw 4 snakes roaming the area freely...eek!)and many other fantastic exhibits. One of our favorite parts was visiting a show called Running Wild where the guide talked about creatures with feathers, fur or scales. Jack even got to "pet" his first snake! Relax, it was only a gopher snake! As we walked the trail, we appreciated the most amazing views of the green valley below, flowering cacti abound and the sounds of unseen creatures scurrying from bush to bush. Toward the end of our trip, we visited their Earth Sciences center and saw magnificient displays of gemstones and other natural minerals and Jack, being the budding scientist, looked through the lenses of his first microscope. He was so excited that he breathlessly said to me, "Mommy, this is magical!" Magical indeed!