Des Moines Science Center

Andrew's befriended one of his new coworkers already, and he was kind enough to give us passes to the Des Moines Science Center (normal price right now is $11 for an adult and $7 for a child). It completely surpassed our expectations.

The first room we entered was about air and wind. There was an air drum we pounded on that moved some dangling, sparkling circles. There was a giant hair dryer that kept beach balls suspended in air. Our kids were excited about this contraption:

The kids drop a ball into one of the holes and stick a tube in that blows air. The ball shoots through the tubes and comes out another hole. I was amazed at all of the little, little kids who were able to do it. There were kids under 2 participating! I think the only tough part was sharing the balls with each other.

The next station was quite busy. The littlest ones enjoyed just playing with the balls. Our kids were old enough to have fun with the air. It blew through those tubes, and it was strong enough to suspend the balls in the air.

The nanotechnology section didn't interest the kids, even though they had some stations meant for younger kids. So, we went upstairs to the climate area. The kids got to press buttons to light up a map of Iowa. One button would light up the rivers, one would light up forests, and another would light up where people lived. Jo loved pushing those buttons.

There was a green screen, and the kids got to be on TV! Oliver loved it.

Then we found the greatest station of all. There was a giant... Mouse Trap game on the wall. I don't know what else to call it. Kids dumped balls into a basket, which were fed through tubes, blown down a track, bounced all over the place, and came back out. I'm pretty sure the kids spent more than half an hour playing there.

There was a station for teams of kids to build an arch out of foam blocks. None of the bigger kids seemed interested in building an arch, so the station was filled with little kids just playing blocks. Jo was one of those kids.

Oliver & Andrew built cars out of Legos to race against other kids. Oliver won!

In the space station, the kids played with more blocks. Jo stacked Duplos.

Oliver and Andrew built space ships!

Oliver's rocket:

We went in the theater to view a movie on stars and constellations. It really freaked Jo out, so we had to run out of the theater. Oliver was crushed! He kept asking to go back to see the stars. I think one of us will have to go back to the theater with just Oliver... maybe when Jo is busy stacking blocks!

Oliver and Letters

Oliver's really coming along with his alphabet (or "letters," as we tell him). He officially can recognize and say the following letters: S, R, G, O and I. Oliver has also done pretty well with the letter C, but he calls it the same thing as S (sss). I think he knows they're two different letters, but I don't show him C very often because I don't want him to get confused. He recognizes them whether they're his magnetic letters, puzzle letters, or written on his chalk board. We only use capital letters, though.

Here's how he says each letter:
S - ssssss

R - UGH! (he grunts it out)

G - guh

O - oh

I - eh
C - sssss

I tried to get a video of him saying them a few minutes ago, but it's too close to his nap time, and he wasn't interested. I'll try again after his nap and lunch :)

Oliver Knows Mom

I haven't counted "Mooooom" as Oliver's first word because I wasn't convinced he knew what it meant. Every baby makes the sound "mamamamma" and "babababa" and "dadaddada." I haven't counted him repeating sounds I make, either. For example, I can say, "Mama," and he'll repeat it, but that doesn't mean he knows what it means. So, I don't count it.

Oliver started pointing to things with his index finger last week, and since then, we name everything he points to. He loves it! He points to the microwave all the time, and he points to his cup when he wants water. Anyway, we recently started quizzing him, and I was delighted to learn he'd retained so many words! Almost every time we say, "microwave," he points to it. I'd estimate he points to the fan when we say "fan" two-thirds of the time. For the first time today, Andrew said to Oliver, "Can you point to the Cheerios?" and he did!

The reason I'm blogging now is because Andrew came home and was playing with Oliver. He said, "Where's the microwave?" and Oliver pointed to it. Then, Andrew said, "Where's Mom?" and he pointed to me. Oliver knows that I'm Mom! I can't remember the last time anything meant so much. I teared up and clapped for Oliver. I'm Mom :)