Please Touch Museum

Monday, I FINALLY made it to the Please Touch Museum (PTM)!

I had first heard about this place shortly after it opened and decided I just HAD to take my little brother... that never happened. So, of course, with a baby on the way I tossed it on my list of things to do.

I'm pretty sure Jude was a little sleepy for about half the time... and there was a TON of stuff to do there so it was super overwhelming, but it was great! I'd love to make more trips up there - especially during the cooler months to explore things more in depth.

First we went to the water table. The water table at the DCM was a little better IMO. This one was bigger, but it didn't seem to 'do' as much as the other one. Plus, at DCM, they had a little step that shorter kids could hop onto to get to the water. I felt like poor little Jude was struggling to reach the water.

OK - The clouds were pretty cool...

We decided not to get tickets for the merry-go-round and I thought for sure he'd totally miss it, but of course, he somehow ended up wandering over to it when he gave up on the water. I distracted him by convincing him that he really wanted to go downstairs and play in the Alice in Wonderland themed area. It was really neat! They have one of thos optical illusion rooms that get smaller as you walk in, a little maze, a rose garden where you can 'paint' the roses, have tea with the Hatter and play croquet with a flamingo and hedgehog-looking ball. While I thought this area was pretty darn cool, Jude seemed to almost give up on it pretty quickly.

Moving on we headed over to the little town. Specifically we spent an abundance of time in the grocery store which Jude LOVED! He had his own little cart that he pushed around collecting his groceries, produce, bread, meat, etc. - all the while running into people's ankles - which of course had me apologizing the whole time. He really seemed to love it! Any time I tried to start putting away the items in his cart, he kept saying "mine!". So, I gave him some more time to play with his foods at the cash register... again he fell in love. He started opening the register drawer, 'ringing' his food, etc. etc. etc. It was pretty darn adorable. He was not a happy camper when I told him it was time to move on and say good bye to the grocery store.

"mmmm... canned corn... I've never had canned corn"

We didn't spend an abundance of time in the rest of the town, but there were some really great spaces. There was a doctor's office with x-rays on the wall, a book store, shoe store, a place where you could record your own movies and a house with a garden.

Next we went to the construction zone where kids could punch in for work, put on work jackets and move bricks. Jude pretty much loved this part too. He got a kick out of building with the bricks, moving them in the wheel barrow, moving them from the conveyor belt to the drop shoot, and back again. Then of course it wouldn't be complete without spending some time driving the dump truck around.

Afterwards we spent a little time upstairs, but by now Jude was starting to get a little worn out. We pretty much raced right to the fantasy flight area where Jude really seemed mesmerized. They had cranks you could move feathers with, a bike that you could spin the pedals to have different flying objects pass by (the millenium falcon was a highlight for us having just watched Starwars) and some air/ball things that made the balls hover - which I thought was awesome.

His poor little legs were too short for the bike, so we improvised

Then we ended up in the space flight area. He (again - for lack of a better word) LOVED it! They had a switch board that he played with for a few seconds and then he discovered the table full of different space ship pieces that you could put together to launch. They had some spinning circles hanging from the ceiling and you put your space ship on this air gun-type thing and hit the button to send it flying. Essentially it was teach kids about aerodynamics and what sort of pieces combined will go the furthest, etc.

BLAST OFF!

I actually made it in a photo! I'm not sure who the blurry child in orange is... but oh well.

After this room, we were pretty much ready to go, but we took a couple seconds on the monorail and then played in the car area ever so quickly before heading out.

I really would love to go back in the near future. The friend we went with said that someone she knows usually takes their kids up and spends time in just one section at a time, which is something I think we'd do next time. For example, he could have easily have spent the whole day in the grocery store. With out a doubt, the PT museum is something that I'd recommend any local mom to do!