Tales of life with a girl on the go

I took Reid to the Canadian Museum of Civilization for Twelfth Night celebrations on Saturday afternoon. Reading the blurb in the paper made it sound like quite a party, with dancing and cake and more. When we arrived, Reid was still wiping the sleep from eyes since we went straight from naptime to the car. She wasn’t interested in joining the circle dance demonstration, in fact she didn’t even want the shoes I’d brought along. In my grown up wisdom, I said she wouldn’t want to be clomping around in boots. In her toddler wisdom, she thought footwear was footwear and the shoes I offered didn’t make the cut. I decided I was silly for picking a fight on such matter but since I had only the shoes, I had to stick to my guns. Eventually, she put the shoes on and we rode the escalators. She wanted to take the same one down as up but I, her life guide, explained things didn’t work that way. We watched a bit of the dancing as we rode, or I did anyway. I asked the museum guide when the cake would be served since the dancing wasn’t remotely interesting to Reid and then we went to the Children’s Museum planning to come back.

We decorated a piece of construction paper – yellow, of course – to hold a calendar. Watching Reid cutting with such intense concentration made me think of how much improved her hand-eye coordination is lately. When I went to the open house at daycare, there was video of her and she was holding the scissors with both hands. On Saturday, while she couldn’t cut out pictures but she does make cuts into the paper while holding the scissors correctly. She was also interested in the hole punch (which we have) and bingo daubers (which we could get from the Dollar Store). Good craft ideas! Reid insisted on using the water fountain that has a stool to stand on. She didn’t want me to push the button because she could do it herself. What she couldn’t do, however, was push the button and drink at the same time. There were a couple of older ladies sitting on a bench watching this unfold. Reid was opening her mouth almost wide enough to swallow the basin of the fountain and was so determined to serve the water to herself. The ladies laughingly congratulated Reid when she finally got some water in her mouth.  We tried out the both the buggy and bicycle parts of a bicycle taxi and I gave Reid a “ride” in the motorcycle taxi. We got on and off of the bus a few times and Reid talked on the phone in the red telephone booth several times. I suggested that we could walk farther in to see some more exhibits but Reid wasn’t interested. We spent about 40 minutes in the initial exhibits and she had a blast. Next time we’ll have to try for the second 50 metres.

At 3:15, we headed back for the cake that was to be served at 3:30. They were cleaning up! First, I wouldn’t buy Reid a hamburger on the way to the museum. Then, I had to say we were too early for cake. Finally, the cake was gone. Guess who sprang for a treat at the museum cafeteria? Reid chose a big cup of fruit. She ate most of the watermelon, a couple pieces of pineapple, all of the cantaloupe but refused the green melon whose name I can never remember. I’m not sure if she was full or if it was the green colour or that I couldn’t name it. It worked out that the cake was gone. After our snack, we rode the escalators a bit more and then headed for home.

Here’s a picture of Reid concentrating as she uses the scissors.