Can We Fix It? Yes, We Can!

It's no secret that my kid lives for two things: Bob the Builder & Lightning McQueen. When my mom told me that there was a traveling Bob the Builder exhibit coming to science & children's museums around the country, I knew we had to go. The closest one coming up was Grand Rapids, MI, which is a three hour hike. So...last week Mom and I packed the kid in the car and set off.

First of all, the car experience. Since all of our family lives elsewhere, he is a good little car traveler. However, now that he's older, he's become quite the tyrant in the car. My mom and I were forced to listen to the theme highlights CD from Spongebob Squarepants...over and over and over. The CD is 20 minutes long, so imagine how it was hearing it 3 times an hour. If you ever want to test your mental health on the cheap, buy this CD and play it repeatedly: http://www.amazon.com/SpongeBob-Squarepants-Original-Theme-Highlights/dp/B00005NKK1

The hotel: Brendan just totally didn't "get" it. He thought we were at another house of my mom's. He kept asking why she had so many pillows and why she had a big pool at her house. We tried to explain several times, but he was mystified. He did like that Holiday Inn Express has a Froot Loops dispenser on their breakfast bar. If you want to impress a 2 year old, have Froot Loops. His favorite thing about the hotel was that mommy helped him "vump" (jump) on the bed. Mommy doesn't really do that at home.

Bob the Builder was like heaven for 2 year olds. It was basically science-themed Bob exhibits but the hit for Brendan was life-sized replicas of Bob's team for the kids to play on. Like a good mom, I took photos of him on all of them: Dizzy, Roley, Bob, Wendy, Muck, Scoop, Lofty and Benny. Is it bad that I was able to rattle all of those off without thinking about it? Too many Bob the Builder episodes for me, I think.

After Bob the Builder, we spent a lot of time at "Fuckee Fee" (Chuck E. Cheese for those of you without 2 year olds). He loves to go there and play games and ride. He was SO excited because he hit the jackpot on one of the machines and he got 35 tickets at once. He was jumping up and down and pointing. He won over 1200 tickets on that visit, so it was a big deal for him!

Ice cream: We went to get ice cream. Getting him to choose is like waiting for someone to make a life and death decision. He ponders his choices as if it's the only thing in the world worth thinking about. Finally, he chose some frightening neon monstrosity in the primary colors. It looked like Play Doh. He was also thrilled because they had a kid-sized table. He got his ice cream, and proudly went over to the "big boy table", as he called it. The first time he went to pull the spoon out of the ice cream to get a bite, the scoop of ice cream plopped out and onto the floor. My quiet and mild-mannered child let out a blood curdling scream and pointed at the ice cream on the floor as if he were looking at a corpse. The lady made him another one, but he wouldn't go anywhere near that pint-sized table after that. It was as if the table caused his bad karma with the ice cream.

We ended up staying 2 nights and spent both of them at Chuck E. Cheese. You haven't lived till you've spent two evenings at Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of screaming, rude children during cold season, not to mention the pizza ovens putting out heat like a blast furnace. For as bad as their pizza tastes, why not just microwave it and save your guests the sauna action??

For those of you who live far away, if Bob comes to your town, I highly recommend paying him a visit. Project Build It was a hit with my kid. If you bring a paintbrush or a paint roller, you'll get one free admission per family. As another side note, the Grand Rapids Children's Museum was very cool too. If you get the chance, it's another good place to go.

Can we fix it? Yes, we can!