Training it Up at Travel Town

As part of our mini-vacation in Southern California, our friend Michael and his son Matthew took us to the Travel Town Train Museum in Los Angeles. Considering our boys obsession with trains this was a good bet for a Sunday morning.

The Travel Town Museum is smaller then the California Train Museum in Sacramento, but still has a satisfactory amount of old trains to explore. The museum has fifty or so locomotives and train cars, and is mostly outdoors.

The boys liked exploring the trains they were allowed to climb aboard. And, of course, Caleb gravitated toward the train table located in the roundhouse (not a classic round house, but a large building holding several trains).

The only comment I would have about the carpeted train table area is that they should have considered their audience more when planning it. There were too many off limits/do not signs ... Seriously, a train table will encourage preschoolers ... everything in the small carpeted area should be hands on.

There was also two model train rooms behind glass for the kids to view. This was also a favorite of Caleb.

Travel Town also has a miniature railroad with a cute diesel engine -- not as cool as a steam engine ala Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad -- but definitely fun.

First Trip to the Happiest Place on Earth

Xander had last week off. It was a work furlough for San Jose Unified Schools as part of statewide budget cuts. While we couldn't take the whole week off for a family vacation, we were able to squeeze out a day, and do a three day weekend in Southern California.  As part of this break from the kindergarten grind we planned a visit to Disneyland.

On Thursday evening we flew from San Jose to Burbank. We would have flown into John Wayne (closer to Disneyland), but the decision to go to Disneyland was at the last minute and it was too late to change flights. As it was, our flight arrived after 9 pm and we were checked into our hotel by 10:15 pm... 

We've considered a Disneyland trip before, but always assumed the boys were too young. Even before this trip I wasn't sure that the boys, now four and five, were ready for the trip ... and considering the cost of a ticket it could be a considerable waste if your child whined, was scared of Mickey Mouse and Goofy and/or melted down the entire day.

We talked to other parents of kids in the same age group who recommended a Disney trip. Emboldened we decided to go for it. We were pleasantly surprised to see that there was plenty for small children, and by taking advice from experienced Disneylanders we started the day on the right foot.

We arrived at Disneyland shortly after it opened at 8:15 am. We booked it to the Peter Pan ride. The boys liked it (although they thought it was too dark). Afterward we made a beeline for the Finding Nemo Submarine. Caleb wasn't sure about being under water ... but when all was said and done he had a great time.

The boys had done so well on the first two rides we decided to try Pirates of the Caribbean. I have very fond memories of riding it when I was 16. They liked that ride so much that we moved onto the Haunted Mansion. We were a little bit concerned about the Haunted Mansion, but figured there would be opportunities to exit if it was too scary. With a Nightmare before Christmas theme, and a large group of preschoolers and kindergartners along for the ride, it was just plain fun. The boys loved it.

Having gotten the planned rides done with (and it was only 11 am) we road the Disneyland train, and had a leisurely lunch. After lunch we headed to Fantasyland and to Toontown to do the more stroller-set focused activities. In Fantasyland we watched a Mary Poppins (one of the boys favorite movies) routine. And in Toontown we met Pluto and Mickey Mouse. The boys also road their first roller coaster and enjoyed it.

Next we headed to the Jedi Academy across from the Finding Nemo ride. Caleb is really into Star Wars (he is going to be Darth Vader this Halloween) and we thought it would be a fun mid-afternoon activity. Just our luck, Xander was picked to participate in the academy and Caleb wasn't. We think it was probably because Caleb looked too young. As it was the Jedi robes were baggy on Xander.

Then two storm troopers showed up, followed by Darth Vader and Darth Maul. At this point Xander was done, he wanted none of fighting Star Wars characters even if it was done in a very cute way. He came back to us in tears ... meanwhile Caleb had his hand up high and was still saying "Pick me!"

It was the end of the day, we had some time to kill before the Main Street parade (our plan for ending the day). We decided to find out if the boys were ready for a real roller coaster. We know Space Mountain is very fast and potentially scary, so we opted for the more low key Thunder Mountain Railroad. The concept is a runaway train ... what better ride for two boys obsessed with Thomas.

After riding the innocent looking roller coaster we now know that Xander is ready for Space Mountain - he loved it - and Caleb is not.  Space Mountain had a long line, so we will ride it sometime in the morning on our next visit.

We ended the day at the Main Street parade. By this time we were at the park for nine hours and the boys were tired ... We got no arguments when we left the park after the parade. We did try for one last minute family photo in front of the giant Mickey Mouse pumpkin (not a keeper).

Overall... Disneyland was fun, and we'll definitely be back. We may approach trip two differently, but with sound advice from our Disneyland experienced friends our first trip was a success.

Binky Free and Under Control - A Travel Story

The other day and Xander and I were looking at old photos. He saw a picture of himself with his binky and smiled, cocked his head and said lovingly ... "Binky!" How can my five year old still look back at his binky (a.k.a pacifier) abandoned two years ago with so many fond memories and joy?

Whenever one of my girlfriends have their first babies I caution them from starting the binky habit. It is a terribly difficult habit to kick, and the binky will be front and center in all of their baby pictures going forward. At first the grandparents will think its cute ... but even they will start to make comments somewhere around the second birthday. "Can't he take that thing out of his mouth!"

Not everyone will have the luck of planning a 23 day trip around the third birthday, but if you do this is how to kick the binky habit forever.

Three is a magic number in binky habit breaking. The first step in using travel is to pack the entire collection of binkies with you (when you return home there can be no binkies left in the house). The second step is that slowly you will inevitably lose each binky in the collection. The third step is to keep your three-year old convinced that this is a finite collection, and when all binkies are lost they cannot be replaced.

You must hold steadfast. Strategically extracting binkies from naptime and in the middle of the night are part of the master plan. The great thing about binkies and three year old's is that they do suffer a serious amount of attrition. Also the manufacturers do assist you in not making binkies for the preschooler ... make sure your three year old knows this too.

Where is our last binky? Sitting on top of a refrigerator in Moscow. My aunt snuck that one away, pocketed it, and cleverly left it behind.

May your preschool years be binky free and under control.

Fall Swimming

Call us crazy, but we joined a tennis club with a pool on Labor Day weekend. We had every intention to join in August -- once our summer travel had ended ... but we waited, not inspired by the especially cold summer.

The benefits of joining a pool on Labor Day weekend is that they were offering a killer deal, and waved the exorbitant initiation fee. The other benefit was a bit of a gamble, but we figured cold summer, hot Fall and we were right.

This weekend as the temperature peaked in the 90s we enjoyed hanging out at the kiddy pool. The boys loved swimming in one to four feet water. They actually are improving -- better than they did in a year's worth of swim lessons.

Our summer should end somewhere around Halloween. So until that time we'll be Fall Swimming.

When Company Comes a Calling

It is amazing to see how much my boys have grown. This weekend we walked through the California Avenue Farmers Market in Palo Alto, and my boys were downright delightful. A year ago, and it might have been a different story. We may not have tried it at all, then again we are pretty brave ... we love to travel with our kids.

Now that I have a kindergartner and a four year old everything is getting easier and more fun. Last month the East Coast grandparents visited, and everyone, adult and child alike had a good time. Of course some things don't change. We planned ahead. We had a plan A and plan B in terms of activities. We knew where we were going to eat. We mixed kid fun and adult fun. We hired a babysitter. We leveraged old stand-byes that the boys enjoyed... And we had three days with a limited number of meltdowns and kid craziness.

We started off the visit by hiring a babysitter and going out for an adult dinner at one of our favorite restaurants Evvia.  The next day was Friday, Jonathan took the day off, sprung the boys from daycare, and he and his parents took them to Monterey. They combined kid fun -- a visit to Dennis the Menace park -- with adult fun-- a walk down Cannery Row.

On Saturday they got to enjoy ice skating lessons. Xander who only likes to stay on the ice for the 30-minute lesson, skated for most of the free skate to show off his moves to his grandparents. That afternoon we went to Vasona Park and the boys road the train and played. We all went to Steamer's Grill House for dinner and the boys were well behaved. It helped that the restaurant is noisy.

On Sunday I wanted to take the ferry to Angel Island, but alas it was foggy and cold in San Francisco ... so we opted to go to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. We finished up the day with an early dinner reservation at the Slanted Door, and then dropped the grandparents off at their San Francisco hotel.

What we've learned from these visits, is not to overachieve in the activities department. We kept it simple and everyone had fun.

Overscheduling your Kindergartner

Today I looked into extracurricular activities for Xander. He is already in the afterschool program, and now I have the option to sign him up for some extracurriculars. I have plenty of choices, but how much is too much? There is art, which I think he would really love, soccer (he's already doing our local PAL league anyway and this would give him another opportunity to practice) and dance. The challenge with dance is that it is on Friday, the same day as his PAL league soccer practice... and he is already dead tired from a week at school...

At the same time he has told us he doesn't love the afterschool program. And honestly I'm not sure how I feel about it either. When I pick him up I see all of the kindergartners playing video games or watching movies. I know it is the end of the day, and that the program does other activities other than putting the kindergartners in front of the TV ... but this is the impression I get at 5:30 pm.  We come from a daycare without a TV, so it does bothers me that this happens in an afterschool program.

Jonathan and I are just starting to comprehend the concept of over-scheduling. We did overcommit this summer. We had the boys signed up for skating on Saturday and swimming on Sunday-- and we lost our weekends. We learned our lesson, and going forward we know the most we can support is one weekend activity... but how much can he handle during the week?

We're just in kindergarten and I'm already debating how much I want to sign him up for. Imagine what life will be like when he is more self directed -- telling us what he wants to participate in. I definitely don't want to overschedule him, at the same time I don't want him to miss out.

Chico, Calif. Partying College Students and Kid Friendly Locale

When I think of Chico, I think of Chico State and I always think of it as a top 10 party school. The school itself has a lot to offer, don't get me wrong, but its partying reputation precedes it. My own alma mater also suffers from a similar reputation.

Located in the foothills of the Sierras, I never thought that I would say great kid friendly city and Chico in the same breadth ... but in last month's visit we discovered two more kid friendly restaurants and the boys had a blast.

We went to the small town of Oroville, Calif. near Chico to surprise my friend Stephanie on her birthday.  We were really there to see Stephanie, and not to tourist around. However, if we go back, and we're pretty sure we will, there is a wonderful lake and plenty of outdoorsy activities for the boys.

Eating wise, we went to a brunch restaurant that makes our top 10 best kid friendly restaurants. Cafe Coda located on Humbolt Ave in Chico does a kid menu like very few other restaurants. Warning they don't post it online ... but it is themed after monsters, dinosaurs and trains. Caleb and Xander loved their meal. And like our favorite kid friendly restaurants, the adult fare was amazing, and the kids fare didn't pander with chicken nuggets and fries.

We also took the boys to the Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, which despite being a brewery, had a great menu, and fantastic kid friendly service. We'll have to go back to enjoy more of what the region has to offer... but for a short two day trip it was great.