Author: Matt

During Liam’s “spring break” (his preschool follows the same schedule as DeKalb County Schools) I took a few days off for a staycation. One day I drove Liam downtown to the Children’s Museum, which I hadn’t heard of but is apparently awesome (Shannon has been there tons as a nanny). It’s right on the corner of Centennial Park, near the Coke Museum.

When you walk in it is a bit overwhelming, with all sorts of stuff everywhere:

Liam quickly found the ball area, where they have all sorts of mechanical devices that move little plastic balls into a system of rails that go all over the place, then end up getting dropped in various buckets to start the process over again. The Children’s Museum website is very clear that grownups without children accompanying them are not allowed to visit (even if you are a “kid at heart”, ha), but I could see myself enjoying an adult birthday party here very much. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone…

They also have a ginormous train table that Liam really wanted to play with. I had to pull him away and make him go look at the other play areas with a promise that after he had at least seen the other places he could come back and play for the rest of the time.\

Liam climbs into the delivery truck to move boxes around:

Always driving:

Too much fun:

I’ll just pull this handle…

The scale is broken, don’t bother looking for a number.

All I could think was “there is alway money in the banana stand.”

Gleeful running:

Giant mirror:

Giant soft blocks:

Liam likes the blocks:

Creepy cave with stuffed animals in the sides (you can kind of see the windows):

Dromedary:

More gleeful running:

Cool “moon sand” table used for sculpting whatever you wanted without getting too sandy:

Where does this go?

Oh, over here!

Sweet water area with “fish”:

Gotta get one of these for the house:

This is the little girl that got mad at Liam for putting “her” fish back in the water after she caught them and put them on the side of the table. I looked around for a responsible mother to swoop in and make her daughter apologize, but nobody came. Oh well, I guess even horrible children come to the Children’s Museum.

The card says “Moops”:

Farmer Liam says “ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear?”

A few weeks back, I took Liam with me to “Caboose Day” at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth. Rides that normally cost $3 were free and there was a scavenger hunt, but they didn’t bring in any extra cabooses or anything. In case you didn’t know, Liam loves trains. I loved trains when I was a kid, so I do what I can to get him some sweet train action.

 Here we are arriving:

Are you excited to see trains, Liam?

This is as close as he was ready to get at first:

Here we are going for a ride on a caboose. They have an engine hooked up to a pair of cabooses, and the train goes up a few hundred yards, they throw a switch, and then you get a 1/2 mile ride in the train before coming back. Liam liked it.

Switchman Jack (in costume):

After the ride, we went in another caboose that had snacks available and climbed into the cupola.

Outside the sleeper car:

My wife would not like this narrow hallway of the sleeper car:

Liam climbing into a seat, underneath a convertable bed, next to a seat that lifts to reveal… a potty!

Trying to escape:

Taking a rest:

Big engine:

Old buses- bonus!

Not sure what this one is, but Google suggests it is a “retired Georgia Tech Transette PRT vehicle”?

Liam does love driving buses, big and small:

Tiny driver:

By this time, Liam had lost all reticence and was charging ahead whether I was coming or not. I did my best to take pictures and not lose him.

Shannon noticed in this picture that there is clearly a sign that says “Please keep off the furniture”. Oops.

Tiny shower:

Random nice lounge:

Surveying the empire:

Watching the caboose ride come by:

Liam waving to the lucky passengers:

Wistful:

Oh, hey, a flower!

“Wait up, Dad!”

Happy train is… happy:

Liam enjoyed these lights:

They don’t make ‘em like they used to:

We were on the way out when I noticed an engine that we missed. Apparently you could climb inside, and nobody else was around it. We got on and Liam played for about 15 minutes before I pulled him away. He still tells me stories about the time he “pulled the handle and drove down the track.”

A good day.