Winter Outings with my Toddler

It's hard to complain about winter in Seattle.  There isn't really any snow.  It's relatively not that cold. But still, there is something about it-- the darkness mostly, but also the rain-- that kind of makes me just want to stay home and hibernate.   

But with a toddler, one must go out and DO (as my mother always said). 

There are actually quite a few kid-friendly places in the city where you can go when it's cold and rainy.   The Children's Museum is great, but pricey... as is the zoo, Gymboree Play and Music, and the aquarium.   But, there are quite a few cheap and easy places to go too!   

Here are some of my favorites: 

1) Library Story Time.   

Practically every day of the week one or two of the libraries around Seattle hosts a story time.  Songs, stories, egg-shakers, scarves....   toddler heaven.   

Price: free!  

2) 3rd Place Books 

Ok, this is one of my favorites.   You can sit and enjoy a coffee, (or just sit and enjoy sitting), while your kids tool around in what we like to call "the kid pit".  Basically it's just an area filled with toys that is blocked off by counters.   Me: coffee.  Toddler: trains.   Perfect!  Also, Mockingbird Books  if you are around the Green Lake area offers trains, coffee, and story time, and the Mosaic Cafe  in Wallingford, has a back room full of semi-functional toys and play equipment, with pay-as-you-can coffee at the front. 

Price: free, plus whatever coffee you purchase.      

3) Community Centers: Toddler Rooms 

These are dotted around Seattle.  Some are really awesome (the one in Laurelhurst is naturally in this gorgeous studio room with windows overlooking evergreens and Lake Washington) others feel like the places where old gymnastics mats, and broken pop pushers go to die a slow and painfully dirty death.   Pick and choose wisely; and try not to come home with Hand Foot Mouth disease. 

Price: usually $3 

  

4) QFC  at University Village  

Ok, here's the thing about this store: Double-Wide Taxi Shopping Carts.   My girls love them.   Even my almost-seven year old squeezes herself into them because being pushed around a fancy grocery store  while pretending to drive a taxi is apparently the best thing ever.   Do we need eggs?  This calls for a taxi trip!  Will we need more toothpaste eventually?   Taxi time.   Also, there is a childcare facility there which we haven't tried.... I think the kiddos have to be 2 years old to play.  Something to look forward to!   

Price: free!  (plus groceries)  

5) Petco Pet Store 

So, with my first daughter we went to the zoo on a weekly basis.   But now that we're farther away, and our lives have gotten a bit more complicated, I am sorry to say that poor little Eloise has not been to the zoo even once.   

The good news is that we live fairly close to the pet store!  And at the pet store there are mice, fish, birds.... even some kittens on occasion.   What can I say, for a toddler it's a pretty exciting trip! 

Price: free!  (plus the amount of the can of cat food that your toddler refuses to let go of).    

6) Oh screw it, we're going outdoors.  

Sometimes you just have to go out anyway.  Even though the wind is freezing.  And the rain is freezing.  And the slides are wet and freezing.  We go to Magnuson Park a lot.  Hats, boots, coats.   We throw rocks for 20 minutes, run around the trees, then pile back into the car and drive home where the bathtub is waiting for us.   

Christmas at home

Christmas at our house.  

Like a story, or a song.  Like a memory that you feel like you have, but you don't really know where it came from.  

And then you realize that it is a memory.  But in your memory you are the child with the glowing Christmas tree that seems twenty feet tall.  And the warm current buns in the morning, with the sausages that you never eat any other time of year.   The heater runs, gift wrap strewn about the living room.  Mom and dad are smiling and drinking coffee in a sleepy smiling sort of way.   

Legos.  Dolls.  A new set of pencils.   A walk in the cold Christmas air after all the fuss has died down.   Many new books to read.   

I remember so much love, and many sweaters.      

In this way, Christmas at our house-- in our very own house, under our very own roof for the first time ever-- was very much like returning to something from my childhood.  But now I am the mother, and I am watching my girls, ages 1.5 and 6.5 point out endlessly which ornament is the most magnificent.  
We are celebrating our home, and everything that it means to be the-four-of-us-together in our home. A space where daily ordinary life takes place, but can turn into a sort of magical holiday hut when we simply focus on each other, and make cookies.  
It was wonderful.  It was perfect.
And now we are into January, and Christmas is over and cleaned up.   And I am already looking forward to next year.