Tag: dinosaurs

All the way to Santa Fe.

Published on by Darlene Dee2 Comments

The girls and I took an impromptu road trip to Santa Fe. I wanted to see some more of the Mountain Time Zone, Princess Buttercup wasn’t doing anything else, and Babystar goes where mama goes.

Also, I had finally unpacked THE LAST BOX and I needed to gtfo. It was either leave all the stuff I just unpacked behind and start a new life in Mexico or take a small weekend escape. I made the responsible choice. But maybe not the best one tbh.

Our first stop was Dinosaur Ridge ($18) in Morrison, Colorado. Did you know that the first Stegosaurus skeleton was found there? And did you know that the Stegosaurus on Dinosaur Train is named MORRIS the Stegosaurus? Coincidence? Maybe.

If you have a little dinosaur lover (or a big dinosaur lover), go here now. Babystar touched dinosaur bones and climbed in dinosaur footprints and then dug for legit FOSSILS in a sandbox. She got to keep one as long as she buried the others. The friendly volunteers stock the sand with teeth, shells, and ammonites like trout in a lake and Babystar LOVED it. I mean, it was her two favorite things: dinosaurs and sand. She did not want to leave.

But we did finally leave, after buying her a new friend named Parasaurolophus ($6.99).

We then drove south. Guess what we found in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico between Denver and Santa Fe?!?!?!  NOTHING! There are no people. There are only aliens.

Ok, there are some people but mostly there is otherworldly landscape. (I was driving so there aren’t any pictures but just imagine a place where aliens might choose to land because it feels most like home to them.) It was really quite beautiful, if a bit weird for these east coast girls aspiring to be mountain girls. I mean, we drove hundreds of miles without passing a Starbucks. And Princess Buttercup saw either a bear or a moose. (Her vision is not great.)

PROTIP: If you are so over momming that you need to G-E-T-O-U-T, but you of course have a toddler along for the ride, go to as many children’s museums as you can find. You can take a step back from your regular life, drink all the fancy coffee you can find, AND get mom-of-the-year points. Win-win-win.

We visited the Santa Fe Children’s Museum ($20). Highly recommend. The outside space is just as big as the indoor space. And BONUS – the water play feature was under construction as in NOT WORKING. (Yes, I consider that a good thing!)

 

We also visited Buell Children’s Museum ($16) in Pueblo, CO. This museum is big on crafts. If you love crafts, you’ll love this museum. There are other cool things too, like a toddler room with a sort of farm theme, a magnetic ‘fishing’ pond, a pirate ship, a room of giant blocks, and a dress up station. Though I understand they are switching the Pirate Theme soon so your mileage may vary. I suspect they will still have TONS OF CRAFTS. Like, they had a craft room bigger than our old townhouse AND they had craft stations every ten inches throughout the museum.

 

It was a pretty cheap road trip: we did a lot of just walking around and looking at stuff. We also mostly brought toddler-approved road snacks and shared our restaurant food (and free hotel breakfasts) with Babystar, but I did spend a little on food and ice cream:  $6.99, $4.49, and $3.99. We also popped in to the Georgia O’Keefe museum and the Taos Pueblo but those were for me (and anyway she was free).

Oh, and I did buy her the Satin and Chenille Trolls ($14.99) on this trip because I am a sucker. And some apples ($2.99), because I am a REALLY good mom.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $28,329.09

Dinosaur Land.

Published on by Darlene Dee12 Comments

You know that Salvador Dalí painting with the melting clocks?

Dinosaur Land in The Middle of Nowhere, Virginia is exactly like that. But with dinosaurs. Non-melting dinosaurs.

This place is amazing. I am a HUGE FAN. But it is clearly not, like, a research institution. Drive eighty miles east to the Smithsonian for that kind of dinosaur experience. Dinosaur Land’s target audience is obviously children. Or maybe Collectors of Odd Experiences. The dinosaurs are made of fiberglass that looks like paper maché. There are even little dinosaur families with dinosaur babies. But then there are BATTLE SCENES and dinosaurs eating other dinosaurs. WHAT. WHY.

Babystar said that one of the dinosaurs was sleeping. I went along with her version of events.

This place is an hour and a half away from D.C. in decent SAHM traffic. It is definitely worth a visit if you live within two hours of Dinosaur Land, because you won’t find many other places like this in your life. Admission is $5 for ages 2-10 and $6 for ages 11 and up. (I paid $22 for two adults and two toddlers. Then my friend bought the girls dinosaurs on the way out.)

Side note: my most favorite non-child-related SAHM perk is the LACK OF RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC. Highly recommend. Four stars.

Dinosaur Land is NOT worth a visit if you are simply visiting Washington D.C. for the monuments and museums. Dinosaur Land is a novel roadside attraction. Imagine that you live in the country and the old dude on the corner has a bunch of dinosaur statues in his backyard. Dinosaur Land is exactly like that. And approximately that size.

Oh, plus there is a giant King Kong and you can climb in his hand for a picture. And there is a giant shark that you can play in. BUT DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE.

If you do make the trek, take a friend. The drive is long and it helps if you can sing along to some 90s music on the way.

Also, take a picnic lunch even though you may NOT eat in Dinosaur Land. (Dinosaur Land is really big on rules.) Head west on Route 277 and there is a really cool park about five minutes away. Sherando Park has about a million picnic tables including a few shorty tables that are perfect for toddlers. There is a small playground that is toddler appropriate (but doesn’t have the baby swings). And just a short walk across the gravel road, there is a really cool FREAKING GIANT play structure that will give parents of toddlers a mini heart attack. But it DOES have baby swings. It also has a smaller toddler size play structure but why would any self-respecting two-year-old want to play on that when they can climb to the top of the world and almost fall but not fall and — oh, sorry. Everything’s ok.

Sherando Playground

Adults: make the climb and slide down the highest slide at Sherando Park. It is NO JOKE. Do it. You’re welcome.

We stopped at an adorable farmer’s stand on the way home and I bought a giant cookie for Babystar and a tomato that she poked her thumb into because toddlers love experiments. And a soda. ($4.25.)

RAISING BABYSTAR: $22,749.39

 

 

Dragging Her Feet.

Published on by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

Literally. Babystar was dragging her too big 2T fleece pajama feet around the house and down the slide (yes, the slide in my living room and I can’t even). She looooves her dinosaur pajamas and it’s very cold these days but she haaaaaates when the feet drag so I was spending entire evening fixing her little footies.

You know where this is going: I bought some new pajamas. Help. Help. Someone please ban me from Carter’s and Target. But not really because Target is my bae.

Also, she needed onesies because she spends a lot of the weekend on outings with her dad (YAY FOR MOMMY TIME WHICH I MOSTLY SPEND CLEANING TBH), and he usually puts her in disposable diapers since the church nursery requires them anyway (I AM PRETTY SURE BABY JESUS WORE CLOTH) but Babystar likes to put her hand down the disposable diapers so onesies are a must. We only had two in her size so I added a three pack of short sleeves and a three pack of long sleeves. Dude. Whatever it takes to get some time to myself.

Does anyone else have a baby/toddler/small thing that will shove hands down disposable diapers but not so much in cloth? I don’t get it. Maybe it’s the elastic at the top of the cloth? The same thing preventing the blow outs is preventing the spelunking? Maybe? Thoughts?

Maybe her butt just itches. Oh, I’m sorry. Her bootie.

Anyway, here’s the goods. Minus one pair of dinosaur fleece pajamas that I wrapped up to put under the Christmas tree as her Something to Wear. And minus another pair of penguin fleece pajamas that she wore last night (BEFORE I WASHED THEM BAD MOTHER ALERT). And minus a onesie that she is wearing right now.

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I bought the onesies in 24 months but the fleecies in 18 months because she has ONE pair of fleece pajamas that fit her perfectly and they are Carter’s size 18 months (hand-me-downs) so hopefully they will not shrink.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $13,845.89

Airplanes and Dinosaurs.

Published on by Darlene Dee6 Comments

Babystar is growing out of her pajamas. I was SURE I was set for the winter. I just gave away everything up to 18 months (except for one pair of Carter’s fleece pajamas because all of Carter’s clothes run small except the fleece or terry footed pajamas and we just have to accept this fact). I am trying to squeeze some more wears out of her 18-24 months pajamas but they are basically capris. Babystar is not tall; I don’t get it. But it’s cold at night. And she hates blankets. So I bought some 2T jammies to hopefully get her through the winter. The cotton sets were buy one, get one half off. I bought two of the same, so four sets of airplane pajamas. Babystar loves airplanes. She waves to them and blows them kisses. She knows the difference between and airplane and a helicopter. It is really funny listening to her trying to say helicopter. The fleece dinosaur two-pack was on clearance. She also loves dinosaurs. Yes, I bought these in the ‘Toddler Boys’ department but she legit loves dinosaurs and airplanes. Which she learned about from her pink laptop and the sky, respectively. Also, why are airplanes and dinosaurs for boys and not girls? Many girls ride in AND fly airplanes. Amelia Earhart, anyone? (Ok, maybe she is a bad example.) And I happen to know from watching Jurassic Park that there were DEFINATELY girl dinosaurs. So, what’s the deal?

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Also, I did LOOK in the ‘Toddler Girls’ section for airplanes. I found two shirts on clearance for $2.25 each, but no airplane pajamas.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $13,527.96