My son's first cake

Cross post at Yet Another Food Blog.

ChaseKBH had a little bit of adult help on this project, but not much.  The above is a picture of ChaseKBH's chocolate Thomas Rocket Ship cake.  It's ridiculously adorable - though the cake itself wasn't wonderful, it wasn't terrible either.  

We started with Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake.  We adapted to a half recipe, or at least as close to a half recipe as a three year old can measure.  Instead of following the directions, we simply put everything into a bowl, and mixed it with a whisk.  The cake was baked in a Wilton Rocket Ship Pan, well sprayed with baking spray.  It took about 35 minutes to bake at 350F, but I think my oven is a bit off right now.  I would start checking at 20 minutes and continue from there.

We frosted the cake with a simple frosting consisting of 6 tablespoons of softened European-style butter, 1/2 a pound of powdered sugar, and about 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream.  Everything went into the stand mixer and was whipped until a frosting appeared.  We colored the frosting with Wilton Icing Color - in blue.  After we "painted" the cake with frosting, we sprinkled on an insane amount of blue sprinkles.

The kid sort of looks like a smurf now.

Meteor shower tonight

The Oronid meteor shower should be spectacular tonight and tomorrow early morning, if we get a bit of a break from the cloud cover.  

Things to do in Howard County

I'm often asked what one can do with small children in Howard County.  Sometimes, but the chronically malcontent, I'm told that there's nothing to do with kids in Howard County.  I am limiting myself to weekend jaunts around the county, and to things appealing to the preschool set (though older and younger will also have fun).  Here are some suggestions for things to do this weekend - excluding the many parks, playgrounds, tot lots, gyms, pools, libraries, and classes all over the county:

• B&O Railroad Museum Ellicott City Station.  A great local, small museum focused on trains and the history of the railroad and Ellicott City, which are rather intertwined.  I also spent a summer volunteering here back when Green Day was edgy.
• Howard County Conservancy.  Trails, geocatching, nature walks, animals, and similar.  It's an interesting historical site as well.
• Clark's Elioak Farm.  For the Howard County parent of a certain age, there's the bizarre experience of reliving your childhood in a disjointed manner, seeing all the old Enchanted Forest items strewn around.  There's a petting zoo, tractor rides, and the ability to purchase farm produce and some very good meat.  I also suggest the grown ups fortify themselves at Iron Bridge across the street.
• Larriland Farm.  Pick some apples, beets, broccoli, pumpkins, or flowers.  Or just go to the red barn and buy them.  Tractor rides, great fruit, and a gorgeous pond.  My nature-hating son loves Larriland - though last time he was there he gave himself a bloody nose trying to cut flowers for his crush (which is either on his 2.5 year old friend or her mother, I haven't figure out which yet).
• Bollman Truss Bridge.  There's a magic in this bridge for all, but especially for a preschooler just learning how things are put together.  This is a the last remaining all iron truss bridge.  There's a great trail that is very accessible to small children - and a great discussion about Sodor will likely ensue.  
• Robinson Nature Center.  Really frickin' cool, and shocking that this place is in a county this small.  It's pretty much our county's science center, with a planetarium, tons of activities, and nature related exhibitions.  
• Sharp's at Waterford Farm.  A fall extravaganza.  I even just wrote a post about this place.
• TLV Tree Farm.  Where the Howard clan always gets its Christmas tree.  We have yet to shed any blood here, though we have cutting open bagels.  Corn maze, animals, other fall fun.

As I say to every teenager who complains about the ennui of their painful existence, stop choosing to be bored.  There's plenty to do - just pack up the iPad, Nexus, or Kindle and take it with you.

Sharp's at Waterford Farm

We took the obligatory preschool fall fieldtrip to a farm and pumpkin patch - this year it was Sharp's at Waterford Farm.  I think we were joined by about a thousand other kids in Howard County and Montgomery County schools.  ChaseKBH was horribly disappointed that we drove rather than take the school bus - since we brought BeaABH with us, and she's too little to sit on a school bus.  So yes, it was my kid crying in the parking lot about not being able to get on the bus.

Prior to doing the whole stay-at-home parent thing, I was never the parent to take ChaseKBH on field trips, so my comparison points aren't great.  However, from talking to Jamie, it seems that the Sharp's trip was a bit more educationally focused than previous farm trips, but, on the other hand, more kids were there so it was a little chaotic.  The kids had a blast though.



The tour stated in the barn, with a discussion of cotton and its place in agriculture.  There wasn't much discussion of its place in American history - which is a difficult discussion to have with three and four year olds.  Given where our family lives, and the discussions we have already started to have regarding the Civil War at the B&O Railroad Museum, I am going to have to figure out a reasonable approach to have these discussions.



Next was a discussion of honey bees, and choosing volunteers to do the honey bee dance.  All the preschoolers knew the role of male bees, or drones.  Well, they knew they were inside the hive, didn't do work, then were thrown out and died - all ideas that I personally thought were much more difficult to grasp than their role with the queen's eggs.



One of the kids also got to dress up like a bee keeper.



After the beehive, we went to look at the animals.  This is a pig's behind.  I can't exactly capture the smell.



Goats!



We also hand fed the animals.  I personally hate hand feeding animals in situations like this.  First and foremost, the animal tongue feels gross on my hand.  Second, I try very hard to teach respect and distance from strange animals - and even docile goats and cows can be dangerous.  Third, there's often not great hand washing facilities, and I spend the rest of the day thinking about the agricultural diseases most recently reported in the press.   The children, however, love feeding them - except my son who shares my germaphobic tendencies.



ChaseKBH really liked the cow.  Actually, he really liked the idea that the cow made milk that became butter that became cookies.



This kid isn't really great with either nature or agriculture.  Watch his allergies start to form.



Sharp's has a corn maze and corn mini maze.  The corn maze was a lot of fun - until one of the kids thought that it might be a good idea to trailblaze his own path.  Thankfully, it was not my child, though the child in question is a charmer who has the spirit of an adventurer.

Sharp's has a cotton field that the kids can walk around.  The kids each took an open and closed cotton bud to study.



We then picked popcorn in the popcorn field.  There is something very eerie about a popcorn field.



The tractor ride was seriously awesome - it was amphibious!  We took a couple swings through Cattail Creek.



Cattail Creek.



Why my allergic-to-everything-outside son likes sitting on hay I don't know.



And finally, the moment of truth - the pumpkin patch.



The pumpkins then became pie.

There's a lovely store with produced, jams and jellies, and, most importantly, coffee.

Rocket Launch!

Never underestimate how cool explosives can be to a three year old.  We've been kicking around the idea of forming a preschool model rocket club, but then we realized that all the other parents would be aghast - and we have a pretty bad track record anyway. The rockets are simple Estes kits from Michael's with standard Estes engines - we used B6 engines in ChaseKBH's Estes Riptide.  There's not a ton of ability to customize the outside of these rockets, but putting them together is maybe a five minute job, and a reasonably dexterous three year old can handle it with minimal parental assistance.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center

 Not far off 295, I-95, and I-495, in the land of parking lots and office parks, lies a gateway to the final frontier - the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  Though most of Goddard is off limits to the public, they have a lovely Visitor Center that's perfect for an afternoon or morning excursion - and despite its small size is high on our list of favorite places for the toddler set - and despite it's lack of a playroom, the play area and the rocket garden, I would classify the Visitor Center as one of the top play areas for the (well-supervised) preschooler in the D.C. area.

The inside of the Visitor Center houses a number of exhibits about NASA and space exploration.  The area is currently under reconstruction, so things are changing.  There are a number of cool interactive displays that are surprisingly (well-supervised) kid friendly.  The curator has done a magnificent job at explaining ideas in simple English rather than jargon.  I also give thanks for my smart phone since the exhibits always prompt more questions - and it's been a dozen years since I took a science class.  

Of particular interest are the models of NASA's various manned and unmanned space craft.  Though the shuttle seems as retro to ChaseKBH's cohort as the Gemini capsule seems to our generation.  My  first and most vivid childhood memory was standing at the edge of the roadway, watching a 747 carrying a space shuttle on its back.  I remember my Dad explaining how the shuttle could fly into space, but couldn't fly cross-country.  I think I was also promised a flying car and tourism to the moon, but I digress.

But the draws of the Visitor Center are more the mere models of spacecraft.  On our three trips ChaseKBH has learned about the Big Bang, the colors and noise of space, and how very, very small the Earth really is in the great cosmos.  We've also learned a lot about tsunamis and global warming from the science on a sphere presentations in the theater - I can't wait until he's old enough to attend lectures from people who can answer his questions a whole lot better than I can.

Of course the favorite exhibit is the model of a Gemini capsule which visitors can climb into and marvel at the tight space.  The Big Bang seems totally plausible compared to the idea that any person could spend two weeks in this tiny space without any comforts whatsoever. We had to explain why there was no video screens, nothing that ChaseKBH would consider a computer, no touch pads, no keys, and none of the basic technology the kid takes for granted every day.

The rocket garden outside houses some fantastic pieces.  It's also a nice outdoor space where small people can wiggle - and it's very stroller accessible.  On the first Sunday of the month, rockets are launched in the rocket garden.  It's a nice history of the American space program.  However, its rather difficult to explain the history of the space program in the context of the Cold War to people who post-date communism, have never lived a day without a major military operation, and who fear acts of terror rather than nuclear holocaust.  

 The play area is fantastic, if small.  There is a crate of space related toys, books, and puzzles.  And most importantly, space helmets.    You simply cannot properly pretend to be an astronaut visiting Mars then flying through Jupiter without a helmet. There is of course also a gift shop where more toys can be purchased - and one that has lightened my purse considerably.

As children both Jamie and I had a fascination with space and astronauts - but I think we were the exception.  Somehow the excitement of the space program skipped our generation.  I think ChaseKBH's generation will pick up our slack.  Almost every morning that I drop him off at preschool some child excitedly tells me what s/he saw from Curiosity that morning, what to do when going to Mars, or how things fall around the Earth without falling into it.  If the moon is mentioned, a good handful follows up and asks to which planet's moon the ignorant grownup refers.  They also have a wonder about how the world works that I can't remember having - they know that its their natural right to understand the entire universe as immediately as possible.

Building Rockets

 I begin this post by acknowledging my many, many failures in life and as a parent.  First, my many failures with physics and my thought that its laws were suggestions.  And the fact that my husband and I, not exactly the model parents, think its appropriate to all the three year old's hobby to include explosives.  However, it is incredibly, incredibly cool.  The good folks at NARHAMS Model Rocket Club # 139 hold public launches at NASA Goddard's Visitor Center on the first Sunday of the month, at 1 p.m.  We stumbled upon this after visiting on the first Saturday of the month.  Jamie has been bugging me about letting ChaseKBH build model rockets for about a year, however, I vetoed previous attempts because we had no reasonable place to launch.  And our family has issues with fire.  NARHAMS and Goddard  to the rescue.

We built two simple Estes model rockets for the launch, purchased from Michael's, using standard Estes engines.  ChaseKBH's rocket is a Estes Riptide, adorned only with his name in black Sharpie.  He chose it because it was blue.  The Riptide deploys a parachute to cushion its landing, after ejecting its nosecone.

In our house, these items are referred to as "fire pressure" rockets.  Previously, ChaseKBH launched some air pressure rockets.  We explained that these rockets are launched after a spark ignites the engine, which burns and provides energy to launch the rocket upwards.  ChaseKBH invented the term fire pressure. While I don't think he exactly gets the physics, he does understand ignition --> fire --> push the rocket heavenward.  Not terrible for someone who doesn't yet have a preschool education.

National Building Museum

We've made a couple of trips to the National Building Museum which, despite its name, is not a public museum.  This place is toddler heaven - fun exhibits, age appropriate activities, and a great playroom.  It's an easy ride from suburban Maryland on the red line, with free parking at several Metro lots on weekends.  Add in the fact that the onsite coffee shop is Firehook, allowing a harried parent to have some decent caffiene and to take home some bread and pastries for dinner (or for Dad who was stuck in the office), and it makes a great half day out.  

The National Building Museum is housed in a historic government office building that once housed the Pension Bureau.  The Great Hall is gorgeous, though it feels a bit like a Harry Potter movie.  As shown above, ChaseKBH was particularly enamored with the fountain.  

Most of the exhibits (which were not available for photographing), were above ChaseKBH's head - but would be interesting for an older child, and were interesting for BeaABH who, at four months, was merely toted around in an infant carrier able to stare at cool pictures.  The life of an infant.

We had great fun building the arch in the Great Hall, along with about a half dozen of our newest friends.  As ChaseKBH was able to explain, or more accurately parrot, an arch is two stacks of blocks falling on each other.  In this case, its two stacks of numbered, shaped blocks that are placed on two wood pedestals.  Of course, the arch tends to push out at the base, so every arch construction ended with a shower of blocks.  Then again, it seemed that every arch construction began with the children putting together the arch and ended with the adults playing.  The kids generally lost interest before the project was completed.  

Though the three year old did not particularly understand the point of the arch, it was great practice to have him read the various numbers and figure out some ordering.  And he got to place the keystone a couple times, often lifted by perfect strangers.  It's a fantastic interactive project, and unlike many of the activities I've seen recently, seemed to really excite parents and create a senses of shared purposed and community among people.  It took at least three adults to put the arch together, and often quite a few more.

When we visited last, the Lego exhibit was still up.  Half of the exhibit were models of various famous buildings around the world, and half was an area where people could play with Legos among more interactive models made of Legos.  And of course lots and lots of subliminal advertising for very, very expensive Lego sets.  As much as I love the museum, the gift shop is seriously dangerous.

ChaseKBH's favorite Lego model was one of a Metro station on Halloween night.  Each time we visited he insisted on seeing his favorite Legos, and stared at it for uncanny lengths of time, or at least uncanny lengths of time for a three year old.  Given his general attention span of seconds, it was nice to see him stand still.  Though I think I got tired of hearing about the tunnels.

Of course, the exhibit allowed visitors to play with Legos.  I have no idea what ChaseKBH actually made.  All I know is that he talked about how he was building it, frequently.  And how he was displaying it.  And how I should buy more Legos.  And how his sister could eat Legos, or at least pretend ones.  And that's exactly why I try to avoid Legos in the house.  Not to stifle the older one's creativity, but I live in constant fear that the older one, while trying to be the best big brother ever, will end up feeding the younger one something dangerous when my back is turned.  We already have epic fights at Starbucks when he wants to order her a "pretend" hot chocolate.  I'm also a terrible because I give him treats to him but not the baby.

The museum has a fabulous playroom.  You get a wristband and specific time entry to the playroom, and they do ask you to limit your visit to a reasonable time when there are others waiting.  Its very much geared towards little people, with trucks, blocks, books, trains, tracks, and similar.  There's a focus on building and on tactile play activities.  I will say that there is very little comfortable adult seating or nursing seating - which can make it a little more difficult to take a child solo if you have a younger sibling in tow.

But Super Nerd Dad managed to shepherd two children sitting on the floor.  I think he was tweeting about it at the same time, or perhaps just Facebooking.  

There's an interesting mini golf course.  When we visited with the kid's older cousin, we played.  At least, I think we played.  I'm not sure if we managed to actually play the game, but we did hit a ball around with a golf club.  We think.  BeaABH enjoyed it - she got to track balls in bright colors.

One tip for non-walking children - bring a carrier of some kind to wear the baby, since much of the museum is very not stroller accessible and you will want access to your hands.  Take the Metro to Judiciary Square - there's no reason to drive here when the station is literally right across the street.

Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park

We finally did something for BeaABH.  The poor child spends her entire life being carted after her big brother.  Its the curse of being born to two oldest children.  The Puppet Company, resident in Glen Echo Park, holds "Tiny Tots" puppet shows specifically aimed at the zero to four crowd.  Lights are partially on, doors stay open, the puppeteer is visible, seating is on the floor, the shows are limited to 30 minutes, and the tickets are cheap.  

We saw "A Teddy Bear Picnic" joining Baby Bear and his friends as they sang and danced.  I'm not actually sure there was a plot.  BeaABH loved the music and loved tracking the puppets with her eyes.  ChaseKBH threw a fit before going, then asked when we were going back.

Getting to the puppet theater from the parking lot is a bit of a hike, though it is all stroller accessible.  It was particularly exciting for me, as my Dad had a hand in designing some of the roadways and bridges in that area, and I remember seeing a lot of it as construction sites.  ChaseKBH liked climbing over the bridge.  He was a bit creeped out by the amusement park section - which is just what it sounds like, a giant defunct amusement park.  The carousel is restored and active, and runs until September 30, and the bumper car pavilion is used for dances.  There are art studios in yurts.  It's actually pretty cool, but a little surreal.

There's a playground near the theater - very much geared to very small children (as in the three year old was bored), but great to run around in before or after a show.

Air Pressure Rockets!

Air pressure rockets to be exact.  This was a third birthday gift for ChaseKBH from friends who I think actually bought the rockets for Jamie.  Regardless, ChaseKBH enjoyed sending these high into the air.  We have been talking about air pressure for a bit.  He knows that there are zillions of air particles pressing down on him.  Unfortunately, that also means that, on occasion, he yells at the air particles.  I'm not sure how well we're understanding science here.  We do like things that go boom, and we definitely like things that fly.  Thirty pounds of toddler doesn't really get much flight, however.   

The setup itself is super simple - take the stand out of the package, then click it together.  The box came with four foam rockets to launch.  There's a squeezable air reservoir attached to the launcher with a tube - jump on it, and the rocket goes off.  ChaseKBH was a bit terrified of the actual set up.  It took a couple attempts to get him to jump onto the reservoir.  Poor BeaABH just got to watch.

A fancy [wading] pool costume party

Mo Willems has to be a geek.  He's just too awesome to be lame.  We are devotees of all things Elephant and Piggie, so of course for ChaseKBH's third birthday party he wanted a fancy pool costume party.  Not actually having a pool, and not wanting to rent space at a pool for a hurried, stressful party, we decided to follow the book to the letter and set up wading pools.  Best party ever.  Well, since the kids are three, pretty much anything that involves a cupcake is the best party ever, so the bar is set rather low.  Regardless, it was easy, fun, and I haven't been blackballed by the other parents yet for failing to do the requisite party place party.  I think the booze helped.  

We set up a couple of wading pools in the backyard, and a sprinkler.    We gave each kid a  top hat and a couple necklaces of Mardi Gras style beads - both items came cheaply from a party website.    When they needed a break from splashing, they wandered over to the make your own mask table.  I cheated and got a kit off Amazon, but if I was more organized probably would have used leftover craft supplies.  The masks were a huge hit, and keeping the glue and gross outside, then hosing the little devils off before they came inside, was useful.  Did I mention that all children are disgusting by nature?   A good bit of glue was consumed by the attendees.  I gave each child a copy of I Am Invited To A Party in a little canvas tote bag, which was just large enough to slip in their mask and beads.  They wore their top hats out, naturally.  I'm sure some parent somewhere thinks I'm cheap and evil not to do the usual goody bag full of stuff, but again, I'm a lazy mother and  I hate toy clutter.

We did a backyard barbecue for dinner.  there's really no reason to show this picture except there are awesome flames coming off a five foot grill.