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.