Funny Kid...

I took the kids to the Children's Museum on Monday. I have such a love/hate relationship with that place. When it's not crowded or under construction, it's great, but it's been under construction forever (new addition slated to open in March 2009) and Monday it was crowded. All the summer camp programs bring busloads of kids who are all running around with their matching t-shirts and I can't even find a clear path with the stroller to keep up with Hayden and Trevor.

We found a quiet spot to play in the nearly empty computer room and I had Juliette in the "tot corner" of the room, playing in a little padded 4x4 ft square area especially for babies. And some 7-9 year olds come running in and one jumps right into the tot bunker, practically crushing Juliette. So I bite his head off and tell him that he has no business being in the baby area. Then he proceeds to build up a tower of the foam blocks in the tot corner and tumble them over onto Juliette. At this point I really flip out and tell him that he needs to move at least 10 feet away from me and my baby and stay there or else I will personally throw him out of the museum. Clearly, I just love other people's kids. Should have been a kindergarden teacher probably.

We play a little more in the rest of the museum and then have our lunch. The place has started to clear out by now and I've eaten so I'm in a little better mood. I tell the kids we can play for a half hour longer and they choose the grocery store area of the museum. I'm watching Trevor fill his grocery basket with every single plastic banana in the museum.

Hayden has paired up with some older kid (maybe 8 years old) and is working the cash register. So all is well. When we decide to leave, the other kid (who seems nice and smart, but a little geeky) says goodbye to Hayden and says he had fun playing with him. Then the kid says "Hey, I don't even know your name." So rather than tell him, Hayden picks up a piece of paper by the register where they were playing and writes down his name and hands it to the kid, saying "that's my name." And I hear the kid say "OK, well bye Mr. Scribble Scribble, it was fun playing with you." If I had a drink in my mouth, it would have shot out my nose when I laughed. It's those unexpected moments of humor that really get me.