The Woodlands Children Museum

Y’all, this heat is killing me. Its so hot that it almost feels similar to Scotland in the dead of winter because you just can’t go outside. The only time its even tolerable is early in the morning but unfortunately this is the time of day when Forest is super mellow and plays independently and let’s me drink coffee and sit down before a full day of chasing a feral toddler around. It’s hard to give that up in order to whisk him off to the park and start the chasing early. And even still, we rushed out the door at 8:30 one morning and it was already 91 degrees. I mean. Seriously. What am I supposed to do with that? 

I see all these articles on European parenting and schooling and how one of the things they do differently than us is that their kids are constantly playing outside, even in inclement weather. Well, trust me, I would love to slap a muddy buddy on this child and let him loose in the woods of Scotland, but in the height of Houston summer it is actually not safe to let him run himself silly. So yea, we are missing California BIG TIME in regards to the weather and outdoor things to do. 

Remember wearing jackets and sweatpants in June? And having places to hike? Sigh...

Also, we’ve been here for coming on 2 months and we go to the park nearly every day and you know how many times we’ve seen other kids there? One time. It’s just so obnoxiously hot that people really only go outside to go swimming and since Forest is an absolute maniac in the water, I don’t especially like taking him to community pools for now. 

Anyhoos, the point of this post is that we’ve been scrounging around looking for fun indoor things to keep us from going stir crazy. Especially when Jon is gone I feel like sometimes we just need to leave the house, otherwise the days just feel impossibly long. It’s been especially tough during peak summer time because the weather is brutal and the town feels a little abandoned.  One lifesaver for us has been The Woodlands Children’s Museum. 

This is a decent size play space for toddlers and preschoolers that has all sorts of amazing displays such as a gigantic train table, a giant sand box, a toddler size grocery store, magnetic fishing ponds, legos, crafts, etc. 

Forest LOVES it and never wants to leave. Seriously, every time we leave (usually when the place closes) he cries the whole time ‘But I really REALLY want to play at the Musey-um!’   

I love it because he entertains himself for hours. I even start to get a little bored. I’ve honestly thought of bringing along a book, pulling up a toddler sized chair and just catching up on my reading while he goes to town building lego towers. I have a feeling that might be frowned upon though… 

We are super grateful that my parents bought us a yearlong membership so we can go as many times a week (or a day…)  that we want. It really is just the easiest spontaneous activity to add to those super long and lonely days when we just need a little change of scenery. The only thing it’s missing is an in-house Starbucks and the no food or drink (ie coffee) rule is a major bummer.