Ground Control to Major Tom!
Ava, Bettina and Dean play "Rocket Scientist"
My friend Tiffany and her son, while flipping through their "Babies By the Bay" book, came up with a great idea to visit this children's "museum" in Berkeley called "Habitot." Especially designed for kids 1 - 4 years (toddlers to pre-schoolers), it is a very popular place - rated 5 out of 5 stars both in "Babies By the Bay" and "The Lila Guide" (both exceptional books and "must-haves" for new-moms looking for outing ideas.
I found it a phenomenal idea and one of those, "Why didn't I think of this,"-type places. Basically, they've created these fantastic and imaginative play spaces where everything is baby-proofed, but also exceptionally inviting to curious and imaginative toddlers. They have a number of different play spaces, each with it's own theme. There's the space shuttle and controller's tower built with every kind of button/lever/joystick imaginable, the stage and face-painting area, a crawling maze, a train table, a grocery store, the art studio with clay, paint and a structure project, a soft-mat crawling place (meant for little ones and pre-walkers), and of course, the water room, filled with ponds, rivers and pumps of water. Even though they provide the kids with laminated art and water aprons, they recommend you bring a change of clothes, just in case. Ava, of course, being the waterbug she is, was drenched and got cold after playing in the water room. We definitely were glad to have the extra clothes for her!
The best thing about this place: The kids can make a mess and YOU DON'T HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP!! :-)
The price is a little hefty: $6 for kids (infants under 1 are free) and adults $5. It will probably be the only time that the adults play for less than the kids! A year membership for the family is $110. Again, a bit pricey, but if you live nearby and you've got a lot of kids, it's probably the golden ticket to sanity! Bonus: you get reciprocity membership with the Discovery Museum (we have yet to visit) in Sausalito.
The photos of our visit are precious! You can see them here.
