Mommy Jake Week - Day 1

Jake and I are spending this week together. We both took the week off and I wanted to recrd how well, or not, I do as a stay-at-home mom for the week. First of all, let me say that I am terrified. I do not expect to be able to maintain my patience for the week. I expect that by week's end we will both want to go back to our regular lives. But for today, it was awesome.

Tilden Park Little Farm
I had heard a lot about this place reading the Chron over the years (it's one of the many awesome free things to do in the Bay Area) and really wanted to go. Can't say I was really impressed. While Jake always loves animals, it's tiny and nothing we haven't seen a billion times. I guess if you've never seen a cow it's cool, but we live in Sacramento, home of the State Fair and (just this weekend) the Horse Expo. It was a little, "this is it?" But a pretty drive up there. My lesson: have a paper map. There is NO iPhone service up there.  Seriously.

Lawrence Hall of Science
I just noticed that the last time I blogged was the first time we went to the Lawrence. Clearly we like it there. Jake really wanted this to be the kick start to the week so we went and spent about 3.5 hours there. We got to pet a bunny and a dove, but he was a little disappointed that they weren't taking the tarantula out today. He spent a lot of time outside, and just generally kicking around. My goal this week is to let him spend as much time doing stuff as he wants. It should improve his experience and my patience. He really could have spent an hour just at the wall where you create a ping pong ball drop. We left so late that we ended up having to stop at Fenton's for dinner on the way home. Bummer. :-)


The gem phrases for this week are:

Learning is more important than winning (I felt like a success as a parent for about an hour after that one!).
After reading Solla Sollew: Troubles aren't bad, that's how you learn!
50 feet from the Walgreens parking lot in Berkeley: I can't help but notice that it appears that Jake does not have his snack...
Mommy, you always know what to say!
Me: Oh, I give up (trying to navigate and find a parking spot on Shadduck in Berkeley). Mommy, don't give up!

I love that kid.