Discover the Dinosaurs

Over the 4th of July weekend, we were excited to find out that the traveling "Discover the Dinosaurs" exhibit was making a local stop!

Oh yes, Peyton still adores dinosaurs. In fact, his newest game to is divide his dinosaurs between carnivores and herbivores, pair them up (one of each) and then have the carnivorous dinosaur attack and "eat" the herbivore it's paired with. (We most definitely have an imaginative boy). 

The exhibit was held at the San Mateo Event Center which is a huge enclosed center. They set up eight displays using close to life-size size animatronic dinosaurs which were pretty incredible to see!

 

 They also had standalone heads for photo opportunities. :-)

An Allosaurus spies a meal: a stegosaurus family. 

 

 They had a dinosaur dig set up across from the Allosaurus and Stegosaurus.

An Ankylosaurus!

The MIGHTY Tyrannosaurus Rex!!! Peyton was SO excited!

Then it was time for fun and games! Peyton enjoyed time climbing and jumping off of the baby dinosaurs (and area for babies and young toddlers to enjoy quiet play). Peyton has confirmed that his favorite color is orange.

 

Then it was off to the jumpy houses and slides!

And then, the thing I enjoyed the most - riding the dinosaurs!!

 

Peyton and I had so much fun at "Discover the Dinosaurs" on Friday! James was bummed that he missed the fun, so we just HAD to go back on Saturday. :-) This time, one of Peyton's Pre-K friends joined us too.

One thing Peyton and I missed on Friday was a TV set up in one corner with a button in front of it. I figured it was just a short video about the exhibit, but we found a family push the button so stayed to watch. Well, it was a video of a dinosaur pack when a ferocious T-Rex comes stomping by, notices the "camera" and comes over to the camera and ROARS at it. When the T-Rex roars, mist shoots out from under the TV which is a fun little fright for the kids!

 

Another view of the Allosaurus and Stegosaurus'.

 

 

A Stegosaurs skeleton.

 

 

A life-size replica of a Triceratops. Man, they were HUGE!

 

 

Another view of the T-Rex. The picture doesn't do justice to just how massive it actually was!

 

 

I decided to take a video of it.

On Friday, Peyton refused to take a picture with the giant T-Rex head. Saturday was a different story. :-)

 

 

The had mini-golf set up. James took the opportunity to help Peyton with his "form".

   

 

Then another round of rides on the dinosaurs.

 

 

Peyton's friend from Pre-K arrived and joined Peyton in the fun!

 

She is such a wonderful influence on Peyton. Much to my surprise, Peyton requested to get his face painted. Peyton, my son who won't normally let anything near his face and doesn't like keeping on band-aids, chose to get a T-Rex painted on his face. The artist was fantastic with him. She was very calm and soothing and painted so gently. Peyton loved it!!

 

 

Peyton's friend opted to get a full face butterfly painted on her face. Beautiful!

 

 

These two just had a blast together. They played on the slides for a while, watched part of the movie "Dinosaur" - a nice cooling off period after the slides. Then we were all getting tired so we made our way back through the exhibits towards the exit. There was a coloring wall set up near the Triceratops so the kids decided to color.

 

 

Then some digging!

 

 

And then it was time to head home. We had such a fun time at Discover the Dinosaurs. If you want to see if it's coming to your area, check out their web site. Peyton adores his little friend. They get along so well. Peyton refers to her as his sister. It's so cute!

A Quick Trip to Happy Hollow

We haven't been to Happy Hollow in a while so after preschool today, Peyton and I drove down and spent a couple hours there. We only had about an hour and half before it closed - they have limited hours when the school year begins.

We started off at the carousel where Mr. P-Rex (my Mom's nickname for him) chose to ride the Triceratops. :-)

From there, we jetted on over to the roller coaster (it was only open for 30 more minutes). I apologize for what you're going to hear in the following video. There's a reason why James usually rides the "scary" rides with our daredevil son. I dislike heights. I don't like roller coasters or anything super fast, other than cars. But, as it was just me and Peyton today, I had to suck it up and ride that roller coaster...TWICE! He had a ball, of course. Gotta keep him happy. :-)

We made our way over to the Danny the Dragon ride which was set to open at 2pm which gave us a few minutes to eat lunch.

Then he wanted to ride on the Kiddie Swings which he rides alone. I wish I could have gotten pictures or video while we were waiting in line. He was dancing to the beautiful Brazilian music playing. We lucked out and got the same music for the ride. Enjoy!

He wanted to ride it again, so he stayed on and went around a second time.

Then we headed over to his other favorite ride: the Frog Hopper. I mistakenly called it the Frog Jumper which he like and now it's the Frog Jumper in his mind. I got lucky as we were behind a mother with two girls in line, and the mother sat in the only adult seat on the ride, so Peyton had to ride it without me - oh darn! ;-)

From there, we only had about half an hour before the Park closed, so I gave him the choice of playing on the slides or feeding the cow (both of which he wanted to do). He chose the slides. I feel bad that he already knows that I won't climb up those structures, but he's a champion climber!


He went up the "easy way" the next time.

He just always comes out smiling. :-)

We're really trying to work on the concept of time and consequences of being late. He gets upset if we leave school to late (because he runs around with Naoki and refuses to go to the car) and misses the northbound train at the station. And, today was another learning opportunity. At about 2:40, I told him that if he wanted to feed the cow, we had to leave the slides soon. He refused. I asked again for the next 10 minutes and he kept refusing. So, when the announcer came on the speakers at 3:00 throughout the park saying it was now closed, I had a little meltdown to deal with as he wanted to feed the cow. Oh well, he'll understand eventually.

Overall, it wasn't bad for my first solo trip to Happy Hollow with Peyton given that we only had 90 minutes and he normally likes to spend 3-5 hours there. But we packed in a lot of fun. :-)

Peyton the Contortionist

Every day, after school, I take Peyton to either the Menlo Park or Redwood City train station to watch the midday trains. He loves seeing the trains. He says "Hello train. How are you doing?" most of the time - not as often as when we first started doing this.

Peyton likes to play on the crossing tracks after the trains leave the station. The trains only come hourly between 10am and 3pm.

A northbound train (right) and southbound train (left). This doesn't happen to often, but when it does...

...Peyton gets annoyed when I ask him to turnaround to take a picture with both trains! Bad mommy - ha!

Last week, we got quite a surprise. The northbound train pulled up hauling two engines! Peyton was confused but liked it!

He likes to play on the crossing tracks after the trains leave and likes to inspect the crossing arms.

Happy at the train station yesterday!

We usually get to the stations a few minutes before the northbound train arrives and then wait another 10-15 minutes for the southbound train. During this time, Peyton stomps on leaves, looks at the train schedule board, watches what people are doing, and if all that fails, he does this (at the Menlo Park station):



My little contortionist. I'm not sure how much longer he'll be able to do this as he's growing, growing, growing!

Trains and Spelling

Life has been crazy at the Stafford house recently, so I apologize for not posting any new updates lately.

Peyton is doing very well! He started his school district classes in September. He attends a social skills group two mornings a week and has 30 minutes of speech therapy prior to his social skills group one day. The group that he's currently in is comprised of 5 kids all with some language delays which are causing delays in socialization. Last week, I met with his teacher and she told me that Peyton's language skills are above what she's teaching in his current group, so she will be creating a new group for him and one of his classmates starting in November, that will focus exclusively on applying his language to socialization. James and I are very pleased that the teacher is willing to make this change so early in the school year!

The three other days of the week, he continues to go to his inclusion preschool at Milestones, part of Abilities United. He loves it there! He's made some great friends. Our little guy is growing up; he now calls me "Mom" and James "Dad". Rarely, he'll call us Mommy and Daddy, but he's definitely not a little baby any more!

Potty training has derailed - up through last week, he was able to pee and poo on the potty, but just wouldn't tell us when he had to go. Then on Sunday, he refused to go to the potty AND refused to get his diaper dirty. This caused big messes at night. :-( So, I've had to beg him to go in his diaper and we'll revisit the potty another time. (He'll go at school, sometimes, so it's definitely a control issue on his part - my little Taurus).

But, I'm happy to tell you that Peyton has started to SPELL! He can tell you what letter words start with, and has learned to spell his own name. We are so proud of him!

At the Car Wash

My Dad likes to keep his car very clean and goes to a place where they hand wash your car (exterior only) while you sit inside. I thought Peyton would love to watch this, so James and I took Peyton to get Papa's car washed on Saturday.

Our Little Fish

Last week's swim lesson was one of my favorites. Peyton is getting more and more confident in the water and just has a ball in the water. Here are a few pictures taken throughout the lesson.

 

 

 

 

 

At this lesson, he was in a very silly mood and wanted to make lots of "bubbles". His teacher, Carrie, was able to work it into a lesson in kicking.

More bubbles!

And then, this happened....

Yes, that's right! Peyton was SWIMMING! All legs, but still, swimming! And, he did it again.

And again!

I immediately sent one of the videos to James and he was sooooo happy! Way to go Peyton!!