Children's Museum and Pondering the Meaning of Life

Here we are at the Tampa Children's Museum. We've been to our fair share of children's museums, and this one impressed us (read: Mommy liked it too).

Mr. Bear builds his own sailboat.

The Bear decides to plunge right in. Thank goodness for the rain jacket.

Mr. Bear insists on porting all his boats with him as he goes from station to station. Look at how resourceful he is - using those chubby cheeks of his :)

Lolo checks out the furniture.

Lola and Mr. Bear check out the weather making machine.

Daddy also checks out the furniture.

Mr. Bear checks out a pipe and then proceeds to try and drink from it.

The museum even has a dinosaur exhibit. Mr. Bear now knows what a Tyrannosaurus Rex is. I then try to teach him what a Stegosaurus is and am quite proud when I can get the Bear to say, "Steg-rus." Then Alex corrects me and tells me that it is actually a Triceratops. Oops. Here is the Bear hugging a dino egg.

Mr. Bear doing his dinosaur bird call. And dance.

Playing with the dinosaurs - Alex and I are stumped and can't think of the name of the dino in his hand. I decide that it would be better if I didn't make up a name.

Daddy decides to play peek-a-boo instead.

Mr. Bear moves to the shopping station, sponsored by Publix. I was quite impressed with his selections. Daddy has clearly had an influence on him. If it were me, I would be piling in ice cream, chips, and some vanilla lemon cookies. For the Bear, first stop = bread.

Here's what else the Bear picked. Pretty impressive considering he also had choices of pizza, crackers, cookies, fruit punch, and other stuff Mommy is eyeing.

Here is the Bear picking out the veggie patties.

More veggies. The Bear gleefully says over and over, "Carrots!", "Pepper!" I kid you not - the Bear is psyched by vegetables. Daddy is quite proud of the boy.

After filling his shopping cart with fruit, veggies, bread, and veggie patties, we ask the Bear to put everything back. He clearly has Daddy's organization skills because the Bear not only puts every item back in its place, but he insists on lining up the shopping cart perfectly along the wall.

After Publix, we head next door to the veterinary clinic. The Bear immediately picks up a couple sick cats.

He takes the pair over to Lola, who luckily is a registered nurse and came equipped for the job.

Mr. Bear also spots a couple of other sick pups and of course wants to help them too.

Mr. Bear and Lola carefully examine each critter and make sure that each are prescribed the right TLC.

After working with the animals, the Bear decides to check out the auto mechanic station.

Lolo and Lola also take a pit stop and relax for a moment.

Daddy and the Bear miss the Big Apple and recreate their own mini-city, complete with buildings, cars, trucks, trees, stop signs, and skateboards.

Lolo and Lola are still enjoying their moment of peace.

But that doesn't last long as we head outside to the park. The Bear immediately puts himself in charge of pushing around his Baby Lazy Boy.

Pondering the meaning of life.

Taking a break - that is a big question for the Bear.

Playing peek-a-boo with Lola.

The sun begins to set behind the Bear as he plays make-believe truck driver. Mommy ponders whether the Bear needs a haircut. Daddy and Mommy have a deep discussion about whether he should get a bang trim or a full on haircut.

We don't come to any conclusion, but we do decide that it's time for dinner. We introduce Lolo and Lola to the world of vegan food. We order organic vegan burritos, nachos, BLTs, and cupcakes. The Bear gets an assorted array of carrots, celery, carrots, oranges, peanut butter, raisins, and hummus. Thank goodness for Daddy's influence!