Aquarium is a bad place for pictures It seems like I'm determined to find the most challenging and unfriendly environments to test our camera. Children in museums have to rank right up there with unlit nightime sporting events.... nonetheless:

	No question, the centerpiece of the Seattle aquarium is the "Dome," a kind of reverse fishbowl.
	Aside from the otters and seals, my nomination for best exhibit is the circular jellyfish tank which you can walk through. Max was too captivated by the moving fish and changing colors of lights to walk through, though.
	This is Max walking right next to the polarized fluroescent skin of the Experience (Rock and Roll) Music Project and Science Fiction Museum (when he's a few years older, yeah). And that's Daddy in the reflection, yes.

  ¶ Saturday, December 31, 2005 0 comments

  Max at Seattle Children's Museum We spent the better part of a day (about five hours, including a break for lunch) at the Seattle Children's Museum.

	One of the exhibits was "travel" and it included a little airport security setup. This is Max climbing through the "luggage scanner."
	One of the great things about the Museum was the "neighborhood" section, in which Max got to gas up and ride a bus, shop (see picture), run a taco restaraunt, and act in the theater (mostly variations on Peter Rabbit stories, with a bit of Nutcracker and Sound of Music thrown in).
	Max has had mixed feelings about Killer Whales ever since reading his Penguin book which said that Orca were penguin predators. But, after a few false starts, he finally got up the courage to play on this, too. He had to imagine himself growing, though: he started out, he said, as a little fish; by the end of the day he said he was a baby whale, and quite secure with himself.

He didn't really do Everything Twice, but he did some things more than twice and spent quite a while doing some things once.... definitely got our money's worth on this one. The fact that the food court upstairs had both falafel and a "frankfurter" stand with basil chicken sausage was an added bonus for Mommy and Daddy....  ¶ Friday, December 30, 2005 0 comments

  Max in Snow As you know, due to our sojourn in Hawai'i, Max hasn't seen snow (except for a few cubic feet trucked down the mountain) since he was a few months old. We remedied that this week, in the Snoqualmie Pass:

	He really didn't let the cold bother him, and we had him equipped pretty well. But he definitely knew that this was different! The first snow we played in was in the parking lot and backyard of the Family Pancake House/Inn in West Summit, Snoqualmie. Good pancakes, and Florentine Benedict!
	He caught on to the concept of snowball fights pretty quickly, I have to say. Not bad aim, either...
	This was the second of the snowmen, actually. The first one we made in the parking lot from large chunks thrown up by the plows, piled on top of each other. The snow here was a bit wet and icy for rolling, so we just packed it together.
	Our second snow stop was the Sno-Park just past the Snoqualmie summit, where there were lots of families sledding and cross-country skiing. The sled was borrowed, briefly and gratefully, from a resting child. Max got four runs in, smiling the whole time.
	Technically, I know it's a bad picture, but I kind of like it.

  ¶ Friday, December 30, 2005 0 comments