Introduction to the Arts...

I have lived in the city of San Diego for almost four years (and in the county since 1989). I've always known that there are many cultural opportunities here...I just never had a desire to experience them. But now that we have a little person to mold and shape, I decided to see exactly why they call this "America's Finest City" and take advantage of some of the things this place has to offer (other than the nearly year-round sunshine). The other day I was surfing the internet for a new kid-friendly place to take Kalissa and I came across The New Children's Museum in downtown San Diego. It's touted as a place for toddlers to teens to experience art exhibits and hands-on art projects in a fun, learning environment. That sounded right up my alley! I checked out their calendar and saw that they were having a toddlers-only finger painting session and thought that would be a great first-introduction for us. Kali could paint Daddy a picture for our first upcoming Fathers Day together.

Let me first say that this place did not disappoint! It is BEAUTIFUL!!! Soooo much for the kids to do. We headed straight for the finger painting exhibit since that was only going on for an hour and a half. They had little smocks for the kids and several easels set up. They gave Kali an egg carton filled with bright paint colors and we began our finger painting session. Well,Kalissa was NOT having it. As soon as I dipped her little fingers into the paint, she began to cry! I tried to show her that she was supposed to touch the paper with her painted fingers and that seemed to annoy her even more. The girl had TWO - as in: one, two - fall out fits! I had never seen her behave like that! She threw her head back and fell to the ground. When I tried to pick her up, she really turned up the theatrics and made her body limp so that it would be hard for me to scoop her up. I was mortified. I had seen OTHER children behave this way in public and I always said myself: "hmmph. I would beat that child's butt if that were me!" Well now it was me. What to do? I have an out-of-control 10-month old who is creating a scene in a very posh (albeit kiddy posh) location and all eyes were on us. Sooo....I did like any new-age mom and kindly said to her, "Kalissa...we do not act like this. Stop it now or we are leaving." What do you think that got me? Absolutely nothing! hhahahahahaa! I had to tell myself that we were in a CHILDREN'S museum. I'm sure Kalissa was not the first, nor would she be the last, child to act out in it. I gave her a few minutes to walk around but she truly was not into painting so I hung what she did do to dry and we left to find something else she might be interested in.

We ended up in an outdoors area where they gave the children clay to create little sculptures. How cute and fun! This was really too advanced for Kalissa right now but she had fun beating the clay with the rolling pin--and trying to eat it. There were also two large sculptures that they allowed the kids to paint. Again, it was too advanced for Kali but she loved looking at the beautiful colors.

We found this one room that was a "Barnyard Dance Hall" for the under 2 crowd. It was so cute and LOUD!!! She had a blast dancing to the square dance music and playing with the toddler-height mounted light switches.

Lastly, we visited the wooden horse. It was this huge sculpture in the center of the museum that the kids could climb inside for a bird's-eye view of the place. Kalissa loved being up so high and being able to look at all the happenings from a new vantage point. I thought she would be afraid but that wasn't the case at all.

All in all the museum is a bit too advanced for Kalissa right now. I'll probably wait another six months before visiting again. By then she should be ready to have fun in there and appreciate all the things the museum has to offer. It was still a great way to spend the morning and a great way to expose her to the world of the arts. I hope to find many more ways to stimulate her mind this summer.