The Grove for kids

The Grove is a perfect example of “If you build it, they will come.” In the late 1990s, it was a dusty lot next to the Third and Fairfax farmer’s market. Today, it’s a shrine to 21st century excess with a Nordstrom, American Girl, Apple Store, and movie theater that charges $12 a head. But I have to admit, it’s a great place to bring small kids. The parking is easy (if you time it right and avoid the garage) and there’s a fountain in the central courtyard that “performs” a la Disney’s Fantasia to Frank Sinatra tunes. Every Thursday there’s an event geared to kids on the velvety green lawn: a concert, e.g., or a petting zoo. We caught a concert there last week and it was fun, though very, very crowded. Lots of $900 strollers and $200 haircuts.

Thankfully, they left the old farmer’s market standing when they built the mall. My favorite part of the excursion was sitting there at an outdoor table with Jack eating pizza and Caesar salad from Patsy D’Amore’s stand. It serves the best pizza in L.A. if you ask me.

Then we grabbed an apple fritter from Bob’s Doughnuts, got our parking validation stamped, and headed home. Will we be back? Likely, but not anytime soon.

Sierre Madre (backtracking)

Sierre Madre is a small town east of Pasadena with a pretty walkable main street. Last week, we headed over there, figuring it would be a low-key activity that wouldn’t require much brain power (yes, we’re still struggling through the twin bed transition).

We parked on the main street for free, then I picked up some coffee at Beantown and we walked a couple of blocks to Memorial Park off Hermosa Avenue. There’s a playground there that’s ideal for the 2-5 age group — no swings or slides, but a big sandbox and lots of little vehicles (rockets, tractors, train) to climb in and around. Best of all, it’s shaded by huge old orange and magnolia trees.

A couple of other highlights: There’s a kids’ store with an nice Thomas the Train setup near the corner of Baldwin and Sierra Madre Avenues.  If Jack had his way, we would have spent the rest of the day there. A few blocks’ north of the main street is a small citrus farm and canning factory called E. Waldo Ward. Much of the farm is gone, but there’s a tiny gift shop that sells things like pickled kumquats and orange marmalade.

The town itself has plenty of independent restaurants, none of which I’m dying to try. But it would be easy to spend half a day here shopping, eating, and soaking up the mountain views.

Easter = pierogis

Here’s a quick rundown of our quiet Easter weekend in the canyon:

1. Made pierogis, as per Zieba family tradition. They turned out well, though we spent more time yelling at Jack to get his toy snow plow out of the flour.

2. Moved twin bed into Jack’s room. Regretted it when he woke up four times the first night and came looking for us. (It’s getting a little better with each sleep session, but we haven’t broken down the crib yet.)

3. Napped. Read entire Sunday paper for a change.

4. Cleaned up a lilac tree that blew over in last weekend’s super-strength winds.

Easter eggs

Jack is even more excited about Easter than he was about Christmas. I think it’s in part due to his getting a copy of “Horton Hatches the Egg” for his birthday. Awesome book, by the way, at least for any parent who has labored through the headache-inducing sentences of Little Toot and Thomas the Train. When I brought out a box of Easter decorations, he gathered up all the eggs and started opening them, yelling “They’re hatchin’! They’re hatchin’!” We went to an egg hunt Monday at Loma Alta Park and he had a blast. I was afraid he’d snatch all the eggs and leave none for the smaller kids, but there were more than enough to go around.

The healing power of pancakes

Banana pancakes for Jack. Asparagus and tomato omelet for mom. Breakfast out on a Tuesday feels decadent, but it carried both of us through the rest of the day. It helps to have a kid-friendly diner, Dish, that serves parent-friendly fare like Portobello mushrooms and applewood-smoked bacon. Jack’s enthusiastic appetite continues to amaze me. He let out a giddy cackle when his pancakes arrived, then proceeded to dig in, brows knit in concentration as he speared each piece and drowned it in syrup.

Citrus land

 

The plan was to drive up past Valencia to buy a crateload of oranges. As it turns out, the area is also a treasure trove of easy things to do with kids. Next door to our orange supplier ($5 for 40 pounds!) is a state-run fish hatchery, one of a dozen or so in California, and it is well worth a quick stop. There are about 5 long rows of troughs filled with fattened-up trout. It’s perfect for small kids because they can see the fish easily without having to be picked up, and you can buy fish food for a quarter and let them throw it in themselves. If you time your arrival between 11 and 12 or between 1 and 2, you might get to witness the jumping spectacle that is feeding time.

After eating lunch in the shadows of the hatchery’s kitsch-y 70s posters,  we drove 5 minutes to the town of Fillmore, where I knew there was a train station somewhere. Jack spotted it long before I would have. “Look, it’s a caboose!” he shrieked. “Mama, let’s go take a look of it.” The old trains weren’t running, but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm one bit. There’s a winery right next to the train tracks that serves gourmet sandwiches. I made a note to return sometime with a friend in the hopes that the views of the trains will keep him still long enough to allow me to take more than two bites.

So we returned home with a trunk full of citrus and a 3-year-old bubbling with memories of coupling hooks, turntables, and jumping fish.

Peacocks and “Ze Plane!”

How do you celebrate a pediatrician’s visit that doesn’t end with a vaccine or a pharmacy visit? With a stop at the L.A. Arboretum to see the peacocks and early spring blooms. Not that this means anything to Jack, but the opening sequence to ”Fantasy Island” was shot here, and it blows me away every time we walk by that familiar-looking bell tower.

He was more impressed with the “fort” made out of sticks and pussy willows and the steps that lead up to the top of the waterfall.

Birthday Boy

Jack shares a birthday with Dr. Seuss, Lou Reed, and Daniel Craig (a.k.a. James Bond). He got an obscene amount of presents, and managed to forget about his ear infection for the better part of the day. The next morning, when I hugged him and said ‘now you’re a big boy!’ he started to cry and said ‘I’m not a big boy, I’m a little boy! I’m not 3, I’m 2!’ I think we’ve been using the big boy card too much in our desperation to get him off diapers. One of his favorite presents was a half-inch-tall trash truck that must come with him everywhere.