The Toy Playground

We discovered a great new playground today. It’s on the grounds of the Buena Vista Branch Library in Burbank. Its best assets are that it’s completely enclosed and it’s full of big plastic toys (trucks, buckets, shovels) donated by parents who are probably sick of tripping over them in their own yards. Besides the toys, there’s a toddler-friendly jungle gym, slides, etc., all surrounded by sand. Jack and his pals turned a toy truck upside down, pretended it was an oven, and proceeded to fill it with cake ingredients like “baking soda” and “chocolate”. The downsides: it’s on the small side (though in a way that makes it feel like you’re at a big birthday party where you don’t anyone well), and there is no shade in the sitting areas on the perimeter.

Another reason to come here: the library hosts a better-than-average preschool storybook time on Tuesdays. They run a bubblemaking machine for the kids before starting, then sing songs in between the storytelling to keep them engaged. For Jack, the best part is the short animated film they show at the end, which is followed by a crafts project. Maybe some day he’ll be excited by arts and crafts, but right now he’s showing my (low) level of talent and interest in that area!

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 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.

Playing in Griffith Park

See-saws, bulldozers, dinosaur slides, and infinite amounts of sand. Shane’s Playground is one of the best outdoor play spaces in L.A. It was packed (despite the Wed. noon time) with yoga moms, nannies, tatooed dads, and ebullient children. After playing with the toddler-size bulldozer/digger for what seemed like hours, Jack used my empty coffee cup to make birthday cupcakes out of sand. No surprise there, since he knows his own birthday is in 4 days.

Later in the day, he told the cashier at Costco his birthday was in March. When asked how old he was going to be, he replied: ”three and a half.”