Playing at CMA

There's a lot this city has to offer that I'm sometimes slow to engage. Like children's museums. Something about them being just for kids makes me kind of crazy. Like maybe they will be so overrun with screaming, feral children that I won't enjoy it. Most days I have enough on my plate with my own screaming kids, so who needs more?  But this week my friend Carmen invited us to spend an afternoon painting and making art at the Children's Museum of the Arts (CMA) in lower Manhattan and I thought maybe taking just Elisa in for a big kid outing would be fun. And it was. Mostly.  On a quiet day, the museum was a calm space in which to explore all the stations and take our time with each activity. The only thing buzzing that we didn't wait around for was the clay bar which looked fun, but might have been geared towards slightly older kids.  Otherwise, I think the museum offers a plethora of crafts without much hands-on help. The artist/instructors didn't exactly jump in and interact with us which was okay, but for $11 admission each, I figure they could have been a bit more helpful. The exhibit was something about robot monsters that Elisa found pretty creepy (and truth told, so did I).  But since it was a pretty small collection, I imagine the real draw is the chance to work on your own art.  Either way, it was a nice setting and the kids also loved the ball pond on the second floor for a burst of energy after all the artistic introspection. 

Elisa making her art critic face.  She took one look and declared that she didn't like his picture. Why do kids have to be so brutal sometimes?

After spending a couple of hours in the museum it was time to get out and re-energize with a little treat. We marched over towards SoHo and stopped in to a Pain Quotidien for some hot chocolate and cookies for the kids and lattes and tarts for us.  I love those places for the long wooden tables and plentiful space, but also because there breads and  baked goods are just right for a little pick me up on a day like this.  The kids were right on the edge of cranky tired and over-excited, but there was no stopping at that point.  There is no magic teleport to get home from these big city outings, so I tried my best to keep things light and moving. And it worked until we were about 5 minutes from home. The kids were getting snippy with each other which meant a quick exit from the train and off to home. Of course, I pressed my luck by stopping to buy bread. I should have known it would be the tipping point--Elisa was done. But after dragging her literally screaming and sobbing out of the store and halfway down the street, I tried to remember that she had been good for most of the day. That should count for something.  But at 6 p.m., it was just all too much for her and for my patience.  It was a fun afternoon and a worthwhile adventure for sure, but they are still so little. Four is still four after all. And with the love/hate-fest that Elisa and Leonardo provide, it can be overwhelming when there's so much going on. But we tried.  And who could pass up a chance to see their tortured artist souls in a new light?