Daycare is closed for the last week of the year and we've planned a few outings for Jasper to fill up the days. The first was a trip to the New York Hall of Science near us in Queens.
We arrived shortly after their 10am opening, and spent several hours there. Jasper had an absolute blast. He loved running around the wide open spaces and encountering so many interactive exhibits where he could run, climb, crawl, and play.
He immediately wanted out of his stroller and began bouncing around the upper level when we arrived. Because we were there so early on the day after Christmas, the museum was pretty empty as these pictures show, and we had plenty of room to explore.
There's a pre-school center for younger kids, where Jasper played with magnetic gears, crawled again and again through a mirrored tunnel, and romped around on oversized foam blocks. There's also a wooden wall where kids can practice posting different shapes into the peg-holes. He spent a few minutes doing that as well, ending the engagement by placing a shape in the highest row of holes while standing on the very tips of his toes.
On the lower level, there are various activities that are set up with signage about appropriate age groups, recommended group sizes, and expected duration. His favorite feature was a passage walled with brightly colored plexiglass in the Happiness Experience exhibit. He made a new friend in the Great Hall where lights projected a nature scene onto the walls and children were tasked with sliding foam logs around the floor to control the flow of water throughout the ecosystem.
At the end of our visit, he ran in circles around a balcony from which we could see the lower level. He was squealing and smiling and exuding pure happiness. He wore himself out after many laps and then jumped into my arms as he asked to go home.