Last Monday, we thought of visiting this place for toddlers in Latham called Tumbling Tykes. My wife had seen it in one of the blogs she reads and she said it had gotten good reviews. One of our friends also attended a birthday party that was held there and she said that we should check it out because our son might like it.

So Monday being a holiday, it was perfect timing for us because they were open the whole day, whereas during the weekend they are only open in the morning. The fee is seven dollars, which is good for the whole day. The place has adequate space, probably 30 by 100 feet give or take, and has lots of toys and activities. One corner is dedicated to children below two years old, so they have toys there like the push toys and musical instruments. The rest of the room is for the older kids, with toys of different kinds. There are at least three slides of different heights and slopes. There is balance beam about a foot from the floor. There are two trampolines, one small and one big. There is a small monkey bar and a big monkey bar. There are two mini-cars that go up and down a mini-roller coaster. There are at least four little tykes cozy coupes. There is an incline (made with soft padding) where kids can roll down. And there are also many different kinds of little toys and costumes.

They also offer different kinds of classes for different age groups. We thought the atmosphere was good and the quality of the toys and environment was good, plus it’s nearer than Treepaad!

Last Friday our family went to The Palace Theater in Albany to watch “Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up”. This was a show featuring the most popular and recognizable muppets in Sesame Street, like Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and of course Elmo. Over the last decade or so, Elmo has sort of dominated the Sesame Street landscape by virtue of being the most popular among pre-school kids; thus the subtitle “When Elmo Grows Up”.

This wasn’t always the case. First of all, Sesame Street is a relatively old show–it celebrated its 40th anniversary recently. Elmo wasn’t introduced until 1979, after kids my generation have already outgrown Sesame Street and so have never been acquainted with the red muppet until we finally met him (up close and personal) as parents. And so watching kids go ga-ga over Elmo, while our own favorites growing up–Bert & Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover–are relegated to the background, I can’t help but feel a Sesame Street generation gap.

Some parents my age actually are not that fond of Elmo. Their biggest complaint is that because Elmo refers to himself in the third person (”Elmo wants to know, don’t you?”), their kids have picked up on it and are now speaking in the third person. I can certainly see how frustrating/irritating that can be as a parent. After teaching your child how to properly speak and formulate sentences, here comes a muppet that ruins everything just from 30 minutes of exposure.

Well, good thing our son hasn’t picked up on the habit yet. Later maybe, but if he does, that’s it with watching Elmo

Last Sunday was my son’s second birthday, but we wanted to have the birthday party on Saturday instead. We had looked around for some places to have the children’s party. We thought about the usual places like Jeepers Creepers in Crossgates and Chuck E. Cheese in Latham, but they seemed a little too crowded. In Clifton Park we looked at the Bounce Around place in the Clifton Park Center mall, but the party areas were small and the activities were (as their name implies) mostly bouncy-bounces.

My wife did some searching and she saw in one blog this place in Malta called TreePaad. The pictures in the website looked interesting enough, so we decided to check it out. One Sunday afternoon we drove to Malta and went to see the place. We almost missed it because the sign on the road was small and the place from the outside looked more like a warehouse.

Once inside though, we liked it a lot better. It was spacious and there were lots of different activities, and for different age groups. We had our son try out some of the activities and he liked them, so we asked about their party packages. They seemed reasonable enough and looked like fun for the kids. Each package includes two activities, plus a free activity called “Fort Ballocity”, an enclosed area full of foam balls and slides.

We signed up for the package with 10 guest kids, then had to pay extra for 5 more kids. All the kids enjoyed the activities and had a lot of fun. Even some of the adults (like me) joined in on the fun because if the child was too young then an adult or the coach can accompany them.

Our only  complaint really was the food, because the place didn’t offer a lot of food choices (just pizza, hot dogs and chicken nuggets) and you are not allowed to bring your own food (except cake and ice cream). I guess this is because they cater mostly to kids (I was told Americans would drop off their kids then just pick them up after the party), but for cultures such as ours who always celebrate with adults, this can be a little limiting.

Anyway, we did have a good time and the coaches were very helpful too, so we’ll see next year. If they have better food choices or if they’ll allow us to bring our own food, maybe we’ll have our son’s third birthday there.