Children's Museum will lead to many happy days

I have a new favorite place in Stevens Point – the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum in CenterPoint MarketPlace.
Alright, technically it’s not my personal favorite place – that honor would probably go to Polito’s, Radio KAOS, the two movie theaters, the Schmeekle Reserve, Iverson Park, depending on the day and my mood – but the museum is now my 3-year-old son Braden’s favorite place, which non-technically (I think that’s a word) makes it my favorite place.
My family and I have lived in the community since April, and I’ve been to the museum before, without Braden, on work-related matters. Bored on Saturday, and my wife wanting to visit some of the stores in the mall, we decided to give the museum a try, after contemplating a drive to Appleton to visit the much-heralded children’s museum there. Although gas prices may have come down considerably in the last few months, I still didn’t want to waste fuel and time doing something we could do here.
I’m glad we opted to stay in Point, because the experience will continue for another year as we purchased an annual membership after spending several hours at the museum.
When we arrived, the mall was unusually busy, a fact that made both my wife and me wonder if a potential plan to remove half of it for parking is really necessary. Two factors contributed to the bustle at the mall – a flu vaccination clinic was being held there and the museum was offering a special program.
We paid $3 a person to get in, and immediately Braden started playing with the toys. Normally, he wants me to play with him – I’ve become the sibling he doesn’t have a lot of the time – but here I didn’t even exist. The toys and everything else the museum offered, along with all of the other children playing there became his new siblings.
The special program, which took place 15 minutes after getting there, was something we hadn’t anticipated, so it was a big bonus. A zoologist brought an owl, and she talked about the bird and its habitat.
I found the program interesting, but Braden was too young to care. He took one look at the owl, asked me if he could touch it, and when I said no he resumed playing with the train set.
I didn’t mind, because I was glad he didn’t make a run for the owl. The kid’s quick, and he would have been able to squeeze through the crowd en route to the owl while my fear of knocking over a dozen or more children trying to catch him would have prevented me from doing so. I’m sure the owl could have defended itself, but we’ve got two cats that could attest it’s better not having to deal with him.
The amount of items available for Braden to play with at the museum was staggering. Kids can dress up in costumes, build houses using giant blocks, play instruments, hide in a log, learn about dentistry, make art projects, go pretend shopping and take a boat ride. In two hours, Braden managed to do all of them, stopping only once to go to the bathroom.
He also made a couple of new friends, some of whom he played hide-and-seek with. For some strange reason, he was able to play it correctly with them, but when I play it with him at home, he always comes running to me laughing after I count to 10 and say “ready or not, here I come,” rather than hiding.
Around lunch time I told my wife we needed to buy an annual membership, because taking him here could be a weekly experience, as long as he was a good boy. The lady at the gate said the $9 we had paid that day could be applied to the $48 cost for a family membership, making our decision a no-brainer. We paid the remaining $39, received our membership pack and told Braden we’ll be coming back a lot more.
He left happy, which made me happy we stayed in Stevens Point.