Las Vegas and the kids

Now that we're underway and got our dates and hotel booked I can start looking seriously at things to do with the kids in Vegas.

I mean really, when you think of Vegas what do you think of?  Casinos, gambling, gunshot weddings, strippers, CSI...

None of which sound kid friendly.

But!  There are apparently quite a few things to do in Vegas!

Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay Hotel Casino, 3950 S Las Vegas Boulevard 10am-8pm(10pm Fri-Sat)

$16.95 per adult, kids under 4 free

Houses more than 1200 species of Marine life including sharks, a sea turtle and fresh and salt water fish
They also have a touch pool containing rays, eels and crabs. There are lots of rare fish here too, and a rare golden crocodile.
My verdict: I think Erika would LOVE the fish and shark experience here!

Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo Hotel, 3555 S Las Vegas Blvd

Open 8am - dusk. Entry is free

Houses more than 300 birds including flamingos, pheasants, swans, ducks in a lush tropical garden.  Turtles and Koi are found here as well.
My verdict:  A good freebie side trip

MGM Grand Lion Habitat 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd
Open 11am-7pm, feeding times 1115 and 415pm

Another free venture, lions are kept behind a soundproof glass habitat and rotated twice a day.  You can even have your photo taken with the lions for $25.

My verdict: Another decent freebie side trip

World's largest permanent Circus at Circus-Circus 2880 S Las Vegas Blvd
Open 11am-11pm shows every half hour, entry is free

Goes for 10 minutes with jugglers, acrobats, clowns and jugglers.  Apparently there is a 15 minute waiting time though!
Verdict: Possibility but waiting a nuisance. At least it's free

Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage, 3400 S Las Vegas Blvd

Open varying times, $15 adults, children under 3 free

Beautiful white tigers, and leopards can be seen here in a beautiful setting.  The Dolphin habitat allows visitors to learn all about the dolphins.

My verdict: I would love to see the big cats!

Millenium Falcon dismantled

It is with deep sadness that I finally caved in and packed up my beautiful limited edition Lego Millenium Falcon.  I got it when I was pregnant in 2007, had it delivered to work and with hubby built it in a week and even bought a nice coffee table in which to display it.

It survived my daughter and she was very good and rarely touched it, and never pulled pieces off it more than once.  However, my son has never been able to stop touching it, despite constant scoldings, loud "NO!"s and spankings.  Pieces are now missing, and ones that are found are often covered in saliva, so he may have eaten a couple of tiny pieces.

I look forward to the day when I can build it again (and figure out what pieces are missing) and have it displayed in such a way that it cannot be destroyed by questing little fingers.

Julian at 16 months, Erika at 3

So Julian at 16 months has started saying "up".  Not sure if he is using it to be picked up though I do pick him up every time he says it, and he can do "ababa" very well, doing the American indian thing with his hand "abababababa".  He holds with 2 fingers sometimes, feeds himself finger foods, and can use a pen to draw lines on a piece of paper.  And he climbs everything.  He can get on the bed, the chairs, the table and the other day I caught him holding onto the safety gate with both hands and both feet on 2 rails so he looked like he was trying to climb over the safety gate.  He also sits on the toilet to poo and wee sometimes though he doesn't do it often enough for my liking, and he tolerates water on his head quite well.

Erika at 3 is talking very well, copies things you say if you try to teach her and follows 3 step commands quite well.  She builds towers, steps and aeroplanes out of lego, and she likes drawing things, and can draw some shapes and likes to draw people with faces, arms and legs.  She can write the capital letters A, E, F, I, O consistently and sometimes writes L, M and R.  She can count to 20 easily but struggles a bit beyond that unless prompted and she can use her fingers to count to 5 and show me 1 to 5 on one hand.  She can even do "broken 3" where she puts her thumb and middle finger down holding the other 3 fingers up.  She can spell Julian, Erika, Star, Mama, Baba, Gugu, Poh poh (sometimes).

Erika's drawing and writing

In the last two weeks Erika's drawings have really taken off.  She has started drawing circles and writing letters, and putting faces on people.

Today she astounded me with this drawing

For some reason I can't seem to rotate it...

But she named each person in the drawing as mum, dad, Uncle K, Aunty S, and even Tinkerbell.

Then she drew this the next day:

 

And she said to me "the baby is crying".  I'm impressed that the figures now have hands!