Ciudad de Niño (Kid City)

We went to Kidzania (check out kidzania.com), an awesome children's museum-type place where the kids get to "work" at different jobs, earn money, and then spend the money at the department store. It was so cool!!! Here is the "check-in," where they give you your "boarding pass" to Kid City (which looks exactly like an American Airline boarding pass). You then walk down a hallway that leads to a real airplane (or you can enter the museum from there).

We tried to explain to the kids that they had to work at different jobs, and that they would earn money. Then they could use the money later to buy things. Here is their first job- they were in charge of going to 5 different job sites/stores and collecting any extra money they had, and then bringing back the money to the bank safe.

There were SO MANY employees working at each station- so museum employees play the bosses that are hiring and paying the workers (kids). In order to get paid at this job they had to get the signature at each location on their list.

They got paid 8 kidzos for 15 minutes (not bad!). Next job: BOMBEROS!!!! (firefighters) This is Tonito's dream in real life, so perfect practice. At each job site the museum employees do a great job of explaining what real firefighters (or whatever career) do on the job. This was a cute job site because they had to start upstairs, and then when the alarm rang, they could slide down the fireman's pole or the slide:

They asked Tonito to ride up front (I think because they saw his cast) and he was in heaven-

Another job the kids could have was to perform in shows for the adults. They had to dress up and sing and dance. Adorable, but our kids were too shy/young. Maya loved the show though!

Next it was Vivi's turn to pick, and she chose to work at the hospital. At the 2 story hospital, there were maybe 6 different departments they could work in (one was surgery and it looked awesome!). But the groups were rotated through randomly, so we got chosen for the maternity ward.

Each "doctor" or "nurse" had to pick one baby to take care of. They undressed the baby, bathed them, then dried them and put on a clean diaper and their pajamas. Then they had to rock them and feed them a bottle. It was so cute!!! Then the main doctor (adult) asked the kids to think of a lullaby to sing to the babies together. Another girl said "Estrellita" (Twinkle Twinkle) and so the whole group sang it, much to Vivi and Tonito's delight! I think they were the loudest singers, as this is one of their favorite Spanish songs.

After a quick lunch, we went to work on the construction site. They learned about wearing protective gear and how to lay bricks, and proceeded to build part of a house.

Maya was exhausted and fell asleep for more than 2 hours with Tonio holding her!

After spending a great time at Kidzania, we walked around the amazing mall. Malls in Mexico are in another class than those in the US. First of all they are so clean, have the best stores, and best decorations. Second of all they are always *full*. Always. So many times in the states there are sad malls with stores closing and barely any shoppers. Not in Mexico- no matter what day of the week and no matter what time of day, there are always families walking around. You would never know there is a recession right now. Here are the kids by some of the Christmas trees, and some play cars.

Maya at this point is still sleeping in Tonio's arms. She has a really bad cold that sounds a bit like a seal, and is worrying me more every day. No fever though, so we'll see how this plays out.