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Metro Rail

Looking for something fun n' cheap to do with your mini? Try the Gold Line. For a mere $1.25 each way, you and your child (assuming they're under 5), can pass over the LA River, peak into backyards through Highland Park, watch cars on the Pasadena Freeway and ride down the middle of the 210. What fun! How easy! Turn it into a real adventure by taking it from somewhere in Pasadena to Chinatown where you can wander and have lunch. Or take it from downtown on a Thursday evening and stop at South Pasadena's Farmer's Market which is right next to the station.

Peekaboo Playland

Conveniently located near Target and not too far from Swork in Eagle Rock, is Peekaboo Playland. It's a nice mix of bigger equiment along with toys that encourage creative play. They have a bounce house and slide, a puppet theater, play kitchen with lots of plastic food and pots, cars to ride in, carts and strollers to push and a small ball pit. There's also a small outdoor area with a couple swings, some plastic play houses and tunnels.

One thing mama likes about Peekaboo Playland is the music. They actually play real music. Now I love Dan Zanes or a Putamayo compilation as much as the next hipster parent, but sometimes it's nice just to listen to something with an electric guitar. I've heard the Jackson 5, the Beatles, Blondie and more hits of the 80s there. How refreshing.

Peekaboo Playland is located at 2513 Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock. Admission is $6 and passes are available.

99 cent store

The other day, my mini and I didn't have anything to do so we went over to the 99 cent store. It was a kid-friendly bonanza. For $4 we got a red plastic fireman's helmet, a yellow plastic construction hat, 2 bunches of colored tissue paper and some clear contact paper. My little one was enthralled with all the junk they keep in those low bins. We probably killed 30 minutes of that late afternoon, post-nap dead zone in there. Afterwards we came home, tore apart some tissue paper and stuck it between contact paper. Now I have a few lovely pastel colored welcome to spring suncatchers (add a construction paper border and voila, Easter cards for the grandparents) and my mini has two new costumes to add to her growing pile of dress up clothes. Thank you 99 cent store - you rock!

Family Nature Walks

The Children's Nature Institute is a volunteer group that leads kid-paced walks for minis 8 and under. The idea is to teach young children about plants and animals and how to treat nature respectfully. You can learn more and sign up for walks on their website.

LA Play Cafe

One of the things I like about Play Cafe is that, unlike other indoor playgrounds which specialize in things to climb on, in or under, Play Cafe focuses on smaller, calmer things like dolls, trains, puzzles and books. This small storefront on 3rd Street is a nice place to bring your mini for a quiet afternoon of playing with plastic animals while listening to a Dan Zanes CD. Instead of testing your little one's ability to climb out of a ball pit, at Play Cafe, they'll be re-arranging the dollhouse or seeing how much vinyl fruit they can carry at one time.

In addition to the play area, there's a kid sized table to eat at and a variety of snacks and drinks for sale. Also nice, Play Cafe offers classes in art, baby sign language and music (Music Together). They also sell some musical instruments, kid music CDs and a selection of Melissa and Doug wooden toys.

Play Cafe is located at 5814 West 3rd Street just east of the Grove. Admission is sold on a monthly basis instead of a per visit basis: a monthly pass is $25. There are additional fees for the classes.

Orange Cat

If you spend a fair amount of time in Pasadena, South Pas, or any other community in the San Gabriel Valley, check out the Orange Cat. Their free bimonthly newsletter has (what must be) a complete list of events, classes and things to do in the San Gabriel Valley.

Naya's Garden

Though parents throughout history have gotten by without them, what would modern parenting be without indoor playgrounds? When it's too hot or wet to go to the park and you just want to get out of the house, indoor playgrounds are just what you need. Minis love them because they get to play in a bounce house and ball maze even though they aren't at a birthday party. You love them because you get to see something other than your living room.

Though the Valley's loaded with them, those of us on the East side only really had Amy's Playground in South Pasadena. It's great, but not really convenient if you just want to get out for an hour. Now there's Naya's Garden located on Sunset right in the heart of lovely Silverlake. They have all the standard equipment: bounce house, ball maze, slide, tunnel, vinyl covered foam ziggeraut for crawlers, a couple of cars and a bunch of toys. It's tidy and clean and the owner's friendly. Baby girl loved it.

Naya's Garden is located at 2836 West Sunset Blvd. just east of Cafe Tropical. Admission is $8 per kid but they have a multi-visit pass that will save you some money.

Find A Beach

Bright, sunny, breezy days make me want to go to the beach. The last time we went to the beach though, we looked like some kind of Beat couple that staggered onto the beach accidently - my old man with his coffee and me in black pants, slathered with sunscreen. Now that we have a mini, we're gonna figure out how to do this without looking like total freaks. Our first step: find something to wear that's a little more beachy. Step two: avoid going to Santa Monica with the endless stream of rollerbladers, bikers, surfers, women in much better shape than me wearing very small bikinis and tourists. To that end, both the State of California and County of LA have helpful sites about the beaches they manage. You can research beaches, look at photos, choose one that suits your fancy and then get directions that hopefully don't involve getting to PCH via the 10.

Classes

Free or cheap classes and activities can be found all over LA. Though I don't know of all of them, here's a list of some closest to the Eastside:

Mamas

Glendale and Pasadena have free Mommy and Me classes (registration required).

Beverly Hills offers low cost Mommy and Me classes.

Huntington Hospital in Pasadena has a free breastfeeding support group on Thursday mornings.

Play

Pacific Park Community Center has a free Tot Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am.

Glendale Main Library has free playtime after storytime on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Grove has free kids activities and performances at 11am on Thursday mornings.

Classes

The Glendale Parks department has inexpensive art, music, dance and athletic classes for toddlers on up.

Though arranged in a completely user hating way, the City of LA Parks Department has after school, dance and athletic classes at rec centers throughout the city. You can get to the poorly organized 230 page PDF by clicking on the "Activities and Events" link here.

South Pasadena also offers inexpensive art, music, dance and karate classes for toddlers on up.

LACC has music, dance, educational and even make up classes for gradeschool kids on up.

Pasadena City College also offers music, dance and athelic classes for gradeschool kids on up.

In addition to Mommy and Me classes, the City of Beverly Hills offers a variety of art, music and gymnastics classes for toddlers on up.

Storytime

When Baby Girl was little, I needed to get out of the house and wanted to meet other mamas. Not knowing where else to go, I signed up for Gymboree. Now there's nothing wrong with Gymboree - I met one of my favorite mama friends there - but it gets expensive. What I didn't know then was that there are all sorts of free storytimes and free or cheap classes at local libraries and community centers.

Locally, Glendale Libraries have some great storytime programs that don't require registration: Pacific Park Library has craft and storytime for toddlers at 10am on Thursdays and the Glendale Main Library has a storytime followed by playtime at 10:30am on Fridays. The Pasadena Central Library has storytimes on Tuesday mornings but you have to register in advance. You can check for other Pasadena library storytimes here (click on "All other Library venues" under "Pasadena Public Library"). Beverly Hills Library also has storytimes. And, of course, the LA Public Library has all kinds of things going on. Diversecity is a series of multicultural programs that take place at branch libraries. There are also storytimes on Tuesdays and Saturdays at the Central Library downtown as well as at all branches: Hollywood, Northeast, Central/Southern, East Valley, West Valley, and Western.

Tomorrow, info on local classes.