Today the boys and I went to the Field Museum after lunch. My parents gave us a membership there for Christmas and we've been counting the days until we could go. We've barely visited the museums since Kai was born so the last time Jett was there he was in a stroller and I don't know if Kai has ever been there at all.
As soon as we walked in the building, Jett saw the sign for the exhibit called "What is an Animal" or something like that and made a beeline too it. I was already bored when I saw that it was mostly skeletons and preserved animals in glass cases. But we did not zip through it. The starfish, the giant squid, the panther, the bugs. So many bugs.
Then we walked over to Sue and even I was impressed.
Upstairs Sue's real skull is displayed under a glass case because at 600 pounds it is too heavy to attach to her skeleton. Next to her real skull is this new interactive computer game that lets you drag and drop bones from the skeleton on to a computerized model of Sue. It was just a little tricky and really captivating and the boys got through almost the whole game without fighting with each other or the other kids around them. Almost.
As you can imagine, I was absolutely thrilled to be sharing the space with a perfectly poised mother who assured me in her perfectly genial voice that her children would be perfectly happy to share the game with mine, which I took as a perfectly condescending rebuke at me for making my kids completely lose it because I told them to wait their turn. Whatever, perfect sharing lady. There is nothing wrong with a little meltdown once in a while.
Tears were dried, turns were taken, all was well. An afternoon success! Three hours passed in three minutes. Jett walked around and read all of the educational signs and pointed out all of the stuffed and preserved animals and occasionally exclaimed, "I didn't know that! I didn't know that Angel Sharks looked like sting rays! I didn't know a fish could ever be that big! I didn't know wooly mammoths looked like that! I didn't know the first humans were monkey-people!"
Oh kiddo. You just made this day even better.
As soon as we walked in the building, Jett saw the sign for the exhibit called "What is an Animal" or something like that and made a beeline too it. I was already bored when I saw that it was mostly skeletons and preserved animals in glass cases. But we did not zip through it. The starfish, the giant squid, the panther, the bugs. So many bugs.
Looking like a fly with those compound eyes.
Then we walked over to Sue and even I was impressed.
Upstairs Sue's real skull is displayed under a glass case because at 600 pounds it is too heavy to attach to her skeleton. Next to her real skull is this new interactive computer game that lets you drag and drop bones from the skeleton on to a computerized model of Sue. It was just a little tricky and really captivating and the boys got through almost the whole game without fighting with each other or the other kids around them. Almost.
As you can imagine, I was absolutely thrilled to be sharing the space with a perfectly poised mother who assured me in her perfectly genial voice that her children would be perfectly happy to share the game with mine, which I took as a perfectly condescending rebuke at me for making my kids completely lose it because I told them to wait their turn. Whatever, perfect sharing lady. There is nothing wrong with a little meltdown once in a while.
Tears were dried, turns were taken, all was well. An afternoon success! Three hours passed in three minutes. Jett walked around and read all of the educational signs and pointed out all of the stuffed and preserved animals and occasionally exclaimed, "I didn't know that! I didn't know that Angel Sharks looked like sting rays! I didn't know a fish could ever be that big! I didn't know wooly mammoths looked like that! I didn't know the first humans were monkey-people!"
Oh kiddo. You just made this day even better.
