My Idea of Fun

My youngest, the bear, was enthralled when we went to a pumpkin patch around Halloween. We went on a hayride and one of the sites was a “haunted barn” with an 8 foot spider, and a hanging skeleton. That was in October. She still talks about it. “Daddy? Uh uh punkin patch” “Daddy? Draw skeleton” “Daddy – draw silly skeleton.” Is this some sort of morbid obsession – at age 2?

Over the past weekend, we went to the Chicago Field museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. Ok, this is my idea of fun: a two year old, and a five year old, in a crowed dimly lit maze, trying desperately to A) figure out what I am looking at, B) trying to pay attention to the tiny little signs that explain what I am looking at, and C) trying to keep a two year old interested in something in a glass case that she cannot touch, while trying to find something else to do, including but not limited to flirting with other people, running around wild, and flopping on the floor in front of the one part of the exhibit where the most people are standing.

“Excuse me please, I need to retrieve the child you are about to step on.”

The exhibit contains some extraordinary castings of people who died, and were encased in lava during the eruption. The postures, emotions in their faces, are incredible. The Bear was enthralled by the castings. “Daddy – skeleton cwying” “Daddy, skeleton sleeping.”

My five year old, the Mouse, had a priceless comment towards the end of the exhibit. She did a fabulous job of being interested, behaving, and in general was a gem. Her comment? “Not another bunch of bracelets and rings.” Yes dear, this case shows the bracelet and rings of a slave. The previous one showed the bracelet and rings of a peasant. I think we made her day when after the Pompeii exhibit, we went to a dinosaur exhibit.

Later, after we got home, the Bear continued with the commentary. “I wuv buseum” “I wuv skeleton”