Can we go to the museum?

[jethrien]

ARR has a thing for museums. When his toy trucks are building something, it's almost always either a museum or a library. So when we went down to visit my parents this past weekend, it seemed natural to hit up the Smithsonian.

I can't help but compare to the last time I went to the Smithsonian. I was three months pregnant, hadn't announced it to anyone yet, it was 105 degrees, and we got lost. (The person we thought was looking at a map turned out to just have been checking his email. We walked the full length of the Mall and back. I almost passed out. It was...not the best day ever.) This time, it was at least a reasonable temperature. Which is good, since ARR basically refused to get in the stroller. And ended up walking the full length of the Mall and back. Kid's a hiker.

The Natural History Museum met a mediocre reception. He was excited by the idea of dinosaurs, but underwhelmed by the actual fossils. Only vaguely interested in the animals. I think he was hoping for more interactives, like at Liberty Science Center. Soon, he was insisting he wanted to go see the astronauts.

I had a little trouble getting across the idea that the Air and Space Museum had the astronauts' clothes but no actual astronauts. He was wildly excited anyway. I'd actually expected the reverse--I'd thought the animals would be a hit and the rockets would be less interesting. But he was enthralled. He waited very patiently in line because he wanted to go inside Skylab. He loooooved the moon lander. There were a bunch of volunteer groups doing crafts--we got to make a mission patch and a parachute, and at the satellite station we made him a rocket pack (out of tinfoil and toilet paper tubes) and a random cube wrapped in foil that he clung to obsessively for the rest of the weekend.

We were going to go see the trains in the American History museum, but got distracted by the carousel. Which he adored. And then he fell in love with a street busker and his guitar, which I think made the guy's day.

Sunday, we went to a farm. Not as much animal petting as I'd hoped, but there was a tractor ride and another carousel.

Really, though, the big hit of the weekend was the train set. Which ARR probably spent four or five hours playing with, all told. First thing he wanted to do every morning. Not sure why he loves it so much, but he's totally obsessed with it.

We spent the whole ride to school today discussing the various jobs one might do at a museum. ARR has decided he's going to be a curator.

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Not particularly lucrative, but probably the most fun job is in public programming. I volunteered in the public programs department at the Great Lakes Science Center in high school--doing shows and close-up demos. And you know ARR's going to want an audience :)

We have some of the best interactives at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, if you ever get a chance to come out here :)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

MSI does some pretty great traveling exhibitions, so that doesn't surprise me. They brought this awesome periodic table interactive to a conference one year and I kept getting distracted playing with it.

I did mention public programming as an option. He wanted to decide what goes in exhibits. (Believe me, we ran through all of the options from registrars to security guards. It's a long walk to daycare.)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Does he know mommy used to work at a museum? Did it blow his tiny mind?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. He's got a weak grasp of the past (all things in the past are referred to as "last time"), so his first declaration was that when he got bigger, he was going to come help me at work. I had to explain to him that Mommy didn't work there any more, but he was ok with that, because when he gets bigger, he's going to be a curator. :)