Night At The Museum

Note: this post could well be re-titled ‘Day At The Museum’, or also ‘2 Hours At The Museum’. But never let it be said I don’t pass up the opportunity to plug a great movie!

I’m trying not to be one of ‘those’ parents that pushes their child to learn five languages and have a black belt in karate by age 2. You know the type - they’re walking around art galleries with their 2 week old baby in the hopes of creating an artistic genius, whispering But is it Art, Bartholomew? into baby's ear whilst daddy signs him up for ten years of art camp. I want the best for her of course, but I don’t think I could be a good parent to Doogie Howser MD.

That said, I do believe that exposing her to new things and places can do nothing but good, and if it’s educational then all the better. So we decided upon a trip to the Museum of Natural Sciences downtown. My main objective was to take Seren into the butterfly enclosure – she loves butterflies and I was secretly hoping one would land on her and give me a great photographic opportunity. I was disappointed in the outcome. But the trip was good!

Ever the patient one, I marched her straight to the butterfly enclosure. I need to point out that she and I are both looking a little dowdy; I have no excuse but Seren threw up peas on herself in the car so she’s wearing her less than cute clothes. Ah well.

Love this picture!

Now I’ve been to this museum a number of times, and I never ever saw the Sloth in the tree. I thought it was a big fib and all the attendants were secretly laughing at us all for staring up into the rafters believing we could see something. But actually, for the first time ever, I saw it! And as I expected, it didn’t do very much….

What a life, eh?? He’s got it easy, let me tell you. After visiting the butterflies we headed off to see the rest of the exhibits.

Hi, Bambi!! I haven't seen you in my garden lately?







Seren is scared of frogs; if you are like Seren, you should look away now.




Woooh!





Woooh woooh!





:: Dead ::

After I managed to bring the little one back to life, we headed to the underwater exhibits (you photography buffs are gonna love this one):

I know I know, you’re all shaking your head and tutting at my incompetent photographic skills; but in actual fact this is my favorite photo. Sort of a messy masterpiece, if you will? Except the walls are moving. And the whale is moving. And the floor…. ok I forget why it’s my favorite now.

Seren’s favorite part of the day - this flipping plastic alligator model. She screamed and screeched at it like she was telling it to get down from that wall and go do something useful! She’s all ham my girl.

So we just had to stop off at the gift shop and get her a little momentum of her trip -






Our alligator is much cuter.


Signed,

Lucy (and one future marine biologist/ecologist/archaeologist – we just haven’t decided yet ).

Hitting the (Little) Gym

I finally plucked up the courage to take Seren to her first ‘gym’ class Friday; Nana was in town and daddy booked the day off work so I took up the chance for extra pairs of hands in case of any meltdowns (or accidents!).

In my ignorance I seemed to have ignored the concept of the ‘Gym’ in Little Gym, thinking maybe we’d do some movements and singing, the usual baby stuff. Nope, we were doing somersaults and forward rolls – with 4 month olds!!?? I was too chicken, so the instructor took Seren to show the class. I handed her over and instantly felt like I had made a huge mistake – not another worst parent ever moment! She was fine but I don’t think I breathed the entire time Seren was in her arms.







I am well aware my roots need a touch-up.


They had a huge inflatable mat for the babies to bounce on – awesome I thought, she loves to bounce. So we sat them on the deflated edge and held on to them as the sides rose up high taking in the air. Bouncing was great……then the time came for flipping them over??? Again, the chicken in me took over.





This is Audrey. Audrey was born 2 weeks after Seren. Audrey lives 5 houses away from Seren. Who knew.






Daddy got in on the action momentarily (actually, so I could catch my breath. Nothing like baby gym tiring you out and making you look like the most unfit parent alive). He did the goodbye song.





At that point 90% of the babies had begun to tire/cry/scream so we said our goodbyes and headed off. Thankfully she napped in the car before the meltdown commenced.

In other randomness, we headed to the mall for a quick lunch and walk around. The MIL loves to cook so we couldn’t pass by an opportunity to visit Williams Sonoma – OMG the baby feeding section is too much! I managed to restrain myself enough to purchase a bowl and sippy cup set only………the husband had to drag me kicking and screaming from the Beaba Babycook food maker.



Food bowl (with suction base) – $12
Sippy cup – $10 (both Williams Sonoma)

Cuteness!!

Post One.

It’s been a long time in the making, and Post One was planned for January 1st 2011. Uh, hello February 21st?

Ok, so I won’t admit how long it took me to create my own blog banner. I won’t admit how long it took me to give up creating my own blog banner. And I won’t admit how much groveling it took for H to finally create my own blog banner. You get the picture, I’m blog-challenged. But thanks to a sympathetic H, countless Google searches and a few Photoshop Elements flukes, I got it together somewhat.

Our family has gone through a myriad of changes in the past 3 years – the biggest being that of the birth of my baby girl. My goal (substitute: challenge) is to blog our goings on but not stress about it. Kinda like telling a bird not to fly, but I’ll go with it. Oh and to eventually work out how to use a DSLR camera without it being stuck on Auto setting. Again – birds, flying, yadda yadda.

There’s a lot in store for our family of 3.

This is our beginning.