Dinosaurs and poo

One of BallFiend's current favourite stories, The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone, follows the adventures of the three Berenstein bear children as they try to solve the mystery of who took a dinosaur bone from a museum display.

So, rather than staying in and cleaning the house, I decided I would take him to museum instead, as they have a dinosaur exhibition on at the moment. A train journey and dinosaur bones! What more could a two-and-three-quarter-year old boy ask for!

I got BallFiend dressed, did a quick load of washing and hung it on the line (despite showers being forecast for the afternoon), packed the nappy bag (into which BallFiend also packed a toy car, a ball and a book), and some sandwiches for lunch, then we were off in time to catch the 10.10 am train. The train journey was well received - so much so that once we got off, BallFiend cried, demanded to go back on 'my train'.

On arriving at the museum, I realised that this whole excursion was probably a really bad idea from a health-perspective: there were swarms of primary school kids everywhere (and all dressed in the most ghastly uniforms. Honestly! Who comes up with the designs, the colour schemes!!), touching everything with their probably-swine-flu-infected hands. And BallFiend was of course following along and touching every surface that the other kids had just touched. Being pregnant, I really, really don't want to get the flu. Stoically, I pulled out my bottle of antiseptic handgel and we continued on.

BallFiend seemed to quite enjoy it, although didn't seem to be especially impressed by the enormous dinosaur skeletons. What he liked was the interactive displays - buttons to press, wheels to spin, levers to pull, etc. - and running around on the small stairways, ramps and tunnels that connected different areas and rooms. He also liked:

• the giant squid and the accompanying animated movie showing a whale catching a squid for lunch;
  
• the funny mirrors which distort one's image. (Not something that really appealed to me, since my bump already makes me feel like a beached whale, seeing myself looking even fatter and dumpier was not what I needed!);
• the bugs - butterflies, moths, ants, enormous spiders, praying mantis, beetles, etc.; and
  
• various other stuffed/preserved animals or their skeletons (snake, monkey, gorilla, platypus, fish, turtle and more).
  

The thing he liked most was playing outside in the Children's Garden. This area is not so much a garden as a rubber-asphelted space with a few trees dotted through it. But it does have fun activities for 'children aged 3 - 8' such as stilts, hula hoops, shapes to jump on, quoits, blocks to build with and some tuned wooden boxes which play a scale when walked on. BallFiend spent most of his time kicking his own ball around the place, until he saw a grandfather showing his grand-daughter how to roll a hoop. Oh the joy! A new thing that rolls around and can spin. BallFiend was capitvated and from then on it was hoops, hoops, hoops.

Whilst in the Garden, I bumped into JH, a friend of Gran and GrandPaul's. She was there with her grandson who is a year younger than BallFiend. I suddenly became aware that majority of adults in the Garden were either (a) grandparents, (b) pregnant women with one child, or (c) mothers with two children under three years. No wonder every single adult there looked rather worn out. The only adult who didn't look tired was a staff member who's job seemed to be returning the quoits, hoops and stilts back to their stations. She didn't look tired, but did look grumpy. I know how she feels... I am so sick of picking up balls and other toys around our house and putting them away 15 times a day!

After the Garden, we trekked up the long, long ramp, past the rainforest garden (because the lift was out of order) to the human body exhibition. We saw preserved specimens of human tissue - including a brain, a digestive system and a skeleton. There was also an interactive display of how food is digested. BallFiend particularly liked the model of a poo (enclosed in a perspex display case... and I hope it was just a model!). He also liked the full-scale sculptures of a (naked) human family which shows how humans age. The sculptures are based on a real family of people covering an age range of 75 years to an infant aged 2 weeks. (It was slightly unsettling when BallFiend grabbed the penis of the 75 year old man, but thankfully there was no one else around to see.)

Next stop: the cafe for lunch and afterwards BallFiend enjoyed a babycino (with a marshmallow on the side!) and a gingerbreadman biscuit. Then a quick stop at the museum shop where I got a little, cube-shaped puzzle with small, metal balls inside that you have to try to fit into little holes. BallFiend loved it, playing with it non-stop all the way home.

The train journey home was uneventful, except BallFiend had developed a cough (Argh! Swine Flu? Bloody primary school kids!) and I had to keep covering his mouth for him, since he refused to do it himself. Once home, I was totally exhausted but BallFiend was full of energy and didn't want to have a nap. Thankfully he did, eventually... and I got to rest for about half-an-hour before he was up again and running about like a maniac.

The high-spirits continued all evening, all through dinner, and getting ready for bed. Thankfully DeepSpice was home at 5.30 pm to help take over while I collapsed on the couch. Eventually, a recording of an old Play School episode was deployed to help calm our little bundle of energy and he was finally in bed at 8.00 pm.
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