Katherine and Angela

When we brought Angela home from the hospital last week, we weren’t quite sure how Katherine would react.  So far, I’d say she has handled it really well.  She seems to love her new role as big sister and genuinely seems to adore Angela. I am still waiting to hear her say something along the lines of “Take her back to the hospital!”  That hasn’t happened yet.

So far, she has three basic statements/reactions to Angela crying:

• “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you”
• The stranger version: “Don’t worry, we’ll find your mommy and daddy.” ( Like many things, I am blaming Dora for this)
• Laughing and saying, “The baby is silly.”

I know this will likely change as Angela becomes more demanding. But this is one picture I can use as evidence that they did indeed get along early on

Spinosaurus is ready to rumble!

While setting up for one of our famous dinosaur tea parties, I noticed Spinosaurus giving me the evil-eye.

At a recent birthday party, Katherine was playing on a slide. Over and over again she climbed up and slid back down. At one point, she dropped her sippy-cup just as she started down the slide. I happened to be recording and thought it was hilarious. It reminded me of something between Indiana Jones always going back for his hat and Ralphie from ‘A Christmas Story’ trying to get back up the slide after he realized he hadn’t told Santa he wanted a Red Ryder BB Gun.

Ralphie stops sliding down the slide.

Recreation of the Indiana Jones hat grab stunt by joshua1878

Barney: Butter Doctor

We have a Barney the Dinosaur book that Katherine likes to read. In the book, ‘Barney What Will I Be When I Grow Up‘, Barney encourages the kids about them being good in various professions. I guess it is important for Katherine to think about that now that she is almost 2

In this picture, Barney encourages Mimi that she’d be a ‘dandy doctor’. I think it is fantastic how encouraging Barney is, but I do wonder how much I can trust his opinion since it looks like he would have treated the patient’s scrape with a stick of butter.

Katherine was taking care of her Winnie the Pooh doll today and even decided to read him a story. I think she did a nice job.

• Rebecca and Katherine have another option to get out and explore. Unlike the zoo, this will be good during winter months as well. I think this is as beneficial for Rebecca as it is Katherine.
• The toddler play area is apparently phenomenal
• Currently, there is a Dinosaur exhibit. Katherine loves dinosaurs. I recall when she was about 10 months old and we were at a toy store and I found a toy unicorn and a menacing T-rex toy and I held them up to her to choose which she liked better.  She chose the T-rex.

What I wasn’t immediately aware of were the reciprocal benefits conferred upon members. COSI is part of the ASTC Passport program, which grants you free access to other ASTC Passport museums and facilities. The list of participating museums is fairly large and if you travel a little bit, you can really extend the benefits and see some new things as well.

We were able to visit both the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Great Lakes Science Center with free admission and they were both fantastic facilities.  This turns out to be a great way to encourage both local membership of these museums and further exploration in other cities.

Dunkleosteus terrelli, a.k.a, Prehistoric Shark

Last week, Rebecca, Katherine and I  traveled up to Cleveland and went to both the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Great Lakes Science Center.

Both museums were nice, but the natural history museum really stood out to me for two main reasons:

• The quality of the items on display are fantastic. It isn’t as big as The Field Museum in Chicago, but the items on display were as good. They also have live animal exhibits outside, including many birds of prey, deer, etc.
• At 20 months of age, Katherine loved it.  I had no idea that she would be as entertained by the exhibits as she was.

The photo above is a replica of a prehistoric shark called Dunkleosteus Terrelli. It was found in the Cleveland Shale in 1867 and while the one hanging is a full body replica, the fossils of this creature are there and are among the best in the world.

The funny thing about this is that Katherine had a funny love-hate relationship with the hanging replica.  She really does love sharks, but this one would scare her when I would get her close to it to the point that she would cry.  After I would get her out of the danger zone, she would ask to go back and see it.  And again, she would get scared.  Back and forth this went for some time until we finally left.  Even now, she still will talk about the shark with a very serious look in her eye

Perspective of a fish about to become lunch

I took this picture from the bottom portion of the Polar Bear exhibit at the Columbus Zoo looking at the fish. In the background you can see one of the Polar Bears looking at the fish as well. Or, is he looking at me?

Good morning espresso

The espresso seemed photo worthy this morning.