Museum of Science

Yesterday, Avonlea Jane, Michele, and I went to the Boston Museum of Science to take advantage of Salem residents month, as we're all free in September. This was Avonlea Jane's first trip to the museum, and she loved it.

We started at the butterfly exhibit, where Avonlea Jane was quite taken with the butterflies and very respectful of not getting too close to the butterflies or the plants. She enjoyed finding the butterflies that we told her looked like leaves, flowers, or tigers.

Checking herself for butterflies

Avonlea Jane has recently developed an interest in dinosaurs and has collected some dinosaur flashcards, books, toys, and a t-shirt. She was excited to see what actual dinosaurs would have looked like.

Avonlea Jane was so well-behaved while we were at the museum and was perfectly content to hold one of our hands whenever we asked. She was wearing a harness backpack throughout the day, but held the tether in her own hand instead of one of us holding it. It was incredibly useful, as I didn't need to carry a purse, she just kept everything we needed in her backpack.

Avonlea Jane wasn't in much of a picture posing mood. She did love seeing and identifying all of the animals. She was very proud of herself to be able to show Michele the difference between a polar bear and a black bear.

Showing Michele the ball tower

"Whoa," Avonlea Jane said.

She got the chance to pet a few of the exhibit animals while we were there. We missed the live animal shows of the day, but were able to find a tortoise who was exercising after one of the shows. The animal trainer was nice enough to let Avonlea Jane follow him around for a bit.

Listening to New England bird calls

Her favorite part of the day was visiting the Discovery Center, which is for kids under the age of five. She got to climb in some tunnels, play with puppets and masks, see some amphibians and reptiles up close, and most enjoyably, play with with their water feature.

After the Discovery Center, Avonlea Jane had her first movie experience. We went to see the OmniMax film Whales. We warned her that it would get dark in the theatre, the sound would be really loud, and the picture gigantic. Just in case she got scared, we sat at the very top by the rear exit. She surprised us both though by really enjoying the film. She was interested in it and would point out all of the mommy whales and baby whales and whale boats. The movie was 50 minutes long, and after 35 minutes, she did declare, "Mommy, whales all done." This was fine with us, as with the motion sickness, Michele and I were already all done with the whales.

It wound up being perfect timing to leave the museum to beat part of the evening commute to the North Shore while Avonlea Jane napped in the car. When we returned to Salem, she had her weekly swim lesson. She was already tired from all of the museum walking, and she swam independently of me for almost all of her lesson (with a swim bubble on her back and baton in her hands), so twenty minutes into her lesson she said she was all done swimming and wanted to go home. When we got home, she was very clear: "Mommy, dinner and bed."