Sunday, August 5, 2007

An Extra Dose of the Birds and the Bees

We loaded up and drove down to Army's brother's house for the day Saturday. My brother-in-law and his wife have a daughter 3 months younger than Linus. These two kiddos love each other so much. It's terrific. Since it's been about 1,000 degrees outside lately, we decided to go the Natural Science Museum. The girls had a ball, but our visit didn't exactly start out on the best note. When we arrived at the museum, we had to wait a few minutes while their Nana arrived and took care of a few things. Linus, naturally, was imitating every animal they had displayed in the upper deck. That child can do a mean lion! The theme at this particular center is birds right now, so we heard Linus do a turkey call, a duck (complete with the waddle!), a rooster, a baby bird, etc. My brother-in-law was playing with the girls, so I took the opportunity to act like I didn't have a clue who that wild child was. Linus noticed that a movie was playing down the hall, so she begged to go see it. We looked at some info on it and decided to go take a peek. We walk in and they are showing birdie porn! I'm not kidding. It was bird after bird getting it on. They even described, in gory detail, what was going on. I looked at Army and said, "Great, her first movie and we take her to birdie porn. We're great parents!" Thankfully, the girls thought the birds were just dancing. Now I know this is natural, and that baby birds have to get here some how, but I'm just not ready for my child to be watching it. The movie said safe for all ages, but I'm not so sure I agree. After a few minutes that felt more like hours, I got up and encouraged Linus to go with me to see some other exhibits. Linus would have nothing to do with it. "NO! Please, Mommy, please let me stay and watch the movie! Plllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaassseee!" Yeah, no, we're going.

We went on to see tons of great exhibit areas. We all had a great time until the girls decided they wanted to watch another little movie. They crawled up on one of the little benches and sat ever so nicely. I know my daughter well. When she's that quiet, I need to worry. I peeked my head around the corner (Army was in there with them, but it was crowded, so the rest of us stood just outside the wall), and I saw Linus looking at the screen very intently. Most parents would be thrilled, but again it scares me. I immediately began scanning the screen and every square inch near it. Then I spotted it, and I knew exactly what she was looking at. Just as I looked back at her, she took off towards the fist-sized red button to push it. I could just as easily call her Dennis the Menace as I call her Linus. The child simply cannot see a button and not push it. She just has to find out what any button does. I grabbed her just in time. Can you imagine how ticked the others would have been if she had restarted that movie? She had to sit a few minutes in time-out, and boy did that produce some tears. "I juuuuust can't be here, Mommy. Daddy, help me. I just don't belong here. I don't. I. Just. Do. Not. Belong. Here!" We left shortly after.

The girls played a little when we got back to Army's brother's house, then we went to dinner. It was yummy, and the girls were incredibly well behaved. Then we got our big bold hint that it was time to leave. Linus blurts out, "Hey everybody, want to see me and my cousin dance like the birds?" I'm not sure we've ever vacated premises so quickly!

No comments: