Dinosaurs In My House

When Londo and I decided to go to downtown DC with the Pumpkin this weekend, I immediately suggested the Museum of Natural History so we could see the dinosaurs. Although Londo suggested a couple of other places, I insisted on the museum with the dinosaurs. I kept thinking about how the Pumpkin loves her book That's Not My Dinosaur and always points out the dinosaur in another book she has. How she has recently gone from saying "dino" to saying the whole word "dinosaur." I just knew it would be something she could look at and get and enjoy.

So Sunday morning, after the Pumpkin slept through the night (a rarity these days), I went in to get her out of her crib and told her we were going to see the dinosaurs today. She started saying "dinosaur" a lot, and we went to find her book and get her a sippy cup of milk. We sat down and read about which was and which wasn't her dinosaur, had breakfast, and got ready to go downtown.

When we got to the Natural History museum, the first thing we saw when we entered the building was the big elephant in the entry hall. Well, the Pumpkin loves "ella" so it was fun to let her see the big elephant up close. Then we went into the dinosaur hall. At first, I'm not sure she got what she was looking at. But Londo and I kept pointing out the dinosaurs, the fossils of so many different types were put together and displayed all around, including the huge Diplodocus and large allosaurus and the star of the That's Not My Dinosaur book: the stegosaurus. We also looked at the smaller models of dinosaurs in the dioramas.

It didn't take long before the Pumpkin was pointing at all the bones and models, calling out "dinosaur!" Granted, she did that for everyone set of bones, including the fosils of the Woolly Mammoth, but eh, close enough. After all, she's only 17 months old, even if she is a supergenuis. We stopped by the museum store before getting some lunch at the museum cafe, which is our way of supporting the free museum through overpriced souvenirs and costly sandwiches (I'm being serious here).

In the store, Londo and I were looking at the dinosaur stuffed animals. He was holding the Pumpkin when he picked up the stegosaurus and asked me, "What about this one?" Well, the Pumpkins entire face light up, she threw her arms around that stuffed animal and exclaimed "DINOSAUR!" Of course we got that one.

Once we got home, the Pumpkin spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the dinosaurs. We taught her that dinosaurs say "ROOOOOAAAARRRRR," which she proceeded to practice constantly. She stands there, throws her head back and roars very loudly. It may be one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

If you ask her where her dinosaur is, she will go right over to her stegosaurus and say "Pumpkin's* dinosaur." She will also say the last word of every page of her book (for example, if I read "That's not my dinosaur. It's tail is too..." she will say "fuzzy" or something close to that word). When she came downstairs this morning and saw her new dinosaur, she exclaimed so happily, "Pumpkin's dinosaur!" And started her roaring all over again.

It seems to me that we didn't just bring home one dinosaur from the museum in the form of a stuffed animal, but we also brought home a very realistic sounding, 17-month-old dinosaur toddler.

*She actually says her own name here. She's gotten really good at possessives and loves to point out what's Mama's, what's Daddy's and what's hers.