British Museum, Round 2

 

This little girl is getting so big! She's asking big questions, and she's getting physically stronger and bigger. She also learned from her Aunt Sarah that it's hilarious to take pictures of herself making faces (thanks, Sarah--here is a recent self-portrait).

In response to her getting big, I wanted her to be helping me out--ah, are we transitioning to that phase of childhood? I think so! Mark and I cooked up a scheme (a popular word here) of things she could do that would be good for her to learn and be helpful to the family. That is, stuff that I don't have to do for her anymore! Yaaay! She's keen on being helpful and having responsibility, and all we had to do was stop and teach her how to do it a few times now that she's big enough. The ones I'm most excited about are sweeping up the dining room floor and doing her own laundry! The Big Adventure brought on this opportunity by limiting our other extra-curricular activities and social time, so we had slowed down enough that the idea had time to emerge. Good!

On one Saturday, Mark took the boys back to Coram's Fields playground while Noelle and I went to the British Museum for an hour or two. These two sites are near one another. We made a point to find the Easter Island statue since one of Noelle's favorite shows here, "Zingzillas," features some large talking heads modeled on this. She likes the tv ones better because they are smiling.

The artifacts here are unbelievable. It's seeing all the pictures from a history book be real things! Like this Assyrian/Babylonian statue, which was one of my favorite finds on this trip. We've been reading about Ancient Egypt, and she saw the hieroglyphs on this obelisk and was so excited to recongize some of the symbols from her book.

This excites me, because "seeing the actual stuff: was one of my big plans for the whole school year. Noelle also liked this Egyptians doorway facade.

 

 

After unsuccessfully looking for the Bible-era coins exhibit (we only found a few coins in a case), we met back up with the fellows and went home. I enjoy these outings together.

 



Meanwhile, this guy has been working hard. It pains him to give up the prospect of a Saturday alone in the library getting things done on his research when he's spent so much of the week doing other necessary things that aren't his research, but he has lovingly made space for family time or Katie-goes-away-by-herself-for-a-couple-hours time. Thank you.