Christmasaurus Rex

It was too warm to be Christmas holidays but we went down on Saturday to the Fernbank to spend some time and maybe catch some of their activities.

I'm not sure, why but I think we could go to the Fernbank every day and the kids would like. I guess dinosaurs are that magical. They have a lot of other things, but there's something about the dinosaurs that is just undeniable.

They had a Christmas tree scavenger hunt and Julia proudly found all of the items on the trees. She then told the docent that she had found them all and it was ok to put them away, the game was over. Apparently the game was just for her.

Fernbank is someplace we've been coming since we moved here, and I've kind of watched my kids grow up in this place, taking the same pictures over and over through time since back when we were five instead of six.

I'm glad we went but I wish we went more, and maybe that's something we'll do a better job of in the new year. Since Mom and Dad died I've just been hard to motivate. I want to do stuff and make things awesome with the kids but I find myself unable to think much past the chair I'm sitting in a lot of the time.

I asked my mom once, a long time ago, how she managed to not just completely fall apart when our baby died. She told me she didn't have that luxury, she had me, she had to keep going the best she could because she had a little girl who needed her.

That's kind of me right now. I'm keeping going the best I can. I'm moving forward and trying to do things and not always succeeding but every single day I just want to lay in my bed.

That's not true now that I think about it. It's not true that I want to lay in my bed. I don't know what I want. So I try to keep going and keep moving and I figure it'll sort out eventually. I don't have the luxury of falling apart. I have four little children who need me, and I won't fail them.
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Christmasaurus Rex

It was too warm to be Christmas holidays but we went down on Saturday to the Fernbank to spend some time and maybe catch some of their activities.

I'm not sure, why but I think we could go to the Fernbank every day and the kids would like. I guess dinosaurs are that magical. They have a lot of other things, but there's something about the dinosaurs that is just undeniable.

They had a Christmas tree scavenger hunt and Julia proudly found all of the items on the trees. She then told the docent that she had found them all and it was ok to put them away, the game was over. Apparently the game was just for her.

Fernbank is someplace we've been coming since we moved here, and I've kind of watched my kids grow up in this place, taking the same pictures over and over through time since back when we were five instead of six.

I'm glad we went but I wish we went more, and maybe that's something we'll do a better job of in the new year. Since Mom and Dad died I've just been hard to motivate. I want to do stuff and make things awesome with the kids but I find myself unable to think much past the chair I'm sitting in a lot of the time.

I asked my mom once, a long time ago, how she managed to not just completely fall apart when our baby died. She told me she didn't have that luxury, she had me, she had to keep going the best she could because she had a little girl who needed her.

That's kind of me right now. I'm keeping going the best I can. I'm moving forward and trying to do things and not always succeeding but every single day I just want to lay in my bed.

That's not true now that I think about it. It's not true that I want to lay in my bed. I don't know what I want. So I try to keep going and keep moving and I figure it'll sort out eventually. I don't have the luxury of falling apart. I have four little children who need me, and I won't fail them.
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God's Favorite Creature

We spent a much needed Saturday out of the house at the Fernbank museum. You can never have enough dinosaurs in your life, from what I can tell, and despite the fact that we've been going forever, the giants in the atrium NEVER fail to inspire awe.

Giganotosaurus is about to go for the undercarriage of Agentinosaurus in the tableau behind and above Charlie. He's not concerned. this late Cretaceous ultimate battle is frozen in time, so we don't know who won and thus we don't have to expend any grief. Also, he's been seeing these dinosaurs since he was four, so he's ok with them.

Charlie is terribly shocked by Megatherium though. Ok probably not, I think I caught him mid yawn, so he's probably a bit bored.

One of the things we do is that we don't just tell Julia and Louis about the things we see, we tell Miles and Charlie. Their receptive language is very good. Sure they don't understand how many million or thousand years something lived, but we explain it like they do. We explain everything. Sometimes in simpler terms for them (and Julia) but hey sometimes NOT.

"What's this?" he asks Miles. "Dinosaur" Miles whispers out of the corner of his mouth (that's his thing lately. "VERY GOOD" he daddy hugs him.

It IS very good. He doesn't understand that it's a cast, or how many million years ago this thing lived but he knows this footprint belongs to a dinosaur. I find that amazing.

Charlie puts his hands in, and says "HANDS". Charlie isn't as advanced as Miles and I find this to be great. He's seen this thing many times, but this time he went right over and put his hands in.

It's little things with these guys, little things that I mark as victories in their development. All progress is good.

This would be the dinosaur that made the said track. Julia and Louis are acting how they would respond to a sudden appearance of a T-Rex. Personally I question their choice and would suggest RUNNING.

Our day started out terrible. Early AM Charlie was demanding to get up very early, screaming and carrying on, he attacked Louis' foot trying to get his attention to GET UP. Miles and Charlie had a nonstop early morning fight going on. Miles kept demanding Charlie give him his cereal spoon at breakfast, then Charlie would scream and shriek because he had no spoon. I had to keep going back in and getting Charlie's spoon. Every time I returned to the kitchen to try to make my own food, once again - spoon theft occurred.

Really it was spoon bullying as Charlie was being intimidated into giving up his spoon. Why? Autism. Only Autism knows.

Getting out of the house and into distraction and activity was the key. The fighting ceased and everyone was fine all day.

Don't let the girl navigate for your ship though.

The twins like trying to do various activities even though they don't necessarily do them right. Sometimes they DO actually get them right. We did fail at brain assembly - but hey that wasn't as easy as it looked.

The girl was a different child in the play area. Five days of school transformed her into someone I didn't recognize. She immediately RAN off, into whatever she wanted to do with no regard for whether or not we were with her. Running running running, jumping, over and over, do this do that do it all run run run. I never saw this in my life.

As the museum closed we decided to go take a walk through the rose garden. There is a really beautiful rose garden on the premises and I love roses. I suck at Gardening and weeding and shit. I don't do it. So I like to admire others work. As we walked in, I saw a sign that the roses had been moved to the Governors Mansion. Oh that's nice, so now they aren't for EVERYONE anymore. Perfect.

I still wasn't prepared for the gardens.

They have let their beautiful gardens grow over.

I can't even express how much this annoyed me. Why wouldn't you plant something else?

They could do a community or school initiative and do SOMETHING here in this space rather than let it look like this. It was so upsetting to me, I just loved this small simple garden.

Oh well, they are apparently trying to grow hipsters. That's an interesting experiment.

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God's Favorite Creature

We spent a much needed Saturday out of the house at the Fernbank museum. You can never have enough dinosaurs in your life, from what I can tell, and despite the fact that we've been going forever, the giants in the atrium NEVER fail to inspire awe.

Giganotosaurus is about to go for the undercarriage of Agentinosaurus in the tableau behind and above Charlie. He's not concerned. this late Cretaceous ultimate battle is frozen in time, so we don't know who won and thus we don't have to expend any grief. Also, he's been seeing these dinosaurs since he was four, so he's ok with them.

Charlie is terribly shocked by Megatherium though. Ok probably not, I think I caught him mid yawn, so he's probably a bit bored.

One of the things we do is that we don't just tell Julia and Louis about the things we see, we tell Miles and Charlie. Their receptive language is very good. Sure they don't understand how many million or thousand years something lived, but we explain it like they do. We explain everything. Sometimes in simpler terms for them (and Julia) but hey sometimes NOT.

"What's this?" he asks Miles. "Dinosaur" Miles whispers out of the corner of his mouth (that's his thing lately. "VERY GOOD" he daddy hugs him.

It IS very good. He doesn't understand that it's a cast, or how many million years ago this thing lived but he knows this footprint belongs to a dinosaur. I find that amazing.

Charlie puts his hands in, and says "HANDS". Charlie isn't as advanced as Miles and I find this to be great. He's seen this thing many times, but this time he went right over and put his hands in.

It's little things with these guys, little things that I mark as victories in their development. All progress is good.

This would be the dinosaur that made the said track. Julia and Louis are acting how they would respond to a sudden appearance of a T-Rex. Personally I question their choice and would suggest RUNNING.

Our day started out terrible. Early AM Charlie was demanding to get up very early, screaming and carrying on, he attacked Louis' foot trying to get his attention to GET UP. Miles and Charlie had a nonstop early morning fight going on. Miles kept demanding Charlie give him his cereal spoon at breakfast, then Charlie would scream and shriek because he had no spoon. I had to keep going back in and getting Charlie's spoon. Every time I returned to the kitchen to try to make my own food, once again - spoon theft occurred.

Really it was spoon bullying as Charlie was being intimidated into giving up his spoon. Why? Autism. Only Autism knows.

Getting out of the house and into distraction and activity was the key. The fighting ceased and everyone was fine all day.

Don't let the girl navigate for your ship though.

The twins like trying to do various activities even though they don't necessarily do them right. Sometimes they DO actually get them right. We did fail at brain assembly - but hey that wasn't as easy as it looked.

The girl was a different child in the play area. Five days of school transformed her into someone I didn't recognize. She immediately RAN off, into whatever she wanted to do with no regard for whether or not we were with her. Running running running, jumping, over and over, do this do that do it all run run run. I never saw this in my life.

As the museum closed we decided to go take a walk through the rose garden. There is a really beautiful rose garden on the premises and I love roses. I suck at Gardening and weeding and shit. I don't do it. So I like to admire others work. As we walked in, I saw a sign that the roses had been moved to the Governors Mansion. Oh that's nice, so now they aren't for EVERYONE anymore. Perfect.

I still wasn't prepared for the gardens.

They have let their beautiful gardens grow over.

I can't even express how much this annoyed me. Why wouldn't you plant something else?

They could do a community or school initiative and do SOMETHING here in this space rather than let it look like this. It was so upsetting to me, I just loved this small simple garden.

Oh well, they are apparently trying to grow hipsters. That's an interesting experiment.

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It Feels Like Home

I have posted from the FERNBANK so many times. We haven't been back in literally years though, we are estimating three years as Julia was a baby. It was one of the first places we ever went when we moved to Atlanta. It's a place we've been over and over, just marveling at the huge beasts within and our place in a world that once held them.

Yesterday was a tasting event that was paired with the special exhibit called POISON. The foods that were being offered are all things that are poison in too great a quantity. Louis and the husband ventured to try something from the Iberian Pig (I'm not sure what was poison on it? Capers? Tomato?) and we all joined in for the sea salt brownies from another place. I mean come on, brownies, duh.

The dude in the picture is slaying me. I'm not sure what he's staring at, the kids aren't being bad, maybe he's horrified we're giving our kids sugar. No - HIS KID HAS ONE TOO. So, I don't know.

The poison exhibit was amazing, gorgeous and interesting.

It featured poisons from various cultures, and poisons from fairy tales, and how they work vs. what people think they did at the time. Plus there were great exhibits explaining how too much of something is good and too much of something is poison. 

They had great interactive activities where the kids could solve mysteries of poison too which they loved. Well, they like pushing buttons anyway.

Plus there were fairy wings to wear. I'm not sure what that had to do with poison though, but yay fairy wings right?

Do fairies poison people? That would be jerkish of them as they have magic and stuff too. This little fairy put on a puppet show. 

It felt good to get out and be ourselves again, we haven't done for a while. We hit an early breakfast and then spent a couple of hours at one of our favorite places, the Fernbank. It felt like home, I'm glad we'll be going back more.

I found this picture from one of our first visits, possibly our first, in 2007.

That's Miles, and was so so long ago. 

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