The Hubs had to work today, so I was scrambling this morning to figure out what to do with the kids. Typically we hit the local bounce house to work off some energy, but the bounce house is located within the mall and I wasn’t going near there with the kiddos in tow on Black Friday.  Most of the friends and family we usually pester when we’re bored were either traveling or shopping so the day was shaping up to be a long one.

I suggested we go to the local kid’s science museum to Scorch. He quickly countered with our local Earth Museum filled with fossils and all things dinosaur related. I thought about it and while going to a museum like that with a 4 and a 2 year old is a little ambitious since I was flying solo, I was desperate so off we went.

We got there within 5 minutes of it opening and there were only about a half a dozen other families there, all with small children. I breathed a quick sigh of relief and we got on our way. Scorch was, as always, enthralled. When an honest-to-God Paleontologist came up to us and offered to show us what he was working on in the museum’s lab, I thought Scorch’s little head was going to pop off from the excitement. When the good Doctor let Scorch hold a real Triceratops leg bone, it did. He hasn’t stopped talking about it yet!

The Bean, on the other hand, was really great for about the first 30 minutes.  There are some interactive parts of the museum, but it’s more of a look-and-see type of place, which isn’t exactly thrilling to a 2 year old. She was holding her own and acting respectable enough so I turned my back on her for 2 seconds to see something Scorch was trying to show me.

Huge mistake. You’d think I was a rookie at this parenting thing.

When I turned back around, Bean had crawled up into an exhibit that had two model dinosaurs side by side and was holding on to each of them swinging from their necks. “Hey Mama- yook at me!”  are words you never want to hear your toddler yell in a museum. Thank God she didn’t break anything and even bigger thanks that no one saw us.

Next time, I’ll take my changes on the Black Friday crowds.