Operation ‘Zeum

The past few weeks, my son has been asking to go the “zeum” to see dinosaurs. Occasionally, a special exhibit passes through town that includes fossils and dinosaur statues, but the most recent one was a few months ago, and has already moved on. He’s a good sport, so he handled the disappointment of not going to the “zuem” well.

But I felt sad that he couldn’t go see dinosaurs. If we lived in California, we’d be off to the La Brea Tar Pits in no time. I would be thrilled to share my childhood experiences at my favourite museum with my precious little one. Sadly, we are not in California. And I just couldn’t think of any solutions, other than to wait for the next traveling exhibit.

Since BSF concluded for the summer, we’ve been regularly visiting our local zoo. On one of our most recent visits, a sign at the exit caught my eye: a great big dinosaur skeleton with the name of a museum emblazoned below. Excited, I asked the gate keeper if they knew much about it. They were able to share that it was at our state university, which is only about an hour from where we live. Thus began Operation ‘Zeum.

The first weekend that passed, we were unable to make it happen. Honey Badger had Memorial Day off of work, but the museum is closed on Mondays. The next weekend also found us scratching our heads. Fitting in a two-hour round trip drive plus a few hours of museum exploration was proving to be a challenge. Even though we were all on-board with the plan, we just couldn’t make it happen!

Finally, Honey Badger and I separately came to the same conclusion: he would have to take a day off work for us to go. Excited by the prospect, we shared with our son the plan, and he was very excited too. It was hard to fully communicate the exact date it was happening (he kept thinking it was going to be that same day), but eventually the day came, and we packed ourselves into “papa’s silver car” and drove to the “zeum.”

Little Lion was so overcome when we first got into the mammoth portion of the museum, that he just stared around and tried to take in all the sights. We saw so many different fossils and learned that our state once had camels and rhinos!

There were some stunning murals, some of them over 30 years old. It was captivatingly realistic. Little Lion especially liked seeing the elephants (part of the mammoth exhibit), the spaceships and mars (the planetarium is connected to the museum), and the t-rex (I think he was referring to the allosaur skeleton, but there was a t-rex skull).

I was impressed with how child-friendly the museum was. There were a lot of buttons, magnifying glasses, flipbooks, panels, tunnels, and microscopes for Little Lion (and us!) to explore. The lower levels of the museum were clearly older exhibits, and the atmosphere was noticeably stuffier (presumably to preserve the fossils) than the topmost level. The topmost level felt clean, fresh, and it looked relatively new.

It felt almost like a different museum, and it was full of fascinating exhibits about parasites and our local wildlife. We spent some time looking at ticks, fleas, and tapeworms under the microscope, and I explained to my husband that we’re supposed to be deworming ourselves a few times a year, and that it’s surprisingly easy to get parasites. After creeping ourselves out (and probably convincing ourselves to do a parasite detox), we moved on to the other exhibits.

Little Lion had a great time crawling through prairie dog tunnels and observing a giant globe. The globe was showing global warming, but I’m going to say he probably didn’t get that at all.

By the time we wrapped up our visit, we were all feeling tired and hungry. A neighbor we happened to run into earlier in the day before we left had recommended a free botanical garden to us. I determined that we would go eat there, and not in our car. Thankfully, it didn’t add a significant amount of time to our drive home, and we ended up having a wonderful time. It was truly a beautiful garden, and free to the public too!

With that, we concluded our trip and headed home. It was an eventful and fun day, but there were things that certainly tried my patience, and I didn’t do the best at regulating my mood. Part of it was that I was physically tired, and part of it was that there are some health/behavioral things that our son is dealing with that is just very taxing to a degree. While it’s easy to share the good things here, it can be hard for me to move past what is difficult or challenging for me in my day to day life.

There are things that I like to reflect on though, especially when I’m feeling a bit like I need a break from my son. One of those things happened this week, while we were having a family dinner.

Our son stood up and announced to us, “My name is Little Lion,” then turned to me, “and your name is Mama,” and then turning to Honey Badger, “and your name is Dada.”  It was one of those poignant moments that I hope to always remember, and I genuinely almost cried. Motherhood can be hard. But there are moments that are so overwhelmingly beautiful, and those moments are the refreshment that get me through hard times.

I thank the Creator everyday for my son. He has become so incredibly precious to me over this past year, and I love him so much. It is easier to be put out and inconvenienced by this sweet-faced little boy than I could ever have expected. I find myself rising earlier in the morning than I’d like, prepping meals, fretting and planning and praying for my son’s well-being. There are a lot of narratives and cycles in my families of origin that I want to protect my son from, and I want him to feel and know that he is loved and delighted in.

I’m so grateful that today, Honey Badger and I had the opportunity to make Little Lion’s “zeum” dream come true. I hope we can be a part of many dreams come true as he gets older.

Sierra