Better late than never

Here's an entry from Daddy-O about a pre-Christmas trip to Atlanta:

Brownie and I decided to break up the trip to Atlanta (technically, Gwinnett County/Lawrenceville/Duluth) by stopping at the Tellus NW Georgia Science Museum. For being next to the middle of nowhere, that place ROCKED! There was a gorgeous collection of prehistoric creature skeletons (including a T-Rex, Edmontosaurus, and mosasaur), huge minerals/crystals, many planes, trains, and automobiles...and the little kid section was pretty big. Thanks to our having a membership to the science museum here in town (which is very mediocre and basically a scienced-based, educational, indoor playground), we got in to the museum for free. It was an absolute hit for the whole family and will likely become a regular stop whenever we travel to ATL.

Brownie here: Tex and I spent some quality time with the skeletons of prehistoric creatures. I asked him to explain to me the difference between bird-hipped and lizard-hipped dinosaurs and we went around the room classifying each. We found that the pterosaur had a completely different-looking pelvis than any of the other skeletons. And we learned that dunkleosteus is pretty intimidating even when he's a fossil. After that the kids had a blast excavating dinosaur skeletons and especially enjoyed the water feature where you get to "pan for gems". Tellus has little bits of lapis, tiger eye, quartz, jade, malachite, jasper, and other shiny bits buried in sand, covered by running water, and you have to scoop some up and find the gems buried inside. We left with a small bagful that they are planning to use to decorate a small trinket box or something similar.

Friday's big adventure was to drive to I-285, hop onto the MARTA rail, take it to Midtown, visit the Federal Reserve Bank, and back. In case you didn't know, it was raining like crazy on Friday. Thankfully, the MARTA station was only half a block from the Federal Reserve so it wasn't far; but even after hanging out at the visitor's center for about an hour, our clothes were still quite damp. Then we had the pleasure of running back through that rain to the station. But since the Fed was free, two of the three kids rode the rail for free, and parking was free, it was a fun, educational activity to fill the day with the boys. While the Federal Reserve was our "destination," Noodle's primary interest was in riding his first subway car. He was been very interested in the driving capabilities in the Sim City 4: Rush Hour set. He loves to build a city of infrastructure and then drive/pilot cars, trains, planes, and boats on the screen. The anticipation of finally riding in a subway train had Noodle absolutely giddy.

Friday and much of Saturday was spent at the relatives' home. Well, more specifically, in their basement. They had the Wii set up there and it was the boys' first exposure to RockBand/Beatles RockBand. After all the playing, Tex has been singing numerous lines from the songs. Although he had mild interest in "Ticket to Ride" and "Drive My Car" a couple of years ago, the only songs he actually sings to himself are ones from Depeche Mode and Duran Duran along with "Smoke on the Water." Now he's going around singing verses of "Eight Days a Week" and "Yellow Submarine," and thankfully only a few lines of "I Am the Walrus."

Me again: the kids, especially Tex, have really been enjoying singing lately. Tex is getting more confident with singing aloud in the car and even when he's listening to music in his headphones. He does pretty well! I'm toying with asking him whether he'd be interested in singing with the children's choir at church.