Night at the Museum
Last night was one of the Field Museum member open houses. We love this and look forward to it every year. Essentially, the museum is completely opened up. You get to wander back behind the scenes and through offices and departments that you would never usually get to see. There are museum workers showing what they do and there are displays of collections that are normally not on display. It is a lot of fun and it's FREE! I'm not sure there is more to like.
Due to family schedules, we didn't get down to it as early as we would have liked, so we didn't get to see a huge amount. The bulk of our time this year was spent in the insect department. Everyone loved looking at the hundreds of different insects from the collection. H. was thrilled at the huge amounts of butterflies. There were even some live insects, such as these huge cockroaches.
It was just a fun night. The icing on the cake, though, was as we were leaving. R. had been pretty attentive and involved in looking at the various things we were seeing. That alone would have made me happy, since engagement with what everyone else is doing has not been a high priority for her. But it gets better. After we left the museum and were heading for the car, I noticed that R. was just a little bit behind me and we were coming to a street. I call to her, "Hey, R.! Come on... catch up to us!" AND SHE DID! She RAN and caught up to us! Sorry about the shouting, but that is how excited I am about it. This was huge! Huge! Huge! Huge! Actively acknowledging that she is part of our family has not been something she has felt comfortable doing. In fact, anything but acknowledging this fact has been pretty much where she has been. And coming when called at any time has been something we have been practicing. A lot. There are moments when I would be happy with even an acknowledgement and slow shuffle when I call her because we haven't even been seeing that. So for her to come and RUN... well... there are just not words.
Due to family schedules, we didn't get down to it as early as we would have liked, so we didn't get to see a huge amount. The bulk of our time this year was spent in the insect department. Everyone loved looking at the hundreds of different insects from the collection. H. was thrilled at the huge amounts of butterflies. There were even some live insects, such as these huge cockroaches.
These are Y.'s hands. I was amazed that she was willing to hold it, as any type of insect has caused her to shriek up until now. Nearly everyone held one... even R.
It was just a fun night. The icing on the cake, though, was as we were leaving. R. had been pretty attentive and involved in looking at the various things we were seeing. That alone would have made me happy, since engagement with what everyone else is doing has not been a high priority for her. But it gets better. After we left the museum and were heading for the car, I noticed that R. was just a little bit behind me and we were coming to a street. I call to her, "Hey, R.! Come on... catch up to us!" AND SHE DID! She RAN and caught up to us! Sorry about the shouting, but that is how excited I am about it. This was huge! Huge! Huge! Huge! Actively acknowledging that she is part of our family has not been something she has felt comfortable doing. In fact, anything but acknowledging this fact has been pretty much where she has been. And coming when called at any time has been something we have been practicing. A lot. There are moments when I would be happy with even an acknowledgement and slow shuffle when I call her because we haven't even been seeing that. So for her to come and RUN... well... there are just not words.
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