Dinosaurs and Origami

We were off to Manhattan to revisit the dinosaurs at the AMNH. Mikro even paid attention to some of the hands-on learning stations. He's definitely growing up and exploring the world around him more. Of course, he came home with some new Schliech dinosaurs to play with...





The origami tree was amazing and inspiring. I bought the 2008 Origami a Day calendar, and am going to try to teach myself some simple folding. Mikro really doesn't have the fine motor skills for this yet, but when he's a little older, I'd like to be able to do this with him...

Live Butterflies at AMNH

Mikro and I joined one of my oldest, dearest friends at the American Museum of Natural History for their annual live butterfly exhibit. You enter a sauna-like plant filled room and see hundreds of them fluttering about. This year they had a glass case full of chyrsalises, and we actually witnessed a monarch butterfly emerging from one!



Mikro was in awe. And soon, so were the elderly museum docents, whom he insisted on lecturing at length about metamorphosis and butterfly feeding habits and anatomy. They were very surprised at how much a child of four could understand and explain! People are always surprised by his vocabulary and his love of all things natural and scientific.





















It was also the first day to see the origami tree, which my photos do not begin to do justice.