Gross Me Out!

The last two weeks, Connor has been on an emotional roller-coaster; having some melt-downs (some real, some fake). Paul and I were adding up the factors that might be playing into this; 1. he's getting to be 4 1/2 and that 1/2 seems like they always start to test us. 2. Grandma & Grandpa Roberts are moving which is a big change in his life too. 3. His sister is starting to really put the act on and get some more attention, so now he's got some competition. 4. Holidays are approaching and already his schedule has been thrown off a bit since Thanksgiving. So adding all this up, we decided to have a Mommy & Me day.

We went to the Science Center because they are having a Grossology display. What better way to go and freely talk about boogers, snot, farts, burps, pee-pee, vomit, and poop. A boy's dream come true....(and a nurse's!)

I would have loved something like this when I was a kid. I had a major fascination of the human body (and still do!) So, I was very excited to share all this education with Connor and he soaked it up and had fun with it too!

Operation: pulling out bones, kidneys, lungs, the heart and trachea.
Connor's getting education about how food is digested. He gets a visual of what is going on inside his body!
The vomit machine! He really liked this one!
Look there's a big booger! Nope just Mommy posing inside the nose. I made the nose sneeze! I was afraid it was going to spray me with some type of moisture, but it was just a gush of air. This nose was a bit loud and it scared Connor, he stayed his distance.
Connor is entering the mouth, ready to be digested!
He slid down the esophagus and into the stomach! Watch out for all that acid!
Now he is crawling in the tunnel of the intestines and will exit as......"Poop." He whispers to me.
This was something that he liked a lot too! Can't stop talking about this fun activity!

The grossest of them all was the display of bottles and we squeezed them and they smelled like the bacteria found in armpits, mouths, feet, and bottoms....YUCK, I about gagged. Connor said the mouth one smelled good.....being a nurse I do see a lot of gross stuff; since I've had babies my sense of smell is a little more sensitive and it is troubling to remain objective when there are pungent odors.......but professionalism outweighs stinky stuff! (believe it or not!)

We also learned the difference between snot and boogers, I thought of my Mom and how she would have been gagging the whole time with that display...........hee-hee!

We caught a free i-max movie from a nice teacher from the Des Moines schools called, "Sea Monsters." We dined at the little cafe' there and browsed at the other exhibits......it was a nice day....a bit snowy when we left. It took us an hour to get to Grandma and Grandpa Robert's house to pick up Olivia. Usually it takes about 20-30 minutes.