Thursday, April 16, 2015

A day at the museum...

 
We took the little one to see the "Dinosaur bones"...
 
Of course, there are quite a few mega-mammals, mastodons, mega-bears and big cats too.
 
...along with some examples of why those post-ice-age mega mammals are now extinct.

Had a cool looking crab.  I guess crabs haven't changed much over the last few millennia...

They have definitely upgraded the display of skeletal remains since the time we were taking my boys there...different lighting and back-drops.

A cool, rabbit-sized, fanged antelope. 
                       Watch out, dang fast and a nasty bite !


 Interesting shadows...

 
                     Cool "toothy-something"...
                                       
                                                 ...and another one. 

...another nasty bite !

Anybody for a little "Jurassic Park Dino-DNA" ?

Mean-looking, cow-sized, scary dinosaur.

More shadows...

I figured out that wildlife photography is a ton easier...
.                                                            .. after the animals are stuffed !!

"Little One" likes the bones...and the Butterflies !!




 This little spider, barely a quarter-inch long, was in my backyard...I was just playing with the camera before heading to the museum. 


Y'all stop by when you're in Houston !!
-Mark

Houston Museum of Natural Science
 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Do-Over





Do-Over

The other day, the kids and grand-daughter were at the house (kids = eldest son and my daughter-in-law), and the little one and I were playing hide-and-seek.  Now, she’s three, so the rules for hide-and-seek are a bit “loose” (IE: “we just play however she wants”). 

She was “counting” and I was trying to hide.  I came running around from the living room, got quickly down on my belly, and tummy-crawled under the coffee table, right next to where my son was sitting.  Understand, it’s not that big of a coffee table, so all the lower half of me was plainly visible. 

If someone were playing hide-and-seek with an 8-year old, for example, the kid would see this and chastise you for not being “serious”, for selecting such an ineffective location to hide.  But a 3-year old, having just been successful in finding me, thought it was perfectly appropriate, and in fact got down on her belly and crawled under there with me, all of her lower half visible as well. 

After experiencing that hiding place for a moment, it was time to crawl out and play the next round.  She ran around to the living room to “count”, and I quickly “crawfished” out from under the table so I could pick another place to hide.  As I did, I overheard my son to say, “…hmmm…not the same old ‘Doctor No-Fun’ I remember…”

If we are lucky,
our days as grand-parents,
can be another opportunity,
to get right some of those things we didn’t,
…as parents.


-       m
          02-April-2015



Photo by Mark W. Laughlin