Imperfection Done Perfectly: February 12, 2013--Science Center

I've been going a little stir-crazy for a while now. I love being a stay-at-home mom, but there are days that I have this desperate need to get out of the house, to get a view other than the four walls of my house. Saturday was one of those days.

I had really wanted to take Aubrey to the zoo--get out, get some fresh air and some sunshine. Unfortunately, the weather was not too keen on cooperating. It was chilly and the wind was making it feel at least ten degrees colder and the last thing I wanted to do was make the drive out there and then not be able to stay because we couldn't stand the weather.

So at 11:20 or so Saturday morning, after deciding it was too cold to brave the outdoors, I sat wracking my brain for a way to get out of the house that wouldn't cost a fortune. And then I remembered that the St. Louis Science Center is free and Aubrey is old enough finally to probably enjoy it. I jumped onto the interwebs to see what was going on at the Science Center, hours and such.

Turns out the SC was doing a two-for-ten thing where you could see an Omnimax film and gain admittance into the Wildlife Rehabilitation exhibit. Individual tickets for both things are close to 10 bucks a piece, so it was a good deal. I checked to see what shows were playing at the Omnimax and decided the one that Aubrey would probably enjoy the most was one called "Born to Be Wild," a film about orphaned elephants and orangutans who are raised and then re-released into the wild.

It was just my luck that on Saturday, "Born to Be Wild" was only playing once and it just happened to be at 1pm. It was now 11:30, I hadn't showered, Aubrey wasn't dressed. Why do I wait until the last minute to make plans, again?

So Chaz called the SC to reserve us tickets while I took the fastest shower on record, grabbed some clothes for me and Aubrey, threw some stuff in my purse and had us out the door by 11:45.

We got there around 12:30--I parked at the back side in order to avoid paying for parking. We then had to traverse the entire planetarium and half of the SC to get where we needed to be to pick up our tickets for the show. Aubrey walked the whole way herself. I was so proud of her!!! She is growing up way too fast on me.

We saw the show and afterwards went to check out the Wildlife Rehabilitation exhibit. Aubrey had an absolute blast! After spending about half an hour in the exhibit, I could tell she was getting worn out (I wasn't surprised after all the walking and running around she'd done in the past hour and a half) so we made one last stop before leaving.

Aubrey loves dinosaurs, so I had to take her downstairs to see the "life-size" mechanical T-Rex and Triceratops. Watching that was probably the best moment of the day. First she just stared up at this 15, 20 ft display in absolute awe for a few moments. And then she started roaring at the T-Rex. She bent her arms at 90 degrees, curled her fingers into claws and then started swiping them at the T-Rex and roaring at it. It was absolutely priceless!!

She had been so good all day, walking the whole way, not running away from me at all, not throwing a fit when we left one exhibit or the other. I was a very proud mama. And I'm also a sucker. The SC has a Build-a-Bear on the floor with the dinosaur exhibit and they actually sell stuffable dinosaurs. I just couldn't help myself. She'd been so good. I took Aubrey in and let her pick out a dinosaur. She picked the pink one....of course. We got the dinosaur a "Wildlife Rehabilitation" shirt to wear to commemorate the day and then we finally headed home.

She was out like a light before we hit the highway.