Responsible by New Balance

Right now the Discovery Gateway (the Children's Museum for those who haven't been there) has a special traveling exhibit called Sesame Street Presents The Body. It is funded by New Balance. There have been t.v. commercials for it every day just before or after Sesame Street. Nathan has been asking for weeks when we were going to go see Sesame Street the Body Responsible by New Balance. Apparently their advertising works.

So yesterday Nathan, Matthew and I got on Trax and rode downtown to see "The Elmo Special." Nathan was so concerned that we would miss it that he kept asking what time it closed and sighing because the train ride was taking so long. But after an eternity (if you are four), we finally arrived. We bought our tickets and went straight upstairs to where the special exhibits are. This particular exhibit did a fabulous job of catering to the pre-readers. Everything was hands on and very interactive. We got to make a heart beat, lungs breathe, and a mouth chew. We got to feel a brain, be on a quiz show with Guy Smiley, and run a race. I must say though that this is definitely the first time I have ever seen a museum exhibit where the word poo was a main attraction. Barf was also present as well as borborygmus, which is the sound your intestines make as stuff moves through them.

Nathan had a wonderful time of course, but I was surprised at how much Matthew enjoyed himself. He definitely wanted to be right in the middle of everything, playing along. Unfortunately, he has a bit of a stature problem. Unlike Daniel and Nathan, who are both between the 70th and 90th percentile on the growth charts, Matthew is hovering just below the 5th. Our doctor teases that I'm diluting the gene pool. Anyway, even standing on the top step of the little stools they have at the museum, Matthew could only reach the stuff on the very fronts of the displays. So I spent the entire morning squatting (I haven't done that many squats since I took weight training in high school. My legs are killing me today.) with Matthew standing on my knees so he could reach. He was absolutely overjoyed when we went back downstairs and hit the spot designed for kids under the age of three. At last! He could reach things on his own!

When we were done at the museum, we met Kev for lunch. This was another first for us since Kev has never had a job that allowed us to meet for lunch. He has either been too far away or had a job that didn't actually give him lunch breaks. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but Nathan got to do something that Daniel has never done. That is great for his poor four-year-old-middle- child moral.

In closing, I leave you with a very serious question: Do you know how much of your brain is made of water?