Day 218: Doc McWhat?

Keturah's been counting down the days until the Doc McStuffins' exhibit opened at the Children's Museum.  I'm not sure why because it's a preschool show that she's watched only a handful of times.  So, we wanted to get to the museum early so that we could do the member preview time, but instead, got there a few minutes before the opening ceremonies! The museum was pretty busy, which made me thankful that I didn't bring the boys with me and that we have a membership.  If you ever live in the Indianapolis area, having a season pass to the Children's Museum is a must!  There is no way I'd pay just to go for the day because there's way too much stuff to see and read and do!  I love being able to go for a morning or afternoon and not worrying about rushing through everything.  And I guess it's one of those places I know so well now that I don't need a map and I know the best place to rest or nurse or whatever.  It's like a second home to me.

Anyway, Doc McStuffins' is a show about a African American kid doctor that helps young children understand doctor offices, hospitals, etc so that they aren't afraid.  There's also a toy vet hospital or something.  They talk about hygiene and taking care of your pets.  The creator was there, as well as an executive from Disney Junior. A representative from Riley Children's Hospital was on hand because they partnered with the museum in creating the exhibit.  Our museum actual puts these traveling exhibits together.  This one will go to different museums for the next 3 years.  Pretty neat, eh? The exhibit itself was set up to handle a ton of traffic because in each part, there were multiple stations of the same exact thing.  Because it was pretty basic, Keturah wasn't very impressed.  I think she might have played more if she had some friends with her.  She's never been into dressing up in costumes or playing with dolls/stuffed animals like some kids do.  But, it was important for us to recognize that she was diligent in counting down the days to the opening.  We also visited the China exhibit again, which has become her favorite.  She showed me where she learned how to write Chinese words and we watched a performance by some students who attended a camp over the summer.  And that was it.  Oh, and I bought her a dolphin figurine she can play with (not glass, but rubber type lifelike 4-inch toy).  Yup, I told you she takes after her mother.  She knew it was a bottle nosed dolphin, but she couldn't tell me the names of other dolphins.  She actually made plans for the whole Johnson clan to go to Florida on our next vacation so that the girls could go see Winter the dolphin (Dolphin Tale) and the Lego Friends park at Legoland.  I'll have to take her to SeaWorld (I've never been) or something someday.  She even remembered that Everly her cousin likes dolphins and wanted to get her and Nora something too! And definitely the Indianapolis Zoo because they have a great dolphin pavilion.  It was nice to do something just the two of us.  She's growing up so fast!

The boys played Minecraft pretty much the whole day.  And watched a little bit of Olympics via YouTube.  I worked on homeschool stuff again and chores of course.

Breakfast for Jared.  Nailed it!

The character of the hour.

Disney Junior executive.

The creator of the cartoon.

Her hand's getting bigger.

Instructions on how to put the babies to bed, including feeding them, bathing them, singing them a lullaby, etc.

A feeding station that says, "Babies need milk or formula to grow." It's meant for little kid, but I was disappointed that breastfeeding wasn't mentioned.

Handwashing station.  The "bubbles" were like marbles encased in the plastic.

Toy operation complete with step by step insturctions.

Thanks to check in the "emergency room."

NOT a picture of Keturah, but they could refresh the water in the fish tank.  The museum has used this type of station before (see our last trip to the museum) like in the Bob the Builder exhibit.

Take care of your pet!

Almost forgot to take a picture of Keturah in the exhibit.  I don't know what this character's name is.

Chinese student dancers.  They had announcers that did their best, but English is their second language, so it was hard to tell what was going on.  It was probably an hr long program showcasing what they had learned over the summer.

The boys singing a contemporary love song.

Pretty dresses (although showing too much skin) and a lovely dance.

I enjoyed the precision these two hand in their performance.

Chinese yo-yo's.  The poor guy on the left dropped his and it hit a preschooler in the front row of the audience.  He was so apologetic and gave the kids lots of treats and asked for forgiveness and thanked the little boy when he said yes.  The dad was very kind too.  Poor teen who doesn't know English like we do and cultural unsure of what to do.

Beautiful singing.

Dancing!

She's really good at this!  You dip the pen in water, and it will show up on this special paper.  She did a couple of signs from memory!

We didn't go in this exhibit last time, Treasure of the Earth, but I wanted to quickly see if  the cannon they had in there was done.  You see, they have it in this tank with an electric current running through the water to slowly disintegrate the minerals around the artifacts.  And indeed, the original cannon is gone, and these are it's replacement.

Water tower that tells the time!

Aw, we made it!

Keturah said, "Nora and Everly didn't like this statue.  What's not to like?  It's an Egyptian god!"  Can't wait to study ancient civilizations later this year in history again!

Big sister helping little brother.

He liked the stickers on the wall.

Getting so big!  We've been putting him on Keturah's loft bed since he was a few months old.

And so it begins.  For the next two weeks, it's all about the Olympics.  The Johnsons are Olympicholics!

We made it on opening day!

Abishai actually sits still better for Keturah to read a book than he does with Jared and I.

Because I was busy with other things, I didn't get any pictures of the older boys.  Justin actually came down with a headache/migraine again out of the blue.  He hadn't been outside or anything but doing Minecraft.  He threw up, too, poor guy.  I can't wait until insurance is in place so we can take a look at what's going on with him.  It's usually because he's dehydrated, but I'm not so sure it was that this time.  Jared ended up not feeling well either.  I still don't think we've acclimated to this heat, although it was slightly cooler today.  Hm,...