Body Worlds

Body Worlds has come to town and, since The Princess is all about skeletons, muscle, and organs, I thought it would be a perfect mother-daughter activity.

Do you know the Body Worlds exhibit? It's amazing, there are human cadavers that have been preserved and dissected to show all sorts of different aspects of the human body. It might sound a little grotesque and creepy, but both times I've seen it (they have different exhibits that travel with different focuses. This one was focused on the brain) I've come away with an awe for the intricacies of the body and amazement at the creators' ability to find art and beauty in what we typically are a little (or a lot) squeamish about. If an exhibit shows up near you it's really worth the time and money to see it.

So, I was 95% sure that The Princess would love the exhibit. My tentative 5% reared its ugly head as we walked in, what if I caused nightmares and scarred her for later therapy? But, I needn't have worried. We spent a good hour and half in the exhibit traveling the two floors and each display a minimum of two times and I finally had to convince her that it was time to go. She would have started over at the beginning a third time if I'd let her.

Unfortunately, there's no photography in the exhibit...

Inspiration and enthusiasm abounded:

• She pointed out phalanges, patellas, femurs and spines at every body.
• I got to hear her first (to my knowledge) attempt at a joke; something about dinosaurs and giraffes.
• She attempted a number of the poses, her favorite being the figure skater in a back bend over the ice. (The body had the muscles and organs on full display with ice skates on her feet.)
• We spent ten minutes in front of the animated display of neurons firing, the second time through she listed all of the different things her brain told her body to do: stand up, jump, sing, sleep, be happy and sad...
• We watched red blood cells travel down blood vessels and she gleefully pointed out, for everyone passing by, each white blood cell that made an appearance.

We worked up quite an appetite and finished the day with a yummy lunch at Burgerville ("Burgerbill"). And, as I watched her inhale her lunch (!) with big blue eyes taking in everything around her, I simultaneously wanted to plan more of these days and tried not to melt into a puddle of tears. It's going so quickly, now she's 4, soon she'll be 14 and then 20 and out the door....

Beautiful glee

 My brain can't take it in...