Ice Skating and Crystals

When adventure day rolled around this week we couldn't decide on our adventure. P really wanted to try ice skating, but he also really wanted to see the Huge crystals at the AMNH. While checking their website to look for pics of the rock collection we saw that the museum now has an ice skating rink. Bingo!

It was an amazing setting for a first time ice skater. (A family of tourists kept exclaiming at the fabulousness of it all. Even though we live here (maybe since I'm a transplant?) I echoed my thankful thoughts to P a number of times too:) And though the surface wasn't real ice, he certainly got a feel for it. And he liked it. A lot :)

Meanwhile, I couldn't skate an inch. I've been ice skating before, and while I'm certainly no champion twirler, I can usually make it around a rink. No such luck. I looked around and the tourist family was in no better shape, first-timers that they were. But P, well, he was kicking my butt! Then a few more adults trickled in and started sliding around the perimeter. Realizing I wasn't getting the hang of things, P started giving me tips ("Just push off with this foot, mama, and then slide like this...") in the sweetest whisper (heaven forbid he embarrass me by telling me what's what too loudly ;) Nope. Still couldn't move. I know that its just a matter of time before P starts seeing me as more and more human, but this inadequacy was coming on a little too sudden for my pride. So I sidled up to the skating dude in the corner and asked how I could improve my glide (er, move forward At All.) To my great relief, he informed me my skates were dull. D'oh.

Back on the ice with real skates the kid and I slid around the rink, laughing and falling and pulling one another about. It hit me then that we were Hanging Out, really just hanging and having fun.

Back inside P's recent questions about the moon, its size compared to the Earth, Mars and the Sun were most brilliantly answered by the inspirational planetarium. After plenty of nebula talk we headed to the "crystal section!" Our route took us past some large snails and shells and P requested I document his favorites so we can hunt for them and keep them as pets.



Through human evolution we went, the path adding to P's constant questions concerning the subject, onto Meteors. There, P denounced the meteors as "boring" and demanded we find some diamonds and crystals, pronto :)

While impressed by the size of many of the crystals, their subtle nuances of importance were lost on P, who most appreciated anything cut from its natural state into a gem shape :) The precious gems room had P zooming from case to case, shopping with glee. "I want that one, and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one..."



umm, yah, sure mama, its pretty, but where are the DIAMONDS???