First of all, as I mentioned in our London post, Zoe LOVES dinosaurs – also evidenced by the fact she has now watched every Dino Dana episode (new series on Amazon, 14 episodes) and almost every Dino Dan episode (old series, also now on Amazon, 52 episodes). PLUS, two “movies” about Dino Dan’s brother, Trek.

But I digress.

Today we went to the Natural History Museum in LA for the Extreme Mammals exhibit, which was really cool!

For the First World Problems part of this post, let me point out these moments:

• We enter through the Gift Shop. Zoe: “Mom, can we get something in the gift shop?” Me: “Let’s see how the day goes and how well you listen.“
• We exit the Extreme Mammals exhibit through yet another gift shop. Zoe: “Mom, can we get something in the gift shop?” Me: “We haven’t been here long. Let’s go see the butterflies and see how it goes.“
• We exit the Butterfly Pavilion through yet ANOTHER gift shop. Zoe: “Mom, can we get something in the gift shop?” Me: “It’s 11 am. Don’t you want to see the dinosaurs?“
• We eat lunch, and it’s time to leave. Zoe: “Mom, can we play in the stick house?” (NOTE: It’s 94 degrees outside.) Me: “I thought you wanted to go to the gift shop on the way out? Would you rather play in the stick house?”

One National Geographic dinosaur book and 2 “Fizzy” dinosaur eggs later, we’re out of the gift shop and on the way home. Suckers.

Notice a few things here? Ella didn’t ask for anything, and we could have left all 3 gift shops with empty hands, but Zoe, she is persistent. Hopefully that will pay off in a job setting one day so she can take care of us in our (rapidly approaching) old age.

Also, it takes every trick in the book to deter her from her goal. Negotiation, reminder, distraction, perspective. Or maybe it’s all just constant negotiation…

Anyway, on the less commercial side, we also enjoyed the Dinosaur Encounters show they host a few times a day, with a human actor/employee and a human-powered life-sized dinosaur puppet acting out a skit for a room full of mostly kids.

This time: A Triceratops, which Zoe really likes.

We arrived early and ended up on the front row, seated on the floor just behind the stanchions. We’ve been to one of these before and often there’s some part of the skit which requires an audience volunteer, so Bart reminded Zoe if she wanted to BE that volunteer, she’d have to move fast.

When the actor asked for volunteers, she was the first with her hand WAY up and enthusiasm beaming in his direction. As she headed to the small stage, she mention to Bart (in reference to the Triceratops on the other side of the stanchion), “Don’t worry, Dad, they’re herbivores.”

That ended up being sage advice and may explain the exceptional confidence of our lovely future performer child as she took her part in the skit (sorry you can actually see the stanchion and some wobbly spots, but I’ve got Ella in my lap):

(CLICK FOR VIDEO)

And so, that’s the story of Zoe vs. the Triceratops (almost impressive as Zoe vs. pushover parents in gift shops).

Happy Saturday!