27 : Hi, Science

At nine o’clock that morning Heidi squished into the back seat of the Fit with both my loud boys for a day at the Science Center. And Puck did not run out of conversation the entire way there.

Space. Dinosaurs. Physics. All that good stuff.

Puck led the charge as the little posse entered a land of science and general public mayhem, depending on the crowds. And the crowds were big because the heat was big.

Sometime after a lunch of burgers and pizza, I listened to Puck and Heidi discuss the idea of tattoos. Partly because they know Yali will need a medical tattoo on his chest when he’s older. And because Oxbear has “Sola Gratia”, “Sola Fide” tattoos on his forearms. They both discussed the possibility of having their own tattoos done one day.

“So, Mom, how do they put tattoos on you anyway?”

“They stick ink under your skin.”

Crickets.

“Never mind. Forget it.”

“Nope; don’t want one.”

At the gift shop, Puck and Heidi ogled the bins of rocks: geodes, fools’ gold, desert rose, goldstone.

“AHH!” Puck declared after about an hour of trying to make up his mind. “I CAN’T DECIDE!”

In the end, they both finally settled on fist-sized geodes. One blue, one pink.

After I caught Yali on his stomach licking up sand like it was sugar in the desert wind formations exhibit, we hit the Omnimax for “A Beautiful Planet”.

Twenty minutes later the three kiddos sat together under the big screen dome, sharing a bag of purple cotton candy, discussing prearranged marriages. Somehow, I missed how that topic ever entered the conversation in the first place.

“But that’s really not fair, you know? They should have at least a little choice in who they marry.”

“The Muslims still do that sometimes.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

An hour later we walked back out into the monster of a 115+ heat index. St. Louis summer; in the thick of it, and one month early at that.