Dinosaur adventure

The dinos are coming! Well, one dinosaur is coming, after being painstakingly chiseled from its plaster prison.

Paulo's Tia Nena gave him a fabulous gift. It is a plaster encased dinosaur skeleton, perfect for honing the skills of future Paleontologists. Fortunately he did not look at the packaging which clearly states it is intended for children ages 8 and older. Paulo's a stickler on the age rule! It's come in handy for me a time or two when he's coveted some obnoxious toy, all I have to do is point out that it's for kids older than say 10 and that effectively ends the conversation. This time though I didn't want him to see that and think he needed to save this treasure for another 2 years 2 months and 18 days!

He got to work the second we got home. He set up his excavation site in the kitchen and started digging. To be honest I wondered just how long this would hold his attention. He is 5 after all and this was very detailed work! He surprised me though and worked at it during most of my dinner prep time.

With each fragment emerging from the plaster he'd look at me and shriek "I see a bone!" He was so proud of himself! I was moved by seeing just how proud he was of the work he was doing. There was a sense of accomplishment for him and it was challenging work. After a while he looked up at me and said, "you know what? this is actually NOT boring!" Oh the honesty of children....He made serious progress freeing his new friend from the plaster. He looked at it again this morning realized that he'd unearthed the creatures tail and legs and vowed to dig out his head tonight!

Being a Paleontologist is messy business though there was plaster dust everywhere but it's all worth it though in the name of science!