history

Off to see Tut (and the grandparents!)

| patmcg

King Tut is visiting Houston, and we made a special family trip to see him, and perhaps even better, see my parents.

Due to Spring Break traffic and a severe downpour, it took us seven hours to get the kids and make it to Houston.  Usually it’s about a three-hour trip, but we spend a few extra hours stuck in traffic in torrential rain on Highway 71 and Interstate 10.  We made it to Houston a couple of hours past the girls’ bedtime, but everyone was in good spirits and happy to see Noni and Grandpa Phil.

King Tut Entrance
King Tut's jackal. No pictures inside!

Ostensibly, we made the trip to see Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs at the Museum of Fine Arts.  When we got the tickets a few weeks ago, Claire’s interest in ancient Egypt was at its peak.  Since then, her interest has waned some, mostly in favor of dolphins and puppies.  When we pulled up to the museum on Saturday morning, Claire said, in a joking tone, “I don’t know why we have to go see this King Tut thing.  You thought I was interested to see it, but really it’s Dad who’s interested.  I mean what’s the big deal?  He’s dead.”  This really cracked me up.

Once inside, we waited in line for the big show.  There was a short introductory movie narrated by Harrison Ford, and then the exhibit doors magically swung open.  The crowds slowly entered and began to examine the ancient treasures with quiet awe.  Within the first minute after entry, Molly had broken the near silence with loud crying and yelling.  She really wanted the museum sticker on my shirt, but I could not let her have it since it served as my proof of admission.  She got frustrated and began screaming.  So I headed with her to the exit, which was all the way through the large exhibit.  By the time we got to the exit, Molly was calmed down, and we did the exhibit in reverse.  There were some really cool things.  Some of Claire’s favorites were the ancient toilet seat used by the pharos, and the ancient cat coffin.  She also liked King Tut’s bed, a colossal state of him, a small decorative coffin used to preserve his stomach, and an equally disgusting reproduction of the Tut’s remains.  I am happy to say that Claire was pretty engrossed after all.  We have no pictures of the exhibit since they were strictly forbidden.

Girls and grandparents
The girls and their Houston grandparents

The main attraction for this trip was really the grandparents.  It had been a longtime since we had been to Houston as a family.  We mostly stayed around the house to maximize face time between the girls and their Noni and Phil.  Claire had woken up very early Sunday morning and went down to get Noni.  She and Claire drifted in and out of sleep until 7:00 or so and then got up and hung out until the rest of us got up.  This is Claire in her element… hanging out on a lazy weekend morning with a grandma.  As interesting as King Tut was, this kind of morning was probably even more fun for Claire (not to mention Kit and I, who got to sleep in a little).  We got home on Sunday afternoon, where our tired Claire fell asleep on the couch watching Finding Nemo, thus accomplishing her first nap in years.

Mind your own business, Octavian

| patmcg

Claire’s love of ancient history has been reinvigorated with a book sent to her recently by Noni.  It is a National Geographic book called Secrets from the Past, and it used to be mine and Tim’s.  Claire loves to read this book every night before bedtime.  These stories of real things form far away and a long time ago seem to be more interesting to Claire right now than the fairytale worlds of the Disney princesses.  This book has harrowing tales of lost cities, ice age hunters, sunken treasure, and of course, Egypt — still her favorite ancient empire by far.  She loves the mummies, the weird wigs, the linen robes, the tombs, and the mighty pharos.  I think it is the golden mummy masks which really won her over.

This is more exciting than a Disney princess book.

Recently, in another book which her mom gave Claire on last year’s trip to DC, we covered the sad story of Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.  The whole thing was covered in a few short paragraphs with colorful illustrations.  Long story short, this Roman guy named Octavian (aka, Augustus) invaded and ruined Egypt and caused Cleopatra to commit suicide.  This was the end of the Egyptian pharos, and basically the end of of the classic Egypt that Claire loves so much.  At this point in the story, Claire was really upset with Octavian.  She was saying something along the lines, of “Boo!  Go back home, Octavian!  Leave Egypt alone!”

Previous to this, Claire may have had some sense that the Romans were trouble.  She just did not like the looks of them, or at least she was not really into them.  Now Octavian has confirmed Claire’s worst fears about the Romans.  On the other hand, Mark Antony did represent the Romans well, and he even married Cleopatra!  Claire asked us if the Romans were good guys or bad guys.  We told her “it depends” — if you were Egyptian, they were not so good at this point in history.  But we also told her that the Romans did a lot of good things, and their country Italy is a really great and beautiful place, and maybe we could take a trip there one day.  Claire was not impressed.  She would still rather go to Egypt.  (Maybe the latest news footage would change her mind.)

Claire does not directly admit to loving Egypt.  She says she like dolphins ten times better.  But you should see how she reacted to that darn Octavian conquering Egypt!

History Buff

| patmcg

The other day, Claire said she wanted to have a party at our house.  She wanted to have either a Valentines party or a history party.  That’s right, a history party!  The idea would be for people to come and dress up as mummies, cowboys, etc. and, you know, do historical activities.  I loved the idea and started to dream up historical snacks and drinks.  But I had to explain to Claire that we probably could not manage a party.  There are already so many birthday parties, and we can barely scrape through a weekend as it is just getting our basic chores and survival done, and hosting a party was going to be a tall order.  Still, I love the idea…

Anyways, it is nice to see that Claire’s interest in history has continued well past her trip to Washington DC, where she first discovered those glorious mummies and all things Egyptian at the Smithsonian.  Her Egyptian fascination continues.  She has lots of questions.  Is Egypt a real place?  What did the mummies do before they died?  Did the Egyptians ever come to Austin?  Who came before the Egyptians?  Do people live in Egypt now?  “No fair!  I want to live there!” she says and mock cries when I tell her yes, Egypt is real, and yes, people do live there.  It is almost like Egypt is Disneyland for her.  It is a place of golden masks, great pyramids, mysterious gods and goddesses, and fashionable wigs and sandals.

Claire’s interest in history continued when we got Claire a copy of the movie Night at the Museum and its sequel, which is set at the same Smithsonian museum that we went to in DC.  In the movies, all the museum’s characters come to life at night, including Teddy Roosevelt, a Roman general Octavius, Napoleon, Attila the Hun, an Easter Island statue, a playful dinosaur, and yes, a (fictional?) Egyptian king named Ahkmenrah.  Claire got really interested in the characters and was fascinated that they were (mostly) real people, not just storybook characters.  We have spent a lot of time telling Claire that such and so story or character is not real, only a story (Star Wars, Ponyo, Barbie), so it was pretty wild for her to think that all these interesting and sometimes scary people really did exist.  She had more questions.  Was Napoleon a bad guy?  Was Custer from Europe?  How did Amelia Earhart die? Was Octavius a real Roman general?  Were there Ro-women too, or only Ro-men (i.e., Roman)?  (Really, that was a question.)

But I don’t want to push this history thing too hard for fear of spoiling it for Claire.  Well hold off a few years before tackling the Oxford History of the United States.  She should be at least 9 or 10 years old, right?

Barney for President

| patmcg

Tonight we watched the news coverage of the 2008 Iowa presidential caucus over dinner. There was a lot of talk about the race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination.

Claire was apparently paying attention, because after dinner, as she was playing with her Barney the Dinosaur stuffed animal, she started saying, “Barack Obarney! Barack Obarney!” over and over. She would do well in an actual caucus meeting.