Dinosaurs

What is it with children and dinosaurs? In fact, what is it with people and dinosaurs? We love them, they are fascinating, I must have watched Jurassic Park a thousand times, even George in Peppa Pig loves dinosaurs.

Everyone it seems except Mole and Hedgehog. They get a bit alarmed around large animals in general, which is probably quite sensible. Mole is more ambiguous. I took Mole to Yorkshire sometime before Hedgehog was born and we met lots of horses over the dry stone walls. She would climb the wall and stare into the field with excited eyes, only to start crying and cling to me when the horse came over to say hello.

Then a few months ago, when we walked down to see the village horses on their farm, Mole gathered her courage and was on the point of stroking the horses nose as it bent towards her over the fence. The horse rewarded her for this by grabbing Mole’s dolly in its teeth and cantering off with it around the field, as if it had got a tremendous prize. Mole was beside herself of course. “Horsey got my BABY!” she wailed. I was forced to climb through the electric fence and retrieve the said dolly after the horse lost interest.

At the zoo she always wants to see the elephants first. “Elephants, elephants” she cries, pointing her finger like a lady in her carriage ordering her driver. Once we met with a procession of elephants coming back from their morning walk along the downs, and the look of panic on Mole’s face as she scampered away from these huge beasts and into the safety of the buggy was priceless.

Last year we went to ‘Gulliver’s Land’ in Milton Keynes - the ‘Dinosaur and Farm Park’ area, which seemed like the most suitable thing for under three’s, given the other areas involved paint balling, water rapids and laser shows. I thought this outing would help offset the depressing grey weather at the time. Mole loves dinosaurs and Hedgehog does not mind where she is so long as she can sleep, it was going to be fantastic.

The results were mixed.

Mole appreciates dinosaurs in books, but this is not the same as coming face to face with a giant life size fibre glass model, with pretty realistic sound effects and roars blaring from a loud speaker hidden somewhere in the undergrowth.

There was no gradual build up either. Straight out of the entrance doors, there they were, roaring over the pathway as if to welcome us. Mole stops in her tracks, turns and runs back into the shop. I try carrying her past them and this only intensifies her screams. Since going past the dinosaurs is the only route ahead, we end up standing in the entrance for quite a long time until she gets used to them. A nearby sandpit helps to distract her, in fact, she would probably be quite content making sand castles all day. I inspect the nearby ‘fossil shed’ to pass the time.

After twenty minutes of this we persuade her to meet some more dinosaurs. She walks cautiously around them with a vice like grip on my hand. Finally she gets engrossed in a slide and is oblivious to the brontosaurus standing over it. Once we get past the dinosaurs and into the farm animal bit, she loosens up and starts to really enjoy herself. The toy diggers shovelling up plastic balls and a tractor ride helps with this I think. The farm animals in the sheds are all either poultry or goat and sheep sized, which Mole can cope with.

Finally, the opening time of 11am meant there was not enough time to do morning naps at home first, so Mole lasted until about 3pm before she went into sleepy meltdown mode and we were forced to leave.

Now the local zoo have got dinosaurs on display for the summer. Apparently there are fossil digging activities, ‘how to train your dinosaur’ daily shows, and an education trail. Obviously we have to go and see this.

I am curious to see how Mole’s reaction to large reptilian animals has progressed from a year ago, and this time Hedgehog will be awake for long enough in her buggy to notice them too. Something tells me Hedgehog will point at them and say “Schmer” which is her word / sound for everything right now. It sort of sounds like Schnapps, but not. Perhaps Hedgehog is secretly German?.

We are going on Tuesday, so I shall report back.

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