Javin in D.C.

We went to the Museum of Natural History in D.C.! 

I was excited for Javin to take the trip, I figured he would like the dinosaur exhibits and the butterfly pavilion! His favorite part of the entire trip was the metro (of course!). We were riding "Emory". Those of you with Chuggington fans in your house know what I'm talking about! 

We got to D.C. and there was a big cultural festival going on- which was amazing! So, we got some down south BBQ before heading into the museum. I can't believe Javin ate pulled pork! My picky eater had pork BBQ...it still boggles my mind. Then again, Javin is REALLY good at gobbling something up and even asking for seconds and then I get excited and go buy that food in bulk and he refuses to ever eat it again. *Sigh* Life in the Autie-lane... 

Anyway, so we get into the museum and he is definitely impressed (how could you not be?) We head to the butterfly pavilion first because we had a limited amount of time with that exhibit (they have tickets). Well, while waiting in line, he was getting I.R.R.I.T.A.T.E.D. which I can totally relate! :) 

TIRED OF WAITING!!!

We finally get in and WOW it is amazing! Butterflies everywhere!!! Javin really liked it until he realized that he's not allowed to touch the butterflies or climb on the ledges...that's when he decided he was done with the butterflies. Onto the next exhibit...

Next we go to the Bones exhibit. Very cool bones. We were in and out of that exhibit in about 4 minutes...the time it took to walk the length of it. I only stopped for a few pictures but it was obvious the kids were NOT very interested.

Whale Bones

As we were leaving the Bones exhibit we see two display cases for a Mummy exhibit. Ben was so excited! "Let's go to that one!" Alexis whined a little bit about it until she finally confessed that she was too scared to go to the Mummy exhibit. So we decided to skip it...after walking away we realized that it wasn't a full exhibit yet anyways...they just have the two teaser displays to let you know it's coming soon. Problem averted anyway.

So, as we walk around the corner, we stumble upon the Kid's Discovery Zone. Pretty neat...it kept Javin's interest for a little while. We stayed there the longest. Javin enjoyed the hands-on interactive stuff but not in the same way as the other kids. He just enjoyed the fact that there was something tactile...something to DO...plus other kids to look at, which he loves to do! Alexis got to see a tarantula but we had just missed the feeding (whew!).

"Groundhog Javin"

A bee hive

We stopped in the Ocean Hall next and Javin stood in front of the aquarium watching the colorful fish until Ben and Alexis were done walking through.

As we leave that exhibit, I figured Javin had about all he could handle and we almost leave until we realize...oh yeah!! THE DINOSAUR EXHIBIT...d'oh. The reason we came!! So we walked into the dinosaur exhibit and there was a weird noise. It sounded like an alarm was going off in another room or something. Well...it drove Javin CRAZY...he immediately became aggressive and was visibly upset. I asked him if his ears hurt and covered his ears and he just looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Ears. Hurt." Needless to say, I picked him up and booked it out of there as quickly as I could. Poor Ben and Alexis had to realize on their own what was happening and run to catch up with me. 

All done museum.

Javin was very happy to get back onto the metro to go back home though! But when we got off the train to go back to our car...disaster struck. He wanted to stay on the train and the meltdown began...

 We had another mini-meltdown when Daddy got out of the car to get a smoothie for the kids. It was the fact that Daddy left. But the smoothie "smoothed" everything back over! :) All in all a good trip.

Disastrous end but under OUR circumstances (autism and all), it was a good trip. Different museum next time though... :)

Alexis told me her favorite part was the Mummy exhibit...too funny.