Now over the past couple of years, we had tried to take advantage of our surroundings by taking H to the American History Museum, Air and Space Museum and Natural History Museum. Those attempts at introducing her to the arts were moderately successful at best. There was always something at one of the museums that she didn't like and she became fixated on that one negative thing. At the Natural History museum, we showed H the gems and minerals exhibit (Ooh, kids love shiny sparkly things, right?) and the animals (Who doesn't like animals albeit, uh, stuffed animals?). Well, all that she talked about upon returning home for days afterward was that she was "scared of the bones." Dinosaurs, not her thing apparently. We figured our girlie-girl would be enthralled by the First Ladies dresses at the American History Museum. Her reaction was decidedly meh - she was way more excited by the goodies at the snack bar. We thought her adventurous spirit would love the big planes and rocket ships housed at the Air and Space Museum. Again, except for a couple of "those are big" comments, she really didn't seem that into it. We decided maybe she was just too young.
Since it had been nearly a year since our last museum escapade, her dad and I decided that maybe now she was ready for another go at them. I thought the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden with its twisty metallic and wood creations and twirly hanging mobiles would be just up her alley. She oohed and aahed for a few minutes at the sculptures but then wanted to move on quickly. We reached an exhibit titled Black Box: Superflex which had you step into a room with a video playing. Well, what we watched was one of the strangest, most creepy videos I've ever seen. Basically, to make a statement - though I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that statement is - the Danish artists behind this "masterpiece" recreated a McDonald's restaurant and then flooded it with water. Is the message that McDonald's "floods" your system with junk food? Is it that our children are "flooded" with happy meal messages from an evil fast food company? I have no idea. All I know is that their video scared the crap out of my kid. After trying to figure out exactly what was going on for a few minutes I looked over at H who was covering her eyes. H whispered "Mommy, why is the clown floating? Is it going to talk soon? The Old McDonald movie is too scary." I had to agree that the creep factor was high and we hightailed it out of there over to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the American Art Museum. H's attention at that point had waned considerably. She enjoyed a total of one painting seen here. What a shocker that it involves a mermaid. As anyone with a 3-year-old girl can tell you, the pink preschool set loves a chick with a tail.
After speeding through the Rockwell exhibit in record time, H discovered her favorite thing - the open Atrium. H along with another 3-year-old girl who apparently had an equal amount of boundless energy, proceeded to run around one of the marble landscaping walls in the Atrium about 25 times in a row. I saw this whole experience as tantamount to a parent purchasing their child the coolest, hardest to find and most expensive toy only to find out that the kid is just as happy if not more so playing with the box the toy came in. We left soon after; tired and a little dejected.
This morning, the first thing out of H's mouth was that she didn't like "the scary Old McDonald movie." She proceeded to repeat variations of this comment another twenty times; during breakfast, in the car on the way to school and in her classroom.
Groan.
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