Take me out to the museum

(Last updated on 14 September, but as usual posted late because of VPN issues…)

I’ve been wanting to bring Rosabelle to the museum near our place at Pingod area, but as it’s a short taxi ride away, and I’m not too sure what else is in the vicinity (i.e. don’t wish to make a wasted trip and spend only 15 minutes there with nothing else to see), we took the safe route out and went to THE biggest museum here in Beijing – the Capital Museum, China. Wayne and I had been there like eons ago when it was showcasing an Egyptian treasures exhibition, and since I am somehow enchanted by all things Egyptian (though having been to Egypt only once on a day trip when we went on a cruise through River Nile when in Cyprus like decades ago…), we went there, only to have Wayne wait for me at the benches whilst I tried to cover as much as I could as he’s not really a museum person, haha!

And so, since Rosabelle has been asking me a lot of ‘什么东西?' when she sees sculptures and paintings, I decided to make a trip there, and we brought Ye Ye at the same time since he has not been there. Whilst checking out their official website to see whether they had any interesting exhibitions on, I found out that if you reserved entrance tickets online, you could enter for free – what a deal!

Our girl woke up nice and early on Saturday morning and for once, had to wait for us adults to get ready and eat our breakfast, heh! So by the time we got there, it was close to 11am.
She wasn’t exactly keen/cooperative on taking photos outside of the museum – maybe she was more attracted to the slopes and steps leading up to it…
However, once she saw this Ge Ge taking photos, it was another thing altogether. She went up to him and wanted to hug him, or maybe it was his toys she was eyeing, as she was all gleeful when he nicely handed her part of a train track.
As we went in, we had to get our bags scanned, and thankfully they allowed me to deposit the food scissors I brought at the door, as I was prohibited from bringing it in. As Wayne went to get the tickets (by just giving them the reservation numbers), Ye Ye had to take care of her for awhile, and in that short 3-minute span, she was let loose and running freely all over the big space at the lobby of the huge museum. (See how she is juxtaposed against the cleaning lady in the background in the picture on the left? They even have the same pose. Haha…)
Inside, we headed to the top-most level 6 first, and saw exhibits of old Beijing as she was excited about exploring the different rooms and areas.
However, by the time we got to level 5, and seeing exhibit after exhibit of ceramics, bronze sculptures, jades, paintings and what-nots, she decided that it was too much for her and wanted to stop me from going into the different rooms, preferring to hang out outside. Well, she can’t be blamed, as most of the exhibits were at the eye-level of adults – i.e. she could only see walls at her height, craning to peek at them from below. Since we were not carrying her most of the time, the outdoor areas definitely seemed much more attractive to her. At one point, when an older boy was playing with the touch screen, she went up to him, hugged his thigh, and gently patted his buttocks, goodness! The boy, maybe frightened off by her passionate nature, ran away, and Rosabelle actually ran after him, chasing him in circles around his mother and wanting to hold his hand whilst calling Ge Ge… haha!

There was an area that seemed to be for kids, showcasing toys of old and having a lot of low tables and chairs. However, there were no activities going on, but our girl managed to make herself busy, sitting on chairs (and instructing us to sit on them), and even moving them around.
She was most happy when climbing up/down steps, as she posed happily for photos from above.
At the basement, there was another area where children, could purchase small figurines to paint on, but Rosabelle was happy just posing for photos.
By this time, it as close to 12:30pm, and normally Ye Ye would have finished his lunch and be asleep by now. It was apparent that he was hungry as he said he did not want to view the exhibits anymore. So, Wayne found a buffet place at the basement area, where he enjoyed a leisurely lunch for RMB40. Meanwhile, I decided that it would be awhile before we got our own lunch (not exactly keen on the buffet place, and with Rosabelle, I did not want to feed her buffet food – who knows when they cooked the food…), so I gave our girl some biscuits to munch on first. She was so happy gobbling up her biscuits and taking a rest on one of the benches, heh!
After that, Ye Ye had also finished his lunch, and we walked around a bit more before leaving close to 1:30pm.
We then headed to Joy City in Xidan to get lunch at Bellagio. Luckily service and food were fast, because by the time Rosabelle ate, it was already 2:40pm, heh! With late lunch and a late nap (slept only at 4:30pm), she got up close to 6:30pm so that we could head out for dinner together.

We went to Solana and decided to try this dumpling place called Lucky. However, a lot of the food we wanted was not available, and the food was really rather salty, so I’m glad we had a quick dinner (in between, our girl even went to the loo to poo!) and I caught a rather artistic shot of her, heh…
This is her, always needing us to remind her to chew and not stuff it aside like a hamster, sigh…
After dinner, we walked outdoors, and that’s when Rosabelle will work off her late dinner by running laps, and she even went onto a stage (for a NFL publicity event that had already ended) with another older girl who was singing. However, just as she got friendly and hugged the older girl, she started hitting her on the face, and even pulled her hair once. Aiyo! Luckily, the other parent was understanding and the older girl was so sweet, still wanting to chase and play with her after.

At that point, Rosabelle refused to sing with the older girl小燕子, but when we got to the stage much later, she climbed up on her own accord to sing a medley of songs, including this one. When Ye Ye, Nai Nai, Wayne and I were below the stage cheering her on, she broke out into song, and a slight dance as she sang along. We were all clapping, except for Ye Ye. She noticed that and stopped her song mid-way, pointing at and instructing that ‘Ye Ye, clap!’. Haha! Like a superstar, she was also strolling on the stage as she sang, as if making sure that she covered all grounds in interaction with the audiences below, so cute!

It was again another late night, as you can imagine, but though the museum trip wasn’t as fruitful in the sense of having her appreciate the arts (much too young, I guess), she was at least exposed to it and knows that she went to the ‘museum/博物馆'. That night, I was mighty impressed as I saw what she had made out of the various brochures and entrance tickets we brought back:
This is an extremely well-thought out arrangement, as she laid them symmetrically. I’ve noticed this as she takes our slippers, she will put them not next to each other in pairs, but instead in symmetrical order (i.e. not AABBCC, but CBAABC). Interesting…