Eric has been OBSESSED with planets for the past couple of weeks. Driving me crazy. So we made plans to head up the road to visit the planetarium. We knew he would just love that! So we asked him if he would like to go to the planetarium and see the planets. His little eyes lit up and we got to hear all about the planets. So we laid him down for his nap and he fell asleep immediately (which never happens). When he woke up, we decided to head over a little early, so the boys could run around some.
As we headed out the door, Eric let us know that he needed his winter gloves "because Neptune is cold" and his sunglasses because "'Merchery'" is hot. We laughed and told him we would have that all taken of. He would be okay. And he was good with that. He was just anxious to go.
John got our tickets (we get to go for free with our pass) and we let the boys play. Unfortunately, the show was on Orion and not the planets. We tried explaining that we would be looking at stars and not planets this time, but he just wasn't getting it. Eric was very patient. I was afraid he would start to get upset that we weren't immediately going into the planetarium, but he did fine. He just talked and talked about going to the moon and the planets. He's done this for weeks. It was nothing new. I gently teased that if he had a quarter of a million of dollars he could go to the moon. And then John and I got caught up in whether that program had been shut down or not. The doors finally opened and I told Eric is was time to go. You could see the excitement written all over him. We entered into a narrow, padded tunnel with music and I could see him getting a little nervous. He took my hand and had the biggest grin on his face! He was so excited! And that made me excited too! I'm so glad we did this!
The tunnel led to the bid domed theater room. He looked confused. "Where are we?" "This is the planetarium! We're going to see the stars up there!" He sat down, anticipating the upcoming events but he still seemed a little confused. I thought he knew what a planetarium was, so I didn't understand why he was so perplexed. I figured because this was his first time BEING in one, it just seemed so different to him.
Once they got the movie going, we seemed impressed with the graphics. He sat still and watched the whole 30 minute show. I knew he was going to be disappointed that there were no planets, but I was hoping that he would still find it fun.
After it was over, he asked where we were going. We told him we would be going home now. He sadly mentioned that there were no planets. We tried explaining once again that this show was only about stars, but they were going to be doing a new show about planets starting tomorrow and we would come back. On the way to the car, he seemed a bit downcast, and I kept explaining that we would come back. I asked if he had fun looking at the stars anyway, and he said no. I asked why not. His response stopped me.
WE DIDN'T BLAST OFF.
He thought we were actually going to the different planets! We laughed, but my heart broke. He had been so excited. And I thought about everything that had led up to that. Him wanting to make sure he was well dressed to go. All the talk of going to the planets. The tunnel, which even though he was little when we did all that traveling, probably reminded him much of the path leading to get on a plane - thus the confusion of the theater room.
Ah, Eric. I am so sorry that we can not take you to the planets. But maybe one day you can be in the space program and be the first man to visit Mars!
Eric is truly one of a kind! This is such a sweet and heartbreaking story at the same time...what an imagination he has!
ReplyDelete