Firsts: Museum Visit

I have many wonderful memories of visiting New York City museums with my mom when I was little.  We would wander through the rooms in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Modern Art Museum, Guggenheim and others, look up at art and discuss it. She is a photographer who studied visual art and could tell me a lot about the pieces. I started to have some favorites, almost like friends to visit, and we'd giggle about the pieces we found funny.

I couldn't wait to start bringing our bambino to museums to show him my favorites, see new things and let him travel through the world and time, piece by piece.

This December, we took our almost-seven-month-old bambino to the Portland Art Museum. He loves a Northwest Native American puppet, Hunter the Bear, that my parents found for him in the Montclair Museum store; I thought he'd enjoy the Portland Art Museum's collection of Native American Art. While the interactive quality must have something to do with it, I also think the puppet's bold colors and designs, along with the big eyes, have a lot to interest a child (and adult.)

I was so proud and excited - bursting, really - that he was super attentive and curious about a lot of the art throughout the museum. I carried him facing out in the Baby Bjorn carrier and he looked up and around for a few hours. I look forward to exploring the many museums in D.C. with him.