NASA

While in Texas visiting family last month, we took a trip to the Houston Space Center. It sparked a delightful Space Phase for Juniper. I don't know how long this phase will last, but Aaron and I are certainly doing all we can to encourage it. Our encouragement includes everything from regularly reading "the space book" (a picture encyclopedia we got at NASA), making up a bedtime song that's all about the Solar System, pretending the car is a space shuttle and counting down to blastoff before driving, and reading a graphic novel called "Zita the Spacegirl" (recommended by Juniper's teacher, who brilliantly picked up on the intersection of space and comics as a way to rock Juniper's world).

Juniper has requested that we get her some models of the planets, which we may do for her birthday. She recently told us that there's a "Planet Store" we should visit. It's between Arkansas and California; you have to take a plane to get there.



Juniper and her Gramma in front of the Saturn V rocket. The space shuttles made the biggest impression on Juniper. If you ask her whether she saw any rockets at NASA, she may say no. Here's photographic evidence to the contrary. In fact, she saw a rocket that's approximately the size of a football field.



Mission Control. It was pretty cool to see the actual, original Mission Control room. It looked familiar from countless movies, TV shows, and pictures, even though I couldn't tell you one specific media source where I know I've seen it. The red phone is a hotline to the Navy, which was used to coordinate pickup of the Apollo astronauts.



Mom took a spin (literally) on this astronaut training activity. She had to rotate the black circle on the device hanging above her, while her chair moved around in erratic circles.



This is a prototype of a possible rover for a future Mars mission. Apparently it's pretty new and exciting, even for people who are at the space center all the time. Our tour bus driver pulled out his phone and started taking pictures when we saw it.



In the kids' area, there was an exhibit about how peoples' weight would differ on various planets/moons. Apparently, on Jupiter Juniper would most resemble a butterball turkey. (And, yes, she has noticed that, "Jupiter is kind of like Juniper." That's her second most reliable planetary tag line, surpassed only by, "Saturn has 22 moons!!!")


To wrap up this long NASA-inspired post, here's a recent conversation between Juniper and Aaron:

A: (referencing one of Juniper's books) "I love you to the moon and back." The moon is pretty far away, but it's not the farthest thing away.
J: Pluto is very far away.
A: I love you to Pluto and back.
J: Speaking of Pluto, it's not a planet. It's just a planetoid.