Dinosaur Egg

Dec. 25th: One of the surprises Caleb found in his stocking at my parents' house was a dinosaur egg. Never having heard of such a thing before, it of course drew his attention, and he immediately wanted to see what it was all about. My mom found an empty oyster jar and, as the directions suggested, she filled it with water to help hatch the baby dinosaur.

A little disgruntled because nothing happened while he watched, Caleb kept eying the jar in expectation. To my surprise, the packaging said that it would take days before the dinosaur would finally be free of the egg. Toddlers don't like to wait on anything (well none of us do to be honest), so I thought this was going to be a disaster. After complaining just a little at first though, Caleb seemed to understand our explanation that it might take a while. We took the jar home and sat it on the counter in plain sight in case any activity happened.

Dec. 26th: We woke up to find the dinosaur "peeking" out. You can imagine Caleb's excitement. It was a major topic of conversation; everyone needed to know what was happening with the dinosaur egg.

Dec. 27th: The next day when we could actually see the dinosaur's face was even more thrilling. Of course we had to keep checking on its progress throughout the day. While it was a bit like watching grass grow, it was fun to see his joy, and I have to admit, I was a kind of excited too to see what that dino looked like too.

Dec. 28th: By the next day, we could see some of the body and one of the feet were popping through the side of the shell. I was so hoping that it would be completely out at this point because we were leaving for IL that same day. Caleb didn't seem concerned though and was satisfied that when we got back we'd get to see our dinosaur!

Sure enough, our baby dinosaur was sitting on the counter waiting to greet us when we got back. Caleb was asleep when we got home that night, but the next morning he was happy to find his prehistoric reptile had hatched and excitedly told my parents all about it when they came to visit that day.