: The renovated Canadian Museum of Nature with new glass lantern. Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature

What is it about dinosaurs that captures every kid's imagination? Miss Bea has a vocabulary of about 20 words, and "dinoshaw" is already in there (along with "mooshe" and "buddafwy"). So today we decided to pay a visit to the dinoshaws at the Museum of Nature.

: The Fossil Gallery. Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature

I'll be frank with you: natural history is not really my thing. I'm more of a science & tech kinda girl. But who can resist dinosaurs? So our first stop, after admiring the beautifully refurbished atrium, was the fossil hall. There are fossils hanging from the ceilings, fossils on the walls, but I think my favourite part is at the far end, where you round the corner and find yourself in a prehistoric forest, surrounded by life-like models of Very Large Beasts.

: The Dinosaur Diorama. Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature

From there, we headed up to the top floor: the bird gallery. "Bird" was one of Miss Bea's first signs - after "milk" and "cookie" - so the first opportunity for her to tell us about what she found interesing in the world around her.

At the exhibit we explored the kid-sized bird rescue centre, played a bird guessing game with daddy, and then had the all-important weigh-in: she now weighs 1182 hummingbirds. That's 39 blue jays, or 3 mallards (for those who prefer working in ducks).

That was about all we could fit between breakfast and nap time, but it's certainly not all the museum has to offer! We knew we'd be back so we picked up a family pass, which will also get us into places like the Ontario Science Center when we head to T.O. in January (but if you're smart you can also get in free). There will be more visits, with more exhibits to explore, and I definitely want to check out the animalium and the children's area. Besides, we still have to hunt down some mooshe and buddafwys.

: This is what you get when you Google for Creative Commons images of moose and butterflies. In case you were wondering. Photo © Vicki & Chuck Rogers