Night at the Musuem 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Or, in other words, a round-up of the rest of the Washington photos.

Of course we went to the Museum of Natural History. All the cool stuff is there. (Well, all the cool stuff that isn't in the Air and Space Museum or the Museum of American History or any of the other Smithsonian museums.)

I dig this stuffed lion, because it looks like he has armpit hair.

"Mommy, I don't think I want a hippopotamus for Christmas any more."

This is the part where you're supposed to see all these cool pictures of gorgeous jewelry. But they didn't work, so instead, here's a picture of some kind of gilded butterfly brooch that is probably worth more than my house, my parents' house, and my entire family's houses combined. Hope it's worth it!

The Washingtonienne

(You know what? The Washingtonienne is a terrible book. Don't read it. It's so bad I'm not even going to link to it. You can Google it if you want to, but don't say I didn't warn you. Nevertheless, it's a perfectly fine title for a blog post about my female child in D.C., so I'm using it.)

We're a month back from Washington and I already have pictures from Memorial Day weekend in my photostream, so it's time to get back to the action, no?

The day after we went to the zoo -- the same day my sister ran the Nike Women Half Marathon D.C. -- we slept in until the absolutely ungodly hour of 7:30 AM, and then we wandered the National Mall looking for the Au Bon Pain that the "Around Me" app on BOTH our iPhones kept promising was only 0.25 miles away. "We'll see what we can see before we stop for lunch," we said.

We headed around the Tidal Basin and stopped to visit the Jefferson Memorial, my second-favorite monument in D.C. We were too late for the Cherry Blossom Festival, unfortunately -- that ended about two weeks before we were there, because apparently I am incapable of scheduling my life around anything I actually want to do -- but you know, the entire Mall is quite lovely at that time of year, and since it was a Sunday morning, we didn't have to compete for photo opps with field trips.

This is just proof that I do stuff besides stand around for 45 minutes trying to frame up the best possible pictures. Sometimes I spent 45 minutes walking around buildings making someone else frame up the best possible pictures.

"Look, Mom! President Obama lives there!" (Waves furiously, I guess at the snipers on the roof? IDK.)

The way we walked, our next monument was the FDR Memorial, which is my very favorite place in D.C. It's very zen there, all water and copper and pretty dark stone, and I love it. Especially this statue, which features the dog ...

... and this staute of my homegirl Eleanor, which I actually DID wait about 45 minutes to get a picture of, because there were a whole bunch of tourists who kept walking into my shot, right up the statue, to LICK it. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT? This statue is OUTSIDE, and hundreds of people touch it every day. GROSS.

"Mommy, can you see if the brakes are on?"

The last time we were in D.C., the MLK Memorial was not yet erected. It is really quite something else, although I will never understand the choice of materials here. (You can link to whatever sources in the comments if you want, but I still won't understand the logic.)

The Lincoln Memorial is my third-favorite. I don't really know why I like Jefferson better -- I think it's the shape and the location. The Lincoln Memorial just seems so ... somber, maybe? More hallowed? Something. There are "ghosts" in there, is what I think I am saying.

(Incidentally, this was my first trip to D.C. with a good camera. That shot? Is all camera, except for cropping. I love my Precious.)

Another 45-minute setup, because there was open space, and BY GOD, this kid was going to RUN AROUND. I am not one of those people who puts "harnesses" on their children, but I can sometimes kind of see the point.

Under construction. (Renovations? Repairs?) Still damned impressive.

At this point she was trying to figure out how to fish change out of the Reflecting Pool so that we could go get something to eat. And to tie everything back to the Au Bon Pain - it isn't there. Or, at least, it isn't where the app told us it would be. We spent another hour or so looking for all these restaurants that Around Me kept saying were nearby -- 0.15 miles, 0.07 miles, 500 feet, 100 feet -- and it finally took a leap of faith and a DESPERATE need for a public restroom for us to discover that all the eateries were actually in the food court of the federal office building across the street from the aquarium in the Department of Commerce building.

No, I don't know why the aquarium is in the Department of Commerce building. I'm sure it made sense to SOMEONE at SOME POINT.

The other big bits of excitement on that day were that we got to ride (1) the Metro and (2) the Smithsonian carousel. Which, after 6 hours and approximately 5½ miles of walking around, are all she remembers anyway.

Miss Thing Goes To Washington

Am I the worst blogger ever? Probably. Because it's been almost a month since we went to D.C. for a little long-weekend mini-vacation, and I am just now posting the pictures. I mean, my sister was there at the same time (although for somewhat different reasons) and she had her posting up right away.

tl;dr version: YES I KNOW I SUCK AT MY OWN LIFE. Don't you judge me.

Anyway.

We wanted to go to D.C. because it's close and relatively cheap and there are lots of things to do that are kid-friendly. Especially if your kid is like my kid, who managed to find pretty much an infinite number of sources of amusement, and who has pretty much demanded that we go back there sooner rather than later. I love D.C. -- G and I went there on our first "couples trip," way the hell back in 1994 for Spring Break, when our coupledom was still in its babyhood -- and we try to get there as often as possible, which is unfortunately not as often as we'd like.

OF COURSE we went to the zoo. Are you new here? We always go to the zoo. Everybody always goes to the zoo in D.C., because the Smithsonian Zoo is rad and has pandas and stuff. Duh.

(BTW, I would like to interrupt this long-overdue blog post to complain about the new Flickr layout, because it stinks out loud and I hate it. What was wrong with the way things were, Flickr? Or, in your own parlance: CHG T BCK!*)

Since my sister and brother-in-law were in Washington at the same time, we got to hang out with my niece, who is seriously one of my three favorite kids in the whole wide world who aren't my own kid, and I'm pretty sure I would say that even if we weren't already related. Although the fact that she is the spit and image of my baby sister (except with adorable little toddler legs) certainly doesn't hurt.

(Which is not, by the way, meant to imply that my sister doesn't also have adorable legs, but, y'know, she's over 30, so I figure she now officially no longer qualifies as a "toddler," even though I still think of her that way sometimes because she will always be my baby sister.)

While we were at the zoo, we saw the usual assortment of wild creatures, including some kind of alligator thingy that just lay there basking in the sun like he was auditioning to be my spirit animal or something. (Because, I mean, is there anything I like better than lying in the sun? Only possibly lying in the sun with bacon and a bloody Mary, maybe.)**

Also, we saw an unimpressed orangutan, sitting up there in his little tower, silently (but visibly) judging us.

Kid is all, "Pshaw! I'll show you unimpressed."

BUT! We also saw young cheetahs playing with a ball in their pen, and according to my kid this was approximately THE GREATEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED EVER LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I mean, seriously, she still talks about it. Ask her what her favorite part of the D.C. trip was, and she'll tell you, "Oh, that time! When the cheetahs! Were playing! With the red bouncy baaaaaaaaaall!"

I don't know where that kid picks up some of her more melodramatic behaviors. I really don't.

But this was probably my favorite part of our visit to the zoo: getting to see my husband's face when he gets to spend time with us, with basically no schedule, itinerary, or agenda. (He and I had dinner reservations to celebrate our anniversary, but if we really needed more time at the zoo together, we would have cancelled them [even though I am glad we didn't, because that lobster ravioli was DIVINE]).

 

Oh yeah, we also did the typical dork tourist thing, which will never not be awesome.

* "CHANGE IT BACK!" with  the vowels deleted because Flickr is missing an "E" ... get it? Ha ha?

** I am not joking when I tell you that I spent approximately 45 minutes on that paragraph, trying to make sure that I was using lay vs. lie and its various conjugations correctly. Grad school and studying for the PRAXIS have ruined me forever.

Falling For You

These kids in my family are weird. When we got out to Chicago for our big visit last month, the weather was lovely, sunny and clear and just a touch of that familiar autumnal chill, so the Grown Ups had this fabulous idea: let's rake all the leaves in my sister's yard into a big pile and jump in it! Fun, right?

So we raked and piled and organized as much as possible -- trying to get three kids to gather leaves into a single pile in the center of the yard where there is good light is about as simple as trying to explain the infield fly rule to Martians who only speak Swahili -- and made our fun little pile of fun. We figured that the most complicated part of this entire process would be trying to determine who would get to jump in first. Ladies first? Age before beauty?

Except THESE LOONBALL CHILDREN OF OURS did not want to jump in the leaves. We had to negotiate and cajole and bribe and practically threaten them to put the rakes down and stop doing work and GO PLAY, DARN IT. We eventually got them (2/3 of them, anyway) to roll around in the leaves, and thrown them, and stuff. Lollipops might have been involved. (Joey was unconvinced, regardless.)

Shae finally "saved the day" by burying herself in a pile and popping out and yelling "BOO!" at everybody. Except, um, she was in the wrong pile. Instead of the nice pile we made in the yard, she went and hid in the big pile in the front of the house, right on the street, in the pile that was waiting for the industrial leaf sucker. Le sigh.

Forward

First things first: obviously, I'm not doing NaBloPoMo this year. Or NaNoWriMo, either, for that matter. Just in case you were wondering.

Second things second: I'm sorry it's been forever and a day since I last posted. Would it help if I told you that in the meantime I've been driving through a hurricane and somehow landing myself in an honor society? No?

Third things third: because I know my audience (hi, Mom!) here are some pictures. I'm putting up the Halloween ones first because there is less than a week left until Thanksgiving and the pictures of the kids rolling around in the leaves will still be appropriate then.

 

It is COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE to get a photo of these guys where they're all looking in the same direction at the same time. But they ARE totes adorbs (hi, babe!) so WHATEVER.

  

Joey and Jacob may not, technically, have been aware that I was taking their picture here, but they're sure cute. And also total clones of my sisters, so obviously we know who their mother is.

  

I hope I never get tired of how Makayla follows Shae around everywhere, and how Shae does her best to be a good big sister, even though these two are cousins.

  

Of course, it is hard not to love this face, or this kid, who lets me pretend to eat her face and loves to play along with my favorite game, "Don't Drop The Baby!" When I say, "Don't drop the baby!" now, she says it right along with me. I miss this age, kind of, sometimes. And then I remember how often you have to say "No" to a two-year-old and I get over it.

  

If you think about it too long and too hard (or if, for example, you are a future literature teacher who's actually read The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and not just seen the Disney version of the movie), there is probably something inappropriate about letting my kid dress up as Esmeralda for Halloween.

  

But you know what? I've been accused of far worse than indulging my kid and her desire to redefine what makes a "princess," you know?

What Happens In Pittsburgh Ends Up All Over The Internet

Blah blah grad school blah blah busy at work blah blah nervous breakdown blah blah PICTURES OF PITTSBURGH!

  

Almost the whole gang (minus me, of course, because SOMEONE had to take the picture and SPOILER ALERT it's almost always me), pre-gaming. The Pittsburgh Posse was already in town, but we met up with them later, at a German bar (don't ask, but it was AWESOME!) after we made fun of the predictably questionable fashion choices of today's Midwestern-adjacent college students. Please note that we managed to ensure that the two pregnant ladies in this picture still had a good time.

  

There was a pool at the hotel. OF COURSE we went swimming. Have you MET my family?

 

Secret agents and super-spies and minions of Doofenschmirtz Evil, Inc. would be infinitely more successful if they were all THIS FREAKING ADORABLE while they were busy plotting their assorted no-good shenanigans.

  

Yes, they're all looking at something different, but they're all basically facing the camera, so I'll take it.

  

Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo. Depending, of course, on what "it" is.
 

 

You don't get to see a giraffe ambling around in front of a skyscraper very often. It's kind of awesome. (Pittsburgh Zoo is very nice, BTW, but I would have preferred it if every child under the age of 12 in the entire city of Pittsburgh were not there with there families when we were. You know how I hate people.)

  

Please note that this kid will be five years old (!) in just six more days (!!) and ALREADY she is the approximate equivalent of ⅔ of one full-grown Mario Lemieux. I just can't even with this one.