Sunday

This post could also be called "The day of 1000 miles." We did a lot of walking. In the morning we met Aunt Rose and Uncle Skip at Union Station for breakfast. We had a nice visit (and I stupidly did not take pictures). We then hopped the metro and we headed towards the zoo and they veered off back to Alexandria. We arrived at the zoo in the misty weather. Fortunately it didn't really pour. We headed towards the pandas but they were sleeping. We also saw the elephants who were literally banging on the door to go inside. It was rather chilly. We saw gorillas, chimpanzees, lions, tigers, frogs, turtles, birds, and all kinds of critters. This is a pretty big zoo, and we walked the length of it, then back to the Metro. Ethan napped in the back carrier for a while, but unfortunately the stop and start of the train woke him up. Once he realized we were on the train again there was no going back to sleep. We jumped off at the Smithsonian stop, walked around the Washington Monument and headed down towards the tidal basin. We looked across at the Jefferson Memorial and walked along the cherry blossoms. Ethan met the park service beaver, I think they were calling him Paddles or something like that. He gave him a high five. Then he smelled the cherry blossoms, hopped back in his stroller and we headed to the carousel which is on the mall. We went for a ride on the zebra. That was Ethan's choice and of course it was in the middle of the carousel so we didn't get a good picture. Then he ran around the mall for a bit and tried to climb the tree. We walked up to Chinatown for dinner at the New Big Wongs. It was definitely not in any way related to the real Chinatown Big Wongs. No way. (By real I mean NY). But it was fine. Then we headed back to our room.
Monday and Tuesday have no photos. James did not take any. I was at my conference. He and Ethan went to the Air and Space museum's facility in VA where the big planes are. They went to the Natural History museum, and back to the Postal Museum to drive the truck again. Monday night we went into the American History museum to show Ethan Kermit the Frog. His eyes were big and he was sort of in awe for a minute, then he got over it and said "Mommy, where's Miss Piggy?" I told him she's in storage, they have to rotate their Muppets. I'm not sure he got it.

Saturday

On Saturday we lounged around the room for a bit. Ethan enjoyed the king sized bed and just relaxing. After breakfast we went to the Building Museum for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Ethan had his characture drawn. He enjoyed the musical performance by a group of drummers. After that, he made a "grass head" which we will need to locate so we can water and grow. He also played with some clay and made a tissue paper flower. We found some lunch and had a nap in the afternoon and then went visited again. We went to see some other friends and their daughter who is a month older than Ethan and their new tiny baby. You can see that Adelyn and Ethan had a fabulous time together. We walked to dinner and they held hands on the way there and on the way back. They played in Adelyn's kitchen and she was so nice to share all of her toys with Ethan. They had such a great time together that Ethan kept asking me to go back to Adelyn's house the whole weekend!

Friday

Friday we drove to D.C. to spend the weekend since I had a conference there on Monday and Tuesday. After we checked in to our room, we took a walk up the hill to the Postal Museum. They had a big rig all decked out with a stair case to climb aboard and drive. It was VERY difficult to tear Ethan away from that. They also had a stage coach you could ride on, and he enjoyed that as well. After that, we went to Falls Church to visit with a college friend and his girlfriend. Sorry dear but that arm is my only proof of Matthew's existence. You'll have to take my word for it. We had a great dinner and fun catching up a bit. Then it was back for a late bedtime. Ethan was on his best behavior and not cranky at all despite the late hour. Maybe the picture explains why :)

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning was the town's Easter Egg Hunt at one of the parks. It wasn't exactly a hunt. They put out hay in big squares then each square had a dedicated age group. In the bottom center picture you can see Ethan facing me- I was on the outside of the square. He was supposed to go in and get the eggs, but he couldn't get in because I'd say at least half of the parents there went in and started grabbing up eggs and putting them in their kids baskets. I was pretty surprised. I mean they are plastic eggs, the kind you buy at the dollar store, filled with candy. If a kid finds a piece of paper they win one of those pre-made Easter baskets, again filled with candy. So why exactly were these parents so anxious to trample small children in the pursuit of many plastic eggs to throw in their child's basket? Do they really want their kids eating all that candy? Especially given that out of the five or so things Ethan picked up, I wouldn't let him eat any of them because despite being in the 1-3 crowd, the eggs were full of choking hazards. Taffy, gummy candy, licorice, smarties. It was bizzare really. Then we went to take a picture with the Easter bunny. Ethan got closer than most of the kids would, but frankly I've always thought giant Easter bunny costumes were a little creepy. At least with Santa you can see his face. So I thought he did pretty good. After that, it was full speed ahead to the playground. We rode the slide and played with some playgroup friends, then we went on the swing. While Ethan was swinging he demanded I get out my camera. This afternoon he got to play outside for a long time- we used sidewalk chalk, blew bubbles, raked, and saw a wooly caterpillar. He fell asleep pretty fast. It's nice to have fresh air and warmer weather again.

My Little Tree Hugger

You may know that Curious George climbs trees. So today, when we were playing outside, Ethan announced to me that he was going to climb the tree. So he wasn't really hugging it, he was trying to shimmy up it. He did not get very far before he lost interest in that and decided to hide under his hat. We did have a little lesson in listening. He told me he was going "down there" meaning out back. I requested that he wait until I finished raking to take him. He went anyway. We had a very unhappy five minutes inside waiting to try going outside and listening again. But, believe it or not, we went out again, this time in the back, and when he started to wander he came back as soon as I counted to three. I imagine we'll have to practice this a few times before it sticks. Of course the front makes me more nervous because of the cars, but there are very large dogs right next door so I don't want him to wander far.

Note on comments- blogger doesn't handle them well. Never has, sometimes it tells me they are there to moderate sometimes it doesn't. The ones that were there tonight, I cleared them to post. It kept not posting them, I kept saying to do it. They were emailed to me about 30 times as if they were posted. But now I look and they are not there, neither in the blog comments nor in the unmoderated comments. I don't know why. If your comment doesn't appear, blame blogger and feel free to send it again.

Butterflies

This morning we all got up bright and early to go meet up with our friends Jeannie, Kurt and Elise (who also got up bright and early!) We went to a butterfly house where we also saw turtles, lizards, birds, and fish. The kids had a great time. No butterflies landed on us but a few landed nearby, one on Elise's notebook and one on my coat. After we found a place to have lunch. I got to sit across from Elise who drew some fabulous pictures in her new book while Ethan sat at the head of the table and played with his new butterfly.

Washing Walls

Ethan wanted to help wash the walls before we painted. Hooray for child labor! But really there was no water in the sponge so you can't exactly say he was working. Soon... It kept him busy for about three minutes anyway.

Fluff!

This morning we had to make cupcakes for a work birthday tomorrow. I decided to try making hostess cupcakes, with the filling and chocolate frosting. Ethan was a big help. The filling called for marshmallow fluff, so after I spooned it into the measuring cup I heard "mommy I want that!" (that being the spoon) and I handed it over. I think he agrees that fluff is one of those childhood delicacies that no one will outgrow. We'll wait till he's a bit older to try the fluffernutter. He also discoverd that he got a little on his cup so he did not want to waste it. Sorry if you get bored with all the food pics, but there are a lot of new things to try when you're two.

Half Birthday!

Did you notice Ethan's birthday countdown? He's officially 2 1/2 now! He was funny tonight after school, he started reading one of his books to me without having the book, he was just saying the words from memory. Today he got to play outside on the playground twice- he went on the swing and drove the school bus. That was very exciting. On the way home we saw someone walking his three dogs-I didn't get a good look at the third, but I'm pretty sure the other two were a mastiff and a rottweiler. Ethan started yelling, "Hi doggies!" I think I have to work on what kind of doggie we are instantly friendly to.

Cat in the Hat

The nice teachers at Ethan's school took this picture so we could see what he chose for dress up. It's funny because he never wants to read the Cat in the Hat, I think it's too long for him. We try sometimes but he usually doesn't want that one. We've been getting a lot of library books. His new favorites include Knuffle Bunny which his buddy Adelyn tipped us off to, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and this very simple book called Dog Wants to Play. He's also been enjoying some of the books we had hiding in the closet like Harold and the Purple Crayon and the ones James got him for Valentines day Fox in Sox and Dr. Seuss ABCs. He seems to be getting another cold again unfortunately but it doesn't seem to be slowing him down.

Planting the Seeds

A few weeks ago Ethan and I purchased some new seeds. He picked them out. We got pumpkins and tomatoes, basil, parsley, and some other herbs. Today since the sun was shining in the morning we went outside to start them in some egg cartons. We filled them up with starter soil, put in the seeds, and watered them. Now we wait (that's the hard part for both of us :) . Ethan enjoyed being outside, but despite the sunshine it was still pretty chilly at 9 am so we went back inside when we finished the seeds. That only made one of us happy. We went out again to go to the store, and we decided it was a nice day for a little ride afterwards, so we went to Toy Journey. Ethan played with their train table and then he picked out a toy helicopter and magnifying glass. We haven't got many small car toys, so that was the idea w/ the helicopter, and I imagine he'll want to be outside more this summer so the magnifying glass should come in handy to keep him occupied while I try pulling weeds.