Whew. Our first week in DC is over and I'm pooped. But Lucy and I are taking the morning off of sightseeing to rest, do laundry, write blog posts (me), color (her) and try to get a good nap in before we head into the city again tonight to go to an Ethiopian restaurant that Craig has been wanting to take me to.
We got here Sunday, fairly early, and thought we might see something but Lucy was cranky. The hotel here is pretty nice in that we have a suite with a full fridge, dishwasher and two burners so Sunday night we made spaghetti, went swimming at the hotel pool and called it a day.
The first thing we saw after getting off the metro was the Washington monument. I really wanted to get Lucy's picture in front of it, but all she cared about were the rocks.
Us in front of "big blocks"
Modern Art is weird but what kid wouldn't love a bunny that plays a drum.
What she does when I ask her to smile.
Then we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Lucy is a big fan of the moon so we started by touching the moon rock. She was really excited when I told her that it was from the moon but not as excited when a huge swarm of Japanese tourists descended upon the rock too and we couldn't get out and I thought she would was going to have a panic attack but finally we escaped. The museum in general was pretty crowded and Lucy is not a fan of "too much people" but we stayed about an hour, walking around and looking at the planes and the space ships that go "way way up to the moon." You already saw her playing with the rocket ship. We also walked through one of the planets exhibits were every planet was "the moon mommy!" but that got tiring since if it was even a tad dark, she got scared. She was fine if I carried her but carrying a 25lb toddler while pushing a stroller isn't very much fun for mommy. One the way out we had to touch the moon rock again (this time no mob).
Similar to her "dentists toy", you move the plane along the path to see what type of turns it can do. Of course, since this isn't her toy, she liked it a lot :-)
We then headed in. I had read in two different guide books they have a great family pack there but when I asked about it, they information desk lady looked at my like I was an idiot so I guess they don't have that anymore. But she did suggest we go to the second floor to the suprasensenorial exhibit. I will be the first to admit that modern art is not really my thing. If I had been going solo, I would much rather have spent a few hours in the National Portrait Gallery or the National Gallery of Art but really, modern art is a really good fit for a toddler. She loved the lights and the colors and especially the "tickly blue psgetti."
She also really liked that it was pretty empty and that everyone here was calm and quiet. I was probably the youngest person next to Lucy and to be honest, I was a little nervous about taking her in here but since they were calm and quiet, so was she. And everyone loved her. They would listen to her talking about the colors and what she thought things were (a blob of metal with some abstract name was "A hippo mommy, a hippo!" and just smile.
One funny story from this exhibit is when we first reach the "tickly blue psgetti" Lucy's eyes light up and she asked me if she could touch. There were 4-5 people there looking at it and talking about the movement and what it meant and how it spoke to them - gag. But I looked around and saw a sign that said something like feel free to walk through the piece but no pulling, jumping or roughhousing please so Lucy and I walked right in. They all gasped and one lady asked the security guard if that was allowed. Meanwhile, Lucy is laughing and giggling and having a grand old time. With a few minutes, everyone else joined us.
After as much modern art as I could handle, we headed home. Now I had packed up a great snack/lunch bag but left it on the counter in the hotel so we grabbed a hot dog to supplement the banana that Lucy had insisted on putting in my bag not the lunch sack. I was hoping to get back to the hotel so we could both lay down for a nap but she was out before we even got on the Metro. And of course, she woke up as soon as we walked in the hotel door so I didn't get a nap but we did rest a bit before more swimming took the last teensy bit of energy I had left.
Luckily Tuesday we stayed in during the day because I wanted to make sure she was well rested and in a good mood for Tuesday night's Marine Corps Sunset Parade. I hadn't heard of the Sunset Parade and it wasn't in either of our DC with kids guide books but I would highly recommend it if you have the chance.
Like daddy, like daughter - Oh, food!
Oh, plane!
Back to food
Everytime they stopped playing, she asked for more (she has dropped most of her signs unless she wants to emphasize something, then she signs and says it.
I was worried the late night and sitting still would be a bad combination with Lucy but she loved watching the "mans march and bang bang." The first part, the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Band, played some traditional patriotic stuff but also a Grease Medley and Lucy just curled up on my lap with the blanket over her and listened for most of it. Then the Marine's Corps silent drill team showed off. Lucy didn't find that as interesting but we survived and were still home just a little after 9pm and she was asleep by 9:30 so it wasn't too bad although it would have been nice if she had slept in a bit the next morning :-)
Looks like you guys are having so much fun!
ReplyDelete