DC: We keep going

Wednesday was Dupont Circle day. It got off to a slow start because it took me forever to find the textile museum. It wasn't my fault though -first of all the city had signs as we left the Metro but they ended right when the road made a Y without any indication of which way to go. So then I used my map and I actually got to the right spot, according to the map, after wandering around for a while but the museum wasn't there. There was a nice lady unloading groceries so I asked her and she hadn't even heard of it. She looked at my map and said I was in the right place, but apparently the museum wasn't. But I also had the address from a different guide book so I wandered around a bit more and found it! (I wasn't the only one who had trouble, as we were walking back to the metro stop, a group of women stopped me and asked if I knew where it was and I was more than happy to point them in the right direction). It was small and not quite as kid-friendly as I had been lead to believe; Lucy still enjoyed it since again, it was quite and fairly empty, but I wouldn't take most 2 year olds there. There was a discovery room with things to touch like different materials before and after processing (silk, cotton, linen, wool, etc), a weaving tool to try and a art station to make your own patterns using stamps and pattern blocks and Lucy loved those but she also enjoyed walking around with me and talking to me about all the "petty (pretty) and booty (beautiful) things." I wish I had pictures of her but they weren't allowed inside :-(

Right across from the textile museum was a park and since I had actually remembered our lunch this time, we took a little break there.

 Anyone have tips on getting a toddler to smile and/or look at the camera? We aren't having much luck.

There we go, a sort smile :-)

 Then it was on towards St. Matthew's Cathedral. I was planning getting cupcakes on the way back after St. Matthews but we were running a bit late and I didn't think Lucy would stay awake that long so we stopped off for some gelato. After mulling over her choices for a minute, she selected strawberry with chocolate bits. It was delicious and apparently Lucy agree because she didn't really want to share.

I think she is smiling because I'm taking a picture, and therefore, not eating her gelato.

They gave us two spoons, a blue and a green. At first she said I could have the blue and she would take the green. Then when she saw me take a bit, she said she would take the blue spoon and I could have the green. Then after I took another bite, she said blue for Lucy, green for Lucy. I thought we were going to have a bit fit right there when I said that ice cream was for sharing but I guess she knew I meant business and said "okay, Lucy share".

By then, she was getting sleepy so I put her on my back in the Ergo and we trekked over to St. Matthews. She was awake but resting on my back as we walked around the church, which was perfect since she was very quiet and I was able to stop and read the signs and look around as long as I wanted. And she was totally asleep by the time we got to the Hello Cupcake store that I had read about so I could pick out a few to take home to share with daddy (the ended up being good, but a little too heavy with the frosting.)

Thursday was going to be the National Building Museum but I could tell Lucy and I were both tired and I didn't want to pay to get into a museum only to have her melt down so I changed our plans last minute and we headed to the Natural History Museum instead. She really loved this place.

Telling me all about the baby and daddy turtles. Anytime there were more than one of an animal, she would pick out the biggest and smallest and tell me that was the daddy and baby. Sometimes there was a middle sized mommy too :-)

Ready to move on. 

We saw all the animals and dinosaur skeletons then headed up to the insect lab. At first, she was really scared but then we found some neat and not so scary water bugs and bees (just like on Pooh!). Right as we were about to leave, the bug lady came up with her little cart and got some bugs out for touching. Lucy touched the millipede then insisted I do so as well. She didn't want to touch the giant caterpillar so I tried first thinking she would after me - nope, but she kept wanting me to touch it more! Yuck. The things we do for our kids. We also watched a big australian mantis eat some leaves. She's always trying to feed the caterpillars in our backyard leaves so she got a big kick out of seeing it eat and then seeing the little marks in the leaf afterwards.

Honey bees - like in Winnie-the-Pooh!

 Cheese!

We ended by going through the rock area which was probably her favorite. She quickly learned what the "Please touch" sign meant and found them all over.

 Feeling the rough side...

 then the smooth side. She did this over and over again. 

 tried putting paper clips on this magnetic rock 

and worked very hard at (not) picking up this huge one. She also loved to count the rocks and say all the colors she saw (have you noticed the color theme lately). The one thing she wasn't impressed by - the hope diamond. Someday she'll probably change her mind about diamonds :-)

 We picnicked on the mall then headed back to the Metro and I thought I would try getting a monument picture one more time. She was so tired she didn't want to get out of the stroller (and she normally hates that thing) then a nice gentleman stopped and offer to take our picture so I finally got one of the two of us in front of something historical! He also thought I had a foreign accent for some reason and seemed disappointed when I said we were from St. Louis. I'm not really sure where he got the accent idea from, maybe I was so tired I was slurring my words?  But we were tired at that point so we headed home.

Friday we just hung out at the hotel so we could get caught up on laundry and be ready for our big dinner out at an Ethiopian restaurant Craig had been wanting to take me to after he had been there a few years ago. It was a little fancier than I expected but we went early and were able to get a seat and be served very quickly so Lucy did great. She even tried some of the food (although I had packed a pb&j for the stroll home just in case :-). She loved the Ethiopian bread injera and called it a treat (her word for dessert) and ate all of my saucy hard boiled egg although she didn't quite get the concept of using the injera to pick up the other food so your hands don't get messy - luckily they brought wet ones for all of us :-)  And that brings us to the weekend!