Life Lesson from 5 year olds

Original post written on July 26, 2012

I drove the Salad to Maryland this morning to the Launch Zone of what is called the National Children’s Museum. I searched Yelp to no avail. That should have been my first clue. Apparently, the actual museum closed many years ago and this storefront “launch zone” is the first action in a series of actions that will eventually result in a new National Children’s Museum. So basically, I drove 20 minutes to a room barely bigger than our house filled to the brim with toys. I’ll admit I was disappointed. I should not have been though, because here are the good things.

1.  I found parking on the street right outside. 
2.  It was free.
3.  The Salad loved it.
4.  There was a building “event” today.

Essentially there were huge blue building blocks and tubes and the Salad set to work. An employee was there taking notes today. Apparently, her job is to see if kids like the “event.” If they do, it will eventually become an exhibit in the new Museum. She kept asking the Salad (who played only with these blocks for 2 hours) what they were building. Here is the list:

a car, a bench, a robot, a bird’s nest, a seesaw, a catapult, a limbo stick, a slide, a balance beam, a horse, a ballet bar, a ball run, a princess castle, and a tricycle.

I need to remember, if I align my expectations to those of a 5 year olds, I’ll rarely be disappointed.

105 glorious extra minutes

Original post written on July 25, 2012

We’ve been in DC for 18 days now and have been to the National Museum of Natural History three times. Today makes 4 times and we still haven’t seen the whole museum. I intentionally kept the hands on Discovery Room for a day when we needed a break. It’s only 2 blocks away and meant for kids 2 – 6 so I knew it wouldn’t be too crowded. The Salad had full reign of the room for the first 15 minutes, which was perfect because there were exactly 3 microscopes. One for each Salad ingredient!

They colored a little, made some music with unusual instruments, checked out bones and bugs with magnifying glasses, played with toys from around the world. A played with a Jacob’s Ladder for 30 minutes. Note to self – get A a Jacob’s Ladder for her birthday.

After a while, M’s blood sugar started to plummet and I knew we better get the heck outta dodge. We headed out to the National Mall, found a bench in the shade and ate a picnic lunch I had snuck in our backpack.

Our last leg of this trip included a ride on the famous carousel. We opted to ride the spinning bench together and I spun the dressing right out of the Salad. As they stumbled off trying to regain their balance, A said “Best.Carousel.Ever!”

Last night, we checked out the Enid A. Haupt Garden. It’s a tiny green sanctuary on the roof of the Sackler building. I had heard there were fountains good for stomping, but they had been turned off by the time we got there. The only water left was a small fountain water fall, which the Salad was perfectly content to dip their tootsies in and throw pennies for wishes.

I love living right in the heart of the city. I love that R wants to take full advantage of living right in the heart of the city. I love that R can walk to his temporary office in less than 5 minutes, which means we get an extra hour and 45 minutes with him each night. I love that each day R sends me a text message asking what we are going to do with those extra 105 minutes.

Come on and wade way out into the Water

Original post written on July 24, 2012

The Salad had their second of four classes at the National Gallery of Art. Today, they learned about Monet and his gardenscapes. They were read a book, lead to Monet’s “Garden at Giverny" to analyze the painting and then turned loose to create their own “water lily garden.” Seriously, y’all. 30 4-7 year olds were turned loose with oil pastels in a building that houses masterpieces. Talk about the honor system.

It started sprinkling as soon as we stepped out of the building, which thwarted our plans for a picnic. However, by the time R had gotten home from work, the weather had cleared up nicely and we went for an evening wade in the National Sculpture garden fountain.

On our walk home, there was yet another concert at the Navy Memorial. This time there was a beautiful “Advance of the Colors.” M was beside himself as he watched the flags and gun salute. He asked me 3 different times, “Make sure you video this, OK Mama?”

Oh, I taped it alright, though the main subject of my video was S shaking her "thoin" to a rousing rendition of Gaelic Storm’s “Scalliwag”.

Real time update on September 1, 2012

While looking through the 595 photos that I took of our month long stay in DC, the only picture I had of this day was this one of a strange robot in a crosswalk I stopped in the street to take. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Breathing - the Secret of Life

Original post written about July 21 - 23, 2012

We had a whirlwind weekend, full of family visitors. We had been away from home for 13 days and the Salad very much missed Grammy and Poppy. They already have a sleepover planned at Aunt Jo and Uncle Pat’s house. We packed 2 days full of the Hope Diamond at the Museum of Natural History, the Air and Space Museum, lunch at Fudruckers, gelato, a metro ride, a walk to the Navy Memorial, another visit to the Old Post Office Pavilion, and the Library of Congress.

And that’s what I want to talk about. My dad wanted to take a tour of the Jefferson Building. The Salad and I had 35-40 minutes to kill. I had done my research and the four of us headed straight for the Youth Reader’s Center. We had been busy showing our many visitors the sights around town for the previous 5 days that this quiet place, filled with books, was a much needed respite. They each picked out a handful of books, found a spot and “read.” Little did I know it was the quiet before the storm.

After 40 minutes, we headed up to meet my parents. M spotted them across the Great Hall, still in the middle of the tour. He wanted to go get Poppy, and when I told him he couldn’t, the crying started. And continued for the next 30 minutes. It was not pleasant for either of us. Thankfully, A and S occupied themselves by taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.

Why are problems so easy to solve in retrospect? If I had taken a minute to breathe through the crying, I would have thought to take him outside the building. He could have run up and down the steps and been perfectly content.

Note to self – breathe.

Note to the Library of Congress - shorten up those tours.

Sleep with because of the Fishes

Original post written about July 19 & 20, 2012

My sister and Ian visited us in Washington. Ian was interested in the Art of the Video Game at the American Art Gallery. It’s half a block away from our apartment, so we all walked to see it. The Salad patiently waited in line to play video games on the big screen. Pac Man was most popular, of course.
After our afternoon swim, we headed out to see some monuments. We walked through the huge stone entrance at the Martin Luther King Memorial and spent a few minutes looking around. The Salad got antsy when I wouldn’t let them parkour the smooth marble walls, benches and metal railings. A summed up what they thought of the site when she said thoughtfully, rubbing her hands together as if searching for just the right words, “I thought this would be a lot more . . . ummmm . . . fun.”

The next morning the Salad, Aunt Jen and Ian headed off to the National Aquarium in DC. It’s definitely the runt of the litter when it comes to the aquariums the Salad has visited. It was tiny. It was dark. And unlike virtually everything else in DC, it was not free. Nonetheless, I am determined to jam in as much of the city in the month we have here. It took under an hour to see each exhibit. On our walk home, I asked M what he thought. “It was alright, Mommy. There were too many fishes though.”

Huh.  Imagine that.  Too many fishes at an aquarium.

Native American

Original post written on July 18, 2012

Have I mentioned that I am absolutely in love with Washington DC? I mean we’ve always loved DC, R and I were engaged here, dontchaknow? But I’m seeing it for the first time through the eyes of a parent of 5 year old, and I love it even more. There is always something going on and it is always free. And clean. And not overly crowded. It’s paradise. With the 100 degree days, like a tropical paradise, of course, but paradise nonetheless.

We have a series of visitors coming in the next few days, so I’m saving some of the more traditional DC attractions to visit with them. Many of the items on my must do list are outdoors and we’ve had to find alternate plans because it’s 100 degrees here. Did I mention it’s 100 degrees here? Again?

That is how we found ourselves at one of the less frequently visited museums in DC, National Museum of American Indians. But man, did we choose a good week to visit. The museum paid for a group of 20 something Hawaiians to spend the week in Washington, teaching classes and putting on shows at the Museum. Not only do they have an incredible building, with rainbows streaming through a crystal wall and a café that looks like the fountain outside is streaming towards you, but they have an awesome Children’s area. The kids pick up a “passport” and travel through interactive displays. Once they have completed the assignment (weaving a giant basket or listening to the call of 8 birds) they stamp the passport themselves. The Salad loved each display. All the while, there were men and women playing the ukulele, singing Hawaiian folk songs and Hula dancing. We had signed up for 2 classes. The first was painting with banana trees. There was one “teacher” and one set of “banana brushes” per 5 kids. I was proud of how well the Salad sat and took turns waiting to make their picture of a coconut tree. M liked it well enough to move to the next table and make a second banana tree painting of a crab.

Unfortunately, we had to get back to the van because our meter was about to expire. Sadly, this meant we had to miss the cedar bracelet making class. Poor S was heartbroken. She told me she knew it wasn’t my fault, she was just disappointed because she thought Kaya (her American Girl doll from Aunt Nicky) would really love that bracelet. “Because you know Mommy, Kaya is a Native American.”

Should you be wondering if Kaya is a Native American, rest assured, she is.

• We did get back the next day so that S could make her bracelet for Kaya. She was so appreciative, you might have thought it was a diamond tennis bracelet.

On butterflies, scooters, ice cream and kids

Original post written on July 17, 2012

Tuesdays at the Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian offers free tickets to their incredible Butterfly Exhibit. We were at the Museum when it opened at 10:00, headed up to get our timed ticket and got 10:45. It left us just enough time to find a restroom and water fountain and head back upstairs to read through the outer part of the exhibit. I gave the Salad a camera and told them to take a picture of their favorite butterfly. When we were through in the exhibit, I had printed out a lesson page on how butterflies wings are symmetrical and I asked them to draw the butterfly they had liked the best. While they drew I read them interesting butterfly facts. M really tested the limits of the exhibit’s rule. For example, they asked you not to touch the butterflies. Though they said that they often landed on people as they walked through. So M would see a butterfly sitting on a wall and place his hand a millimeter away and wait for the butterfly to crawl onto him, exclaiming “What?! I didn’t touch it! It just landed on me!” When we were through, we went right into the Insect Zoo and spent another hour checking out the bugs.

After some quiet time that afternoon, the Salad got it in their heads they wanted to scooter. The only problem was that it was 100+ degrees again. I fought the good fight, explaining the heat wouldn’t be good for their health. But they persisted (insisted?) and I finally broke down, because the thought of spending the afternoon listening to them complain about how I hadn’t let them, would have been equally bad for my health. So off we went, armed with plenty of cold water, to scooter in the sweltering hot sun. They hung in there like champs, until at one point, I noticed A’s cheeks were red and her hair was matted down with sweat. I forced them home and into a cool bath.

After dinner, A had set up a family game of Zingo and we still had time to explore a bit more. I had read that the best point to look down on the city was the observation tower at the Old Post Office Pavilion. It’s only 4 blocks from our apartment, so we headed over to check it out. True to all the reviews, the views were amazing. In fact, the building itself is amazing, a cross between Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and Reading Terminal Market. We grabbed Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. As an aside, Ben & Jerry’s is some seriously expensive ice cream! What’s that all about?

On our way home, we stopped at the US Navy Memorial to hear 2 songs by a Navy Band called Country Current. We had seen them setting up earlier and R wondered aloud what time they’d be starting. M heard R wonder and marched right up to a man setting up the stage. “Excuse me? What time does the music start?” No fear. No hesitation. Just incredible. I love kids.