Hot Days and a Birthday Party

Last Sunday Phoebe was invited to her park buddy's birthday party. This was the only time this year we socialized formally with people we have met here. Living here for one year with no plans to stick around made it easy to avoid building any sort of friendships. But the moms (and one stay-at-home dad . . . not many around) I see most days at the park with kids roughly Phoebe's age have been great to know this year.

Phoebe was really into the balloons and spent most of her time chasing this one.
Phoebe's park buddy, Nora.

She enjoyed her muffin, especially the chocolate frosting.

Another park buddy, Ethan. Ethan has tried to kiss her a couple of times. She just ignores him. It's very cute, but she can keep ignoring boys until she's 30.

This is Bela, the birthday boy. He turned 2 last Sunday.

After a bath, Phoebe found Alisa's scarves that I thought were well-hidden. I guess not.

She's been into making my pillows into chairs and beds today.

National Building Museum

Alisa suggested we go to the Building Museum this morning. I've been there four times now, three with Phoebe. I would put this on the top of my list for DC. If any of you are considering a trip out here, don't miss this building. There's not much more than the building to look at (very few exhibitions), but that's enough. It's a spectacular space, even when held up to some of the greater churches I've seen.

The museum is more or less a city-planning/achitectural museum. They have a kid play area that we felt Phoebe was finally old enough to appreciate. And as you can see here, she did.

"Tractors"

She really enjoyed riding around on these "tractors."

The toy store by our place and Barnes and Noble both have train sets like this one. Phoebe enjoys playing with these when we're out.

Summer Days!

The title is a Seinfeld reference that only my friend Ryan will probably get. Anyway . . .

Today Phoebe and I braved morning rush hour traffic and travelled across the river. It was surprisingly smooth! We wandered the gardens at the National Cathedral and then went inside for a look at the amazing series of Gothic arches. It's truly an amazing space and a piece of architectural greatness. But the camera batteries died outside. No bother though: you can probably google the pics of the interior and they'd be better than mine. I took the important ones of Phoebe wandering the garden, enjoying the benches and flowers.

Sunday, we went to the local spray park. Phoebe hated it. We aren't sure why she is so terrified of water, but it all started this winter at the community pool. We got work to do to get this kid happy about swimming again. I can't have a kid who hates swimming!

Doing okay, but . . .

MELTDOWN!

Memorial Day Weekend

Last night, we got a nice surprise when Alisa learned she has Monday off after assuming she had to work. We're grateful for a nice 3 day weekend to spend time together even though Alisa has a lot of final touches to put on her end-of-fellowship project.

Today we returned to Teddy Roosevelt Island for a morning walk. Alisa had not been there yet. I would argue that of all the tourist sites in DC, this has been my favorite. Probably because it is so overlooked, and therefore it's very quiet. Most importantly, it's a beautifully preserved space--as Teddy would have liked it.

Here is Phoebe last July at the memorial. It's hard to believe she was ever this much of a baby . . . or this chunky!

We spend a lot of time sitting on chairs these days. If we let her, she would have sat on each bench in this park--and there were a lot of them.

I think as the weather gets hotter, she wants more hats. So if it hits 100 here, she may go to three.

We should probably get her her own chair, eh?

Lazy Days

Summer's here and I'm sure it is for most of you in Minnesota as well. Phoebe and I have not been out and about as tourists for quite some time now as you can see. First, her nap (she only takes one now) takes up a chunk of the middle of the day so hitting DC tourist hot spots is not really an option. Most museums are only open from 10am until 5pm. And second, tourism is crazy right now. Lots of school groups swarm the Mall, which makes playing at the park more attractive.

Phoebe's drinking from a cup on her own, as long as it's not too full!

Phoebe really likes her "guys," especially the pig and sheep.

Phoebe insisted on wearing her shades all day yesterday. She calls them "Phoebe's" after I noted that mine were "Dad's." When I help her put them on, she stops and looks for a second, grins, and says "cool."

Our New Home!

Last week we travelled to Minneapolis to find a new home. Phoebe and I arrived Friday afternoon, Alisa Saturday morning. By 3pm we were sitting in Beth's office filling out paper work to make an offer on a spectacular home in Seward.

You can see a slide show on Beth's website. I was disappointed that she did not include any pictures of the yellow shag carpet on the stairs. We have some years of work ahead of us, but this house is solid!
http://movingtominnesota.com/seward_home

Additionally, it's only a few blocks from our church, one block from the river parkway, and very near a number of friends. I will have a commute to White Bear, but not nearly the one I had from North Mpls.

We look forward to inviting you all around for meals and social time after we strip all the wall paper, pull the carpet, and redo the hardwood floors.


We also enjoyed our time staying with great friends. Thanks to all of you who hosted us last week. We're looking forward to spending more time with you all this summer!



Phoebe, Michiah, and Noelle at the Hendricks'. They live in our neighborhood as well.

Phoebe enjoyed the rocking chair at the Hendricks' house.

While staying with Glenn and Arlene, she insisted on "playing" in the guest crib throught the morning.

Visiting Papa John in New York

Phoebe and I drove to Binghamton, NY Friday to visit my dad and his family. My dad grew up in Binghamton and all his family is still there. We stayed with dad's brother Chris and his wife Mary. We had a great time thanks to their wonderful hospitality. Phoebe was a social butterfly and absolutely loved their dog Kira.

We had planned to drive up a day earlier, but I chopped a nice valley with a chef's knife into my fingernail making dinner the night before. The pain has been so bad that I slept about 2 hours that first night--not enough to drive 5 hours up through PA.

Phoebe loved the "puppy" and her toys.

Mary was tryin to get a hug goodbye, but Phoebe was more interested in her shiny bracelets.


Phoebe loved the shiny bracelets and the sparkles on my aunt Trisha's shirt.