Could You, Would You, on a Train?

Being the mother of two under two for a few more days, I hereby give myself permission to post events terribly out of order. Otherwise I'll never catch up. So you'll have to wait longer to hear about our trip to Seattle, my brother's wedding, our trip to the beach, etc. Tonight I want to tell you about our trip to the National Aquarium on Tuesday.

My friend Betsy organized a trip to the National Aquarium in D.C., and the "easiest" way to get there was by Metro. I doubted that sincerely, but decided we'd give it a go. Neither of my kids had ever been on the Metro before, so I recruited the best mothers helper ever, 11-year-old Anna, and the four of us went on an adventure.

Here are photos of my kids on their first train ride:

The aquarium was pretty fun, and an added bonus is that the place was completely dark except for the exhibits, so Katie actually paid attention to some of the fish and animals. Then she completely melted down (did I mention she gets jealous sometimes when I'm holding Joshua?). Still, we were there a solid hour before we had to leave.

This was my favorite fish because it reminded me of an American flag:

Located between the Metro and the Aquarium is the National Museum of American History, which our architect friend Mike recently helped to redesign, so we made a brief stop there on our way home. From what I could see, the redesign is modern and gorgeous, and Katie was especially excited at the one exhibit we visited: Oscar the Grouch (aka "Ah-juice") and Kermit the Frog (aka "Frog")!

By the time we got back to the car, we had been on FIFTEEN elevator rides (it would have been 16 except I got impatient one time and just took Katie's stroller on the escalator instead) and all of us were totally wiped out. I lined up my exhausted kids in the back of the SUV for a joint diaper change:

and we headed home. That afternoon Katie slept for more than 3 1/2 hours, and even then I had to wake her up for dinner. That's double her normal nap. :-)

Wrapping Up 2008

Lest you think that I was finally caught up on blogging, think again. Here are a few more photos from 2008 that needed to make the blog but haven't yet.

November 2: Three former high school friends and their babies gather for a baptism.

November 9: Beach time with Mommy and Daddy.

November 9: Playing with the rocking horse that JayPa (Daddy's daddy) used as a child.

November 13: Playgroup! Here's our attempt at getting Katie and her two best friends Kai and Daniel to cooperate for the camera.

November 16: Using the remote control as a cell phone.

November 16: Enjoying a wonderful evening with Mommy and Daddy's mentor couple and dear friends, the Farahs.

November 17: Playing with "BFF" (best friend forever) Daniel.

November 21: Reuniting with Mommy's college friend Dawn and her daughter Madeleine.

November 29: Trying to get a family picture to go in our Christmas letter. Not only did we need a tired Katie to cooperate, we needed Bella to as well. And Mommy had to pretend that her foot wasn't broken and that her back hadn't gone out on her that week. The last photo is the one we finally chose.

December 1: While Mommy is in her CBS leaders meeting every Monday morning, Katie and a few other young ones are watched by a woman named Angela. We've been trying to delay her nap later and later, but this particular morning Katie simply could not wait another minute. Here's how I found them:

November 21 and Dec 1: A few cute photos of Katie.

December 4: We were visiting my good friend Amy and her daughters and were unexpectedly invited to stay for dinner. But we didn't have Katie's bib or highchair. So a shirtless Katie practiced using a spoon while standing on a big person's chair.December 17: Katie and I brought dinner to our friend Claire, who had recently delivered twins. While Baby Colin slept peacefully in his swing, Mommy got to cuddle with Baby Carleigh for about an hour. Thankfully Katie didn't mind.... too much.

December 26: Mommy and Grandpa went to see the Nutcracker, featuring two beautiful cousins. Heather (left) is the daughter of my dad's boss, and Anna (right) is my mother's helper and one of Katie's favorite people.

The Talking Tally, January 2009

Katie is quickly becoming a little talker. In the last few weeks, her vocabulary has grown immensely, and now she is trying to say almost every word she hears regularly. It's quite amazing. I've been trying to write down as many words as possible over the last several days, although I'm sure I'm still missing some. But here are most of the words she can currently say.

Fictional shows and characters: "See-see" or "Elmo Cookie?" (when she wants to watch Sesame Street), Abby (one of the newer characters on Sesame Street), Elmo, Cookie (Cookie Monster), "Buh buh" or "Boo-ard" (Big Bird), "Book" (Bert), Pooh, "Teh-tale" (Veggie Tales)

Real people:
Family: Bella, Dada, Mommy, Mike (my brother), "Aah-ee" (her cousin Alli), "Ah-drew" (her cousin Andrew), "Ama" (Oma, formerly known as Grammy) , “me!”
Friends: Mark, Anna, Kai, Amy
"Whooz dat?" (used for everyone else)

Animals: Bee, "Coggy" (Doggie), Cow, Puppy (and countless animal noises and motions to indicate the others)

Eating: "mawk" (milk), juice, apple, "balla" (banana), "cocker" (cracker), cookie, chip, cheese, "ah gah" (all gone)

Clothes: coat, sock, shoe, diaper, hat

Parts of the Body: eye, nose, "mock" (mouth), toe, "eyebow" (eyebrow)

Toys and Fun: ball, beach, book, Bible, "baa" (Bath), bead, "bubbles!" (always said with an exclamation point), "boon" (balloon), car, hug, "Whoa whoa whoa" [Row, Row, Row (Your Boat)],"tock" (asking us to make her toy talk), see

Other Words and Phrases:
Hi, hello, bye
Happy, sad
Up, down
Hot, cold
"Peas" (please), "dank doo" (thank you)
Yes, no
Amen
walk
"s*it" (directing Bella to sit) (and yes, I did get a good shock then chuckle out of that one)
two
"pah-ee" (potty -- I wish being able to say it made potty training happen automatically!)
yellow (learned this week when she wanted another M&M)
baby (important to learn right now!)
"sah" (star)
"lat" (light) "Whoa" and "Wow" (learned while admiring Christmas lights)
"Where's... (da cow, Bella, etc.)?"
"Es dat... (Elmo, Dada, etc.)?"

Over two months ago, when Katie was just starting her vocabulary drive, she learned "beach" and "happy" in the same weekend -- a great pair of words, I might say! Here she is practicing her new words in the car on the way to the ocean:

New Ways to Celebrate Independence Day

Going to see fireworks was too daunting an idea for us this year. Not only would we be racing the clock re: Katie's bedtime, but we'd also have to deal with annoyances like heat, mosquitoes, and shuttles to and from fireworks displays. Instead, we spent the day with our best friends Dave and Sara and their son Daniel, who is 2 months older than Katie.

First our friends Jay and Karen had us two families over to their house for lunch and a pool party. Later in the evening, D, S, and D came over to our house. Between dinner and the time fireworks were shown on TV, Sara and I ended up giving our babies a bath together while our husbands caught up on some old lacrosse tapes. We figured it would make good use of our time, as well as give us an incriminating photo to pass around when Katie and Daniel are both teenagers:

The next morning my friend Jessie took advantage of the fact that the DC tourists were all still asleep after a late night of fireworks, and we went paddleboating in the Tidal Basin for her birthday. The other boat pictured is her parents'.

When I arrived home, John had finished installing the new toddler swing that Katie had received for her birthday from my brother Jason and his family. Katie's mother's helper, Anna, was pushing Katie and her two favorite stuffed animals, and Katie was thisclose from sleep.

Katie loves this new toy! And she loves Anna. Tomorrow we're going to the pool with Anna and her family. And earlier this month Anna came over and introduced Katie to the toy that John and I gave her for her birthday -- an inflated pool full of balls.