D.C. Adventures

Well, traveling with Boo is a success! I won't say that it was all fun and games and was easy as cake, but overall, it was a great trip.

Amazingly enough, the only thing I actually forgot was the Snotling Grabber. Luckily, we didn't need it. I also only packed one burp cloth, but that wasn't too bad.

Ok. Let's take this from the top shall we?

Sunday morning I ran around a bit disorganized (due partially to not having a clear list in my head of what needed to be done, which was somewhat caused by my cold...) getting ready to go. Everyone managed to get cleaned up, packed up and fed. We were on the road a little earlier than I had originally planned, but that's OK. Extra time is always good when traveling, especially with a little guy.

Boo was asleep before we even hit the Turnpike. He did great for the first half of the drive. We stopped at the second rest stop in Maryland. (I can never remember if it's Chesapeake or Maryland House...) Gak and I got a bite to eat and something to drink. We all went potty (or had our diaper changed for the 3-month-old crowd). Boo had a very long meal in the car and then we got going again.

Boo got a little fussy about the last 45 minutes of our drive to Aunt Michelle's in Reston, VA. Poor Gak spent a good potion of that time with his arm being pulled out of it's socket with his finger in Boo's mouth. (He didn't want the bink...) So, out of about 4 or so hours travel time, 45 minutes of slightly fussy isn't bad at all.

Aunt Michelle was sooo glad to see us. We hadn't had a chance to talk to her much, let alone see her, since the party back in July. I'm really going to miss her once she gets posted outside the country. (That shouldn't be until the first of the year... but... she's got a lot of training and travel before then...) We used to get together almost every month or two. Oh well, she's got a great job now and I'm sure we'll get together as often as we can. And just like I said with Abi, thank all that is good in the universe for "free" long distance on cell phones and email!

After a brief bit of fiddling around the house trying to figure out what we wanted to do, we decide on going to the dinner for lunch and then to ride the Metro into D.C. and visit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (one of my favorites...)

Lunch was uneventful. Boo enjoyed his first Metro ride. Well, other than having to have a major blowout diaper changed. Not only did his diaper have to get changed on the Metro, but his whole outfit. I'm glad I'd remembered to make sure there was one in the diaper bag, not just his overnight bag! (This is why if you look at the pictures on Flickr, half are in his overalls and half are in a white and blue onsie...)

We spent a good long time in the Museum of Natural History. First off, I love the fact that the Smithsonian stop on the Metro lets you off on the Mall right in front of this museum practically! Boo had a bottle while we were there, napped for a little bit while we looked at some of the dinosaurs and had a nice feed while Gak and Aunt Michelle were looking through the gift shops. Boo is getting much better about eating somewhere other than the rocker and not from a bottle. I honestly don't care. Unless you came right up to us and looked, there was nothing to see and you probably couldn't even really tell what was going on unless you thought about it. I mean, sure, it's hard not to flash the world before he gets settled, but that's all of about 5 seconds at most and, who cares? I'm too busy trying to get him to settle to care who's staring at me. (Besides, I was on a bench in a side hallway...)

We spent almost all afternoon in the museum. We did take a few pictures on the Mall, just to prove that we were in D.C. There was a nice breeze and the setting sun lit up the flags around the Washington Monument beautifully. This isn't a great picture, but it will do and you can actually see the flags!

We were going to go to Leedo's for dinner, but by the time we got back on the Metro (all the way out to the west end of the Orange line...) and back to Reston, it was past Boo's bed time and he was letting us know how unhappy he was about that. We went home instead. We were going to order for pick up, but it was too late. Oops. We had frozen pizza instead, which was fine. Boo had another snack and fell asleep in the pack-n-play with no problems. Of course, I was smart enough to bring the swaddle blanket he'd been using all week and "dino puppy" and his dragon blankie. He was so tired by the end of the day, I'm sure he would have fallen asleep anywhere slightly dark and calm.

He slept through the night and woke up around 7 or so this morning. I never realized it, but he moves around quite a bit in his sleep. He's just as restless a sleeper as his daddy and I are. He's doomed. (I never realized this I don't think because since we've been home from the hospital, he's always slept in his bed, which is just far enough away I don't hear his every move...)

This morning was a slow morning. We fiddled around the house a bit. I fed Boo sitting up in bed. I never get to do that at home because we have a water bed and it just doesn't work well. It was really nice actually. I pumped a bottle and a half for the day. (He only ate off one side and I had to pump....) Can you believe my little baby boy is 3 months old today?!?! I have problems with it myself! (No, I didn't get a picture of him on his dragon, he was way too fussy when we got home tonight. I'll take one tomorrow.)

We kept today pretty low key. We went to breakfast (and over ate). We went to Target to exchange an outfit Michelle bought Boo (I'd picked up the exact same one!). We went to the book store. We got Boo this really neat book about a bubble blowing dragon. Michelle and I picked it up to look at because it was on the bargain stack. Boo listened and looked intently through the whole thing! How could we not buy that one?

We left Michelle's around 1pm. We did not take 95 back home. Instead we went up 15. It took a good bit longer, but was a much nicer drive in many ways. That and we weren't going to have to deal with beach traffic. We stopped outside of Fredrick, MD. We then didn't stop until we were almost home. We stopped at Cabella's and wandered around there for a bit. We found Gak three shirts! Not only were they 3X, but they were 3X tall! We also had dinner at Cracker Barrel. Such good food. Such cheep prices. (Our snack in the museum was almost as much as our dinner at Cracker Barrel!)

Anyhow, we made it home just about 8pm. Just as Boo was demanding it be bed time. (He ate very well on the road when we stopped and slept well too. I couldn't imagine him being tired enough for bed after sleeping so much in the car, but I guess he is...)

I really don't want to go in to work tomorrow, but I've got to. (It should be interesting... we've got a department meeting tomorrow afternoon...) I hope everyone had as good a weekend.

Peace to all and may there be fun adventures in your lives!