A Visit from Papa and Mimi (with a possible curse, too)

Last week we enjoyed a visit from my parents. It was mostly a laid back visit, since Bria has had a mystery illness including sporadic night vomiting for the last 10 days. I alternate between thinking she's better and keeping her home, so that's what my parents got to do too.
We did, however, make it into DC one day. We went through the American History Museum until a sick and tired Bria called it a day. We snapped a picture on the mall on our way out.
As we headed to the metro, Bria's grump threatened to destroy the world, but we spotted a carousel, and my mom sponsored Bria's ride. She was delighted, calling out, "I'm on a merry-go-round!" throughout the ride. (The picture is not great, but Bria is on that blue horse.) Luckily, it really did cheer her up enough to make it home without any major meltdowns.

There was a lot of downtime chatting with my parents while my mom knitted and Bria entertained us with her antics. She was particularly fond of my mom's ipod and headphones.
And lucky Bria was even allowed to rifle through Mimi's purse and apply her own makeup while I wasn't looking.
On the one sunny and (slightly) warm day, we ventured to gravely point to see the planes taking off.
Bria was in heaven with her two doting grandparents showering her with love, attention, and praise.
Unpictured events include:
The best afternoon eating lunch with my parents, then shopping with my mom all while Bria was at a friend's house.
Going out on a real live date with Sam while my parents babysat.
Bria throwing up all over my parents' rental car the moment we pulled into the parking lot at Mount Vernon (we turned right around and went home after an extensive clean-up).

I don't always feel the physical distance from here to all my family in the West-- email, texts, phone calls, and video chats are the same wherever I live-- but plane tickets and car drives all make me realize just how far away we are. It's always a delight to close the gap for a week and spend quality time together. Though now my dad is 2/2 in having Bria be sick when he visits. Perhaps he is cursed?

The Many Faces of Bria

Don't ever let it be said that Bria doesn't have personality.

This One Is Just Right

Whenever we go to IKEA, Bria has to check out all the beds. This includes taking her shoes and socks off as she climbs in, despite my adamant pleas to stay fully clothed.After her inspection of this bed, I fully expected The Three Bears to waltz in on my little Goldilocks.

Two words

Sweet tooth.


Show-off.

Sick again.


Bedtime routine.


"keeping care."

Dress ups.


Princess ballerina.


That smile!


Last snowfall.

Giving in.


"Push me!"


Tech whiz.

to the zoo

When the weather was so nice, we went to the zoo.
Even the turtles were sunbathing.It was, however, insanely windy that day (I saw a little girl get blown off her dad's shoulders, no joke), so kind of chilly.
But we made it at the perfect time so all the animals were out-- even the orangutans on the O-line! (They walk across ropes above the zoo paths-- so awesome.)
Nevermind that Bria was kind of afraid of all the animals. I have to say the lion cubs were my favorite. I mean, how could they not be?

And the pandas. If I had to choose, these would be my favorite animal. I also hope you're enjoying all these hipstamatic pictures. I use the app on my phone to disguise my complete lack of photography skill.
Speaking of my favorite animal, in kindergarten, we went to the zoo and had to do an animal report. I wanted to do pandas, but the Denver zoo didn't have any, so I thought I could do the red panda. In some raw deal, I ended up getting the last choice in the class (I'm guessing through some sort of inverted alphabet something or other) and the only animal left was prairie dogs. Talk about a boring animal report. Here is a picture of the enviable red panda (I know you can't really see it. Please refer to the hipstamatic comment above): The zoo is nestled right in DC, which is what makes it so cool. Inside the zoo, you'd never know, but you walk out the gates, and hey! you're back on the streets of our nation's capital. And right across the street is Fro.Zen.Yo.-- my least favorite of the frozen yogurt places around here, but, hey, I'm not complainin'. So we grabbed ourselves a snack before heading home.
The last highlight of the outing was, of course, Bria practicing her photography on the metro. I love when she takes pictures of strangers. (She was yelling "let me take a picture of that guy! what's he doing? what's his name?" totally awesome and not uncomfortable at all.)