Shut the Door

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a four year old.

Since the day she was born, what I hear most about Bria is how expressive she is. When we walk around, I frequently hear little giggles, or people pointing Bria out to friends-- there is just something about that girl. She has retained the little strut, the confident sway of the hips she adopted when she learned to walk; it has truly become her signature. I won't deny that many of her dramatic mannerisms come from me-- she talks with her hands, has myriad facial expressions for even the smallest of emotions (though no emotion is small for this girl), and can get excited about the smallest details. She has an enviable zest for life.

Bria's passion is art. She colors and doodles and draws for hours every single day. Every notebook and scrap of paper is covered in her artwork, and I have a stack a mile high of her creations (I have no idea where to begin to organize/weed it out). We gave her an easel for her birthday (one side chalkboard, one side whiteboard), and she has already logged hours standing at that thing.
She loves to dance, and she really wants to learn soccer, karate, and swimming. And she is very excited about our upcoming summer project: learning to read. When she grows up, she is very set on being a veterinarian dentist. I don't really think veterinarians specialize quite like that, but she doesn't believe me.

Bria's favorite foods are strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries, watermelon, hummus, bread, oatmeal, pasta, cheese, yogurt, pizza, and of course she has quite the sweet tooth. She has a strong disdain for quinoa (much to my chagrin!).

Now let us see how she has grown.

Flower Power

 If you know me well, then you're aware I'm kind of a hippie. And one of the things that taps into my hippie nature is the Cherry Blossom Festival. I make a point to see the blossoms several times every year, and every single time I go, I launch into long, philosophical orations on the hope and beauty of humanity. It fills me with joy to see the throngs of people flooding the mall and the tidal basin just to look at blossoming trees. So many people may say this world is full of hate, discontent, and greed. I don't deny its existence, but I choose to recognize the incredible amount of power in beauty. I don't see any of that negativity when I go see the blossoms. All I feel is the pulsation of collective awe in the majesty and beauty of a blossoming tree.

See? I wasn't lying about being a hippie. Thanks for indulging me. Now you can just enjoy some of the pictures we took this year.

 

There is a tree just outside our door that's blossoms are the most magnificent fuchsia. I picked a couple branches to bring inside, and they were my absolute favorite thing for the couple days they lasted.

I'll Give You a Hint: It Sinks

I recently mentioned Sam's crazy work schedule, and I am now overjoyed to tell you the show is over. In fact, it already aired. The week before, the film Titanic was released in 3-D, and National Geographic did a premiere event for the release as well as a sneak peek of the show Sam worked on. It was fun to go to a special event for Sam's work (they even had a red carpet!), and we got to go through the National Geographic Museum exhibit on the Titanic (apparently not everyone knows it was a real ship?). We stayed for the 3-D screening of Titanic-- well, until just after the boat sinks so we could zip home to relieve the babysitter. Anyway, we all know how it ends (Rose promises to never let go, but . . . she does.)

Lindsay Goes to Washington: A Novel

I need to play a lot of catch up here, but let's start with my sister's visit here last week! My older sister Lindsay (known as Lulu to Bria) came out for an extended weekend, leaving her husband and three children and home, and she had only been to DC once during high school, so it was a really fun kind of vacation. The cherry blossoms peaked abnormally early this year, so we were bummed she missed most of the blossoms, however, this did not deter us! In her short four days here, we packed in a ton.

The first day I wore her out. We trekked in on the metro, and just as we came out, it started to rain. We ducked into the American History Museum for a bit before venturing over to Paul for some sandwiches, quiche, and pastries. Next was the Old Post Office Tower for an awesome view of the city. From there we walked back to the mall and down to the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial before Sam called saying he was ready to meet for dinner. Overestimating our stamina, he told us to walk to his office (which is only 1 mile away, but we had been walking all day and pushing Bria in the stroller). We made a pit stop at the White House, where Bria is convinced she saw Obama (confession: it was a security guard). We checked out the photo exhibit in the National Geographic Building while waiting for Sam to come down from work and then walked to Dupont Circle for burgers and shakes at BGR.





Saturday was a little more low-key. We took it easy all morning before driving in for the annual kite festival on the mall (one of the best parts of the cherry blossom festival!). Sam and Bria picked out a Star Wars kite the morning of, and it was a mediocre flyer (of course our kite flying abilities had nothing to do with kite's apparent fear of heights). Lindsay, the best flyer in our group of four, would hand the kite off to Bria once it was up, and Bria would, inevitably, run around in circles with the kite darting perilously near people's head before she would let go of the string, and the kite would zip off into the crowds. After the kite met an untimely end, and Lindsay convinced us to not be boring parents-who-always-say-no by letting Bria go on the carousel, we wandered through a jam-packed Air and Space Museum before heading to dinner at We, The Pizza.

 

Sunday we stayed closer to home. We showed up at the George Washington Masonic Memorial (or, as Bria says, the George Washington Monic Temorial) 30 minutes before it closed also to find out that they charge an entrance fee during peak months. We took a quick peek at entrance hall before spending our time exploring the beautiful grounds. One of the highlights of my weekend was spent spinning and frolicking under the dogwoods. There are few people who can help you tap your inner child like your siblings. After our joyful basking in the Old Town sun, we meandered through the Alexandria cemetery-- the activity that topped Bria's to-do wish list. We always drive by it on our way home from Whole Foods, and she is endlessly fascinated. And it is magnificent: graves dating before the civil war all the way to present-day plots. The family evening ended with an insanely delicious dinner at Taqueria Poblano in Del Ray and frozen custard at Dairy Godmother. Once Bria was in bed, Lindsay and I popped back out to catch Song1, the incredible outdoor exhibit at the Hirshhorn (go see it!!).

Monday was Lindsay's last full day, so she and I decided to go to the Holocaust Museum first thing in the morning while Bria went to a friend's house. I didn't think too much about lines or tickets or spring break, so we waited for 30 minutes to find out we couldn't see the permanent exhibit until the late afternoon. We decided to just tour the temporary exhibit on Nazi Propaganda, which was obviously horrifying, but incredibly eye-opening. We darted back home to get B before heading back to the city for cupcakes. Lindsay always takes note of our frequent cupcake experiments, so I decided to take her for what I think are really the best in the city: Georgetown Cupcake. While waiting in the long line, Lindsay became more and more skeptical. Are we seriously waiting 40 minutes for cupcakes??! Once we were inside, she ordered half a dozen-- enough to sneak a few home for her kids. Once we sat down and she ate one, she immediately hopped back up and ordered another half dozen. They really are that good. After gorging ourselves, we lounged at Gravely Point, watching the planes take off. Actually, I lounged, and Lindsay ran around endlessly with Bria. So wonderful. Then, after heading into rush hour, I got lost several times on our way to dinner so we ended up spontaneously choosing Sweet Green for salads for dinner. This was a good choice considering the dozens of cupcakes still in our possession that night.

Besides all the amazingly fun things we packed into those couple days, we had so much fun talking and laughing. Sam and I introduced Lindsay to the comedic genius that is Parks and Rec. We shopped at Trader Joe's. Lindsay played with Bria longer and harder than I think I ever have. Bria keeps talking about it, referring to it as "remember that time Lulu lived in our family?" The whole weekend was awesome.

Richmond Getaway

Last week we reached a bit of a breaking point. Sam's current project has been a bit intense. That's the nice way of saying it. Several 60-80 hour weeks, working Saturdays and Sundays, only 1 day off in a month, one 22-hour shift-- it's basically enough to cause a full-on mental breakdown (let's not forget there is a one-hour commute each way). Once I realized how soon I was likely to melt into a puddle of stress and exhaustion (Sam, too), I declared a necessary vacation. Sam told work he was taking the weekend off (confused as to how we got to the point where you actually have to request the weekend off), and he would take Monday off too. We decided to head to Richmond for a little getaway. Perhaps not exotic, but it is a close drive and a fun, new place to explore. I emailed my dear friend Jenna, who recently moved away from Richmond, and she gave me a wonderful list of tips, which served as the base for our itinerary. It was the perfect weekend to mend our worn-out little souls, and we all came back refreshed and ready to face the last stretch of the project.

When we first got there, we hit up the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Of course Bria loved this stained glass of a fancy lady. Her other favorites were paintings of flowers. She usually does pretty well in museums, but I think going there directly from a 1.5 hour car ride wasn't the best idea. Still, we got to see a lot of beautiful artwork, and we enjoyed exploring the lovely grounds of the museum as well.

We spent a lot of time lounging in our hotel room-- because this was definitely a vacation dedicated to relaxing. We swam in the hotel pool both days, enjoyed the breakfast buffet, and ate a lot of junk food. Bria had never slept in a hotel before, so I was nervous about her ability to fall asleep with us awake in the room. Sam and I huddled in the corner, playing on our phones in the pitch dark room (thank you, free wifi!), until Bria drifted off to sleep. Then we hooked our laptop up to the tv and watched a movie-- wearing headphones so as not to disturb the B. It may have been my favorite part of the trip.

Monday we spent at Maymont, an incredible and beautiful park in Richmond. We explored the Italian and Japanese gardens as well as some of the other grounds before calling it a day. The only downer of the vacation was that I had a really horrible cold (and I didn't have sufficient meds with me), so I didn't have the energy to explore anymore. I'm glad Sam and Bria are such good sports and didn't mind calling it a day early in the afternoon.

We broke up the drive home with a pit stop at the outlet malls 20 minutes south of home for a little shopping and some dinner. The perfect way to wrap up an awesome weekend.