Another day, another carousel

Athought Thursday I had to work (and it was very very productive!), Friday we were able to spend with E. We met at Air & Space (always fun). And it was a "4 girl day" which is fun, too. We had a snack first:



Poor, E, though, we barely had time to look here, look there, run here, run there and then we were out of there. I hope she enjoys kids, because we certainly didn't get to look at anything for long. We did go through the space station (in which somebody ahead of had ... uh, er, flatulated ... so it was kind of stuffy in there) and through the moon section (sat with strangers, scootched over so they were squished, then watched the movies for 10 seconds, squirmed up a storm, then left), went to the airplane section and went through the nose of the plane (and held the gate for the remaining visitors, and tried to go through backwards).

It was busy, so it was very good there were two of us. I charged E with taking one child, and me the other. Which worked out well. Although we got separted once or twice texting internationally is very easy, and we found each other.

We left, had a snack, and chased pigeons:



Then we decided to go to the carousel. Walking there we stopped to take pictures of E with the capitol and the Washington monument. The pictures turned out not so good, but the kids are having a great time playing in the gravel path:



While digging Q2 must have realized that she wanted to ride on a bunny. But the carousel on the National Mall does not have a bunny to ride on. So we decided to ride on a horse named bunny. Which we found! Here is Q2 riding on her:



And here is me and both girls ... sort of me. Me looking old and slightly odd.



After the carousel we dragged, and I mean dragged, the children through Natural History just to get to the other side. We walked through the incredible new Sant Ocean Hall. We just breezed through the opening exhibit, but WOW. It was great. I'm looking forward to going back on a Monday or something when it isn't busy.

We dragged through the US Naval Memorial, which I really like, and hopped on the Metro. We left E and let her go to the train station alone because Q & C NEEDED to go home and have quiet time after all that.

And so did I.

Here's the photo

Outside of Pizzeria Paradiso! Yum.

The'll go home with anybody

We had dinner with an old friend, E, tonight. I haven't seen E for 15 years at least .... she looks exactly as I remember her! Clearly she's aged better than I!

We had dinner at Pizza Paridiso in DC, near Dupont Circle. Eating at Franklin's so often I'd forgotten what delicious wood-fired pizza tasted like. It was sooooooo good!

Anyway, after dinner there were hugs and kisses and cuddles to go around. Except to the men, which was fine. Both girls were slightly reluctant to bestow their love on the guys. But, again, as parents, C39 and I are fine with that.

But somebody asked Q2 if she wanted to go home to Ireland with E & D (E's husband) while Q2 was in D's arms. Q2 had a quizzical look, but didn't fuss, just stretched her arms out for me.

But once in the car, Q2 started to cry. She wanted to go home with E.

The word is up. Up.

Q2 sometimes likes to go visit C4's room. This is understandable, as she wanted to go pet the dogs.

But, of course, her action upset C4 greatly. Not exactly sure how much of a kerfuffle there was, but C4 put her rightious anger to good use. She made a sign (all by herself! No help on spelling or words!) for her door to keep Q2 out. It read thusly:

Q2, in yours

That would work beautifully if Q2 could read. Really, it would.

You might have been wondering

Have you been wondering? I'm sure you have. People have been asking. Over and over. Mostly, "What did she say?"

So ... C4 has started speech therapy. Apparently she was unintelligible. Well, not completely. 25% intelligible (in an unknown context) !!

This speech issue has been problematic for C4 and her particular favorite subject (dogs). For two weeks C4 was saying Tchi-yow-yah ... and I couldn't understand that she was saying chihuahua. So, that is a main focus, to get those sounds. She started with F & V last week, and today she got S & Z homework. I'm hoping we'll go for the W's soon.

The therapist thinks C4 is doing great, and has no physical problems, or hearing problems ... Let me brag and say the therapist thinks C4 is very intelligent, and because things come so easy to her when it takes work ... she balks.

So, we are biting our lips to say our Fs & Vs, closing our teeth to say our Ss and Zs. We get practice sheets to do 2-3 times a day and I can already hear C4 improving with her F words.

We've told C4 when she can say Chihuahua we can go see Beverly Hills Chihuahua ... So, best of luck to us!

Farmer's market

Yeah, boring, blah blah blah. But they are holding hand and hugging spontaneously! Usually it is scratching and biting spontaneously! And I can never get a camera fast enough for that.




They got balloon poodles (one teal, one pink), bounced in the bouncy castle (I kicked out the big kids, but Q2 still only did 4 bounces before leaving saying that the bounces were too big), ate pickles on sticks, petted a 4-year-old poodle, ran around the park/graveyard, listened to music, and bought cookies.

Fun.

And here is C4 with her favorite "Pointer" shirt on at the park/graveyard

Now, just where have we been?

It was a lovely vacation. Much much too short! Actually, no, it was perfect, but surrounded by whole days of driving on either end, which is difficult.

But, here's the scoop.

Tuesday, C39 had to go to work to get stuff done before we left. The girls & I packed the car and made food and did stuff. Vacuuming. Dishes. Laundry. Cutting up paper into millions of little pieces. Vacuuming again. Packing up toys and blankies for the car. Unpacking and playing with toys and blankies. Spilling oatmeal, peas, blueberries & honey on the floor. Washing the floor. Spilling soy milk on the floor. Washing the floor again. Getting excited about eating lunch in the car. And so forth.

But, by 1:00 C39 was home, we threw the children into the car and took off. We made good time, actually, and were in South Yarmouth by 8:30, I think.

I am definitely a September beach fan. Being on Cape Cod made me want to live on Cape Cod. It was gorgeous. And not busy (although I know it is during the summer). And just wonderful. The girls loved the beach.

Here's C4 at Race Beach in P-Town


And here is Q2 at the same beach.


After two days there, C39 & I left with a little bit of trepidation for the wedding in Vermont. We left C4 & Q2 with my parents on Cape Code (left them for the first time ever). But I got over it pretty quickly ... Vermont was amazing, gorgeous, incredible and I remembered why I liked the mountains better than the beach, and I switched back to wanting to live in Vermont and the mountains.

We visited Queeche Gorge ... nice little hike there ... C39 took this photo with the telephoto or somethingorother lens.
The "swish" of it makes it especially interesting to me since after we left to visit a farm but before we came back through on our way back, somebody decided to committ sucide at the Gorge. Apparently this happens 2-3 times a year. Usually locals, this was a man from CT. It was disturbing to drive through, see the ambulance and police cars parked there, small groups of officials looking over the edge, and sad groups of people standing around. I'm very glad we weren't there, because even having been so close you wonder if you could have helped the person and kept them from jumping. But imagine if you were right there and he'd climbed over while you were just 20 feet away and unable to do anything? Much worse.


We visited a load of covered bridges, the Morrill House in Strafford, VT. Our tour guide loved the place, obviously, and was fantastic. I would highly recommend that anybody who likes old houses & history visit if they have the opportunity. We didn't have time to visit the grounds, and both C39 and I were disappointed about that, but the wedding beckoned, and we had to get back to our B&B to get dressed.

J & A's wedding was beautiful. The food was fantastic. The music was great. And I got to meet some of the people I've been hearing about for years and years. And see some again that I haven't seen for a long time. So that was really nice.

We drove back down on Sunday, met my parents and our children in CT at a D'Angelo's in Cromwell. I recommend their classic veggie pocket. Best fast food ever.

And then we drove home. Whew.