Thursday, September 6, 2012

Museum Adventures

Dave captured a few funny videos at the museum of natural history this past week.

Here's mom explaining the physical attributes of the stegosaurus.  She's quite scientific.

Also, Winston ran into the women's bathroom with me in hot pursuit.   This film captures the aftermath.  It is a good thing we were by ourselves; I think Dave would have been arrested if someone saw his camera focused on the lady's restroom door!

What You Doing?

This is Winston's favorite question right now.  he asks us constantly.  We ask him this question alot too.  He has some funny answers.  "I'm going on vacation" is a standard reply.  "I'm playing with Thomas" is another (Thomas the Tank engine).  He also has discovered "treats."  "Mommy, can I have a tweet?" I hear this question at every meal.

Speaking of Thomas.  Thomas the Tank (and his friends Percy, James, Harold, etc) has captured Winston's imagination.  We have Thomas the Tank train set that he plays with on his train table.  Winston requests to watch Thomas videos almost every day.  More often than not, Thomas, James and Percy also accompany us in the car.  "I see Toby!" is now shouted whenever we see a metro train.  "It's Toppenhat" is shouted whenever Winston hears one of us walking around the house (no, not Toppenhat, it's Mommy.")

Here's a video of Winston entertaining me with his "Faces." 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Big Ears

Winston doesn't miss much.  This past Sunday, we were eating dinner and I said to Dave "the air is so heavy outside."  Dave Said the air is so what?"  Winston piped in "heavy daddy, heavy."  He repeats words with relative ease and, as a boy after my own heart, he often asks to go to the library.  Is he my kid or what? He does love his books--the nightime reading ritual includes reading upward of 4 or 5 books. 

One of his favorites is a book about George Washington's animals.  Dave was reading it to him a few days ago.  winston pointed at the cow's udder and said, "Daddy, 4 penises?"  Dave about died of laughter, and said, "Winston, this is not a penis, this is an udder.  Can you say udder?" Now, whenever we are changing him, Winston makes sure to clarify that he has "one penis."

Winston and I usually take a little jog/walk after work a few evenings a week. On these outings, he is in his stroller, and we usually have a running dialogue about whatever is on his mind or mine (it is usually about people, dogs, squirrels, cars, treets, flowers...whatever is in front of him). "Fire" he says when he sees a fire hydrant. I lean over to speak directly to him so he can see my mouth and my pronunciation. "It's a fire hydrant, Winston. Look at my mouth. Fire Hydrant." The look at my mouth part is something he's been hearing forever (I assume it helps him understand how to annunciate and speak clearly).

Now when he sees a fire hydrant? "Fire Hydrant Look-At-My-Mouth." Seriously. Every time.

Dog Days of Summer

Dave and I refer to 3 day weekends as marathons when it comes to caring for our 27 month old ball of energy.  We plan our weekend days to ensure there is some time for Winston to "run free" and wear himself out so that nap time and bed time aren't too traumatic.

Labor Day 2012 was no different.  In Miami, we would have been at the beach or pool every day.  Here in Dc, there are more options, but we definitely miss the ease of access to water!



On Saturday, we headed to National Harbor, a new entertainment/conference/hotel facility that was built across the chesapeake from Alexandria.  It is really cool...beautiful views of boats, a wonderful new hotel (the Gaylord), and the best of all there was a Beatles cover band concert going on, so we got to hear the bands playing great Beatles music.

The zoo is hands down Winston's favorite place to visit.  The national zoo is just awesome -- even the bird house was great fun.  The highlights for Winston are the "shower misters" that are available every 100 yards or so.  I think most kids run under them to cool down.  Winston is intent on sticking with it until the mist soaks him.  I swear he spent 10 minutes under the mister.  Anytime another child approached, he said "no, mine" and tried to push them back.  Thankfully after his initial selfish tendency he opens up and enjoys sharing the fun with others (especially cute girls).

The funniest part of our visit this past weekend is that when we asked what animals he saw, he said, "lions.  tigers. monkeys."  We actually didn't see any of those on this trip.  The child has a great imagination.

On Monday we made a quick trip to the the Natural History Museum.  It is just amazing to me that Winston is growing up in a city where these incredible museums are accessible and free!  I remember how much I enjoyed visiting the La Brea tar pits and expect that Winston will be dinosaur-obsessed in the next year or so.  Again, the big draw at the museum wasn't in the museum at all.  we took Winston down to the mall grassy area to play chase.  He immediately found puddles and began to splash in earnest.  This child seriously loves his water.

Because it was rainy, hot, humid and buggy, we didn't spend much time at the neighborhood park this past weekend.  Instead, we turned the basement into a soccer field, with a goal post and all.  We spent alot of time kicking the ball up and down the room and hallway and having kickoffs into the goal.  We're going to need to find a soccer team for this guy pretty quick.