Sunday we slept in slightly after our late night, had a nice breakfast buffet at our hotel, then set out for the trip up to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (say that three times fast).  We took the Metro and arrived in plenty of time to attend the Noon Mass with the choir.  It was beautiful.  We also spent some time after Mass touring the Basilica.

Then we headed back towards downtown with a stop in Chinatown for a yummy lunch.  We wanted to find a place in that happy medium between “authentic and new” and “safe to eat,” and I think we did, maybe leaning a little more towards the latter, but oh well.  It was really tasty!  We had at that point really started to perfect our budget meals - finding two meals on the menu the three of us all liked and sharing them all.  That left room for our nightly ice cream treat (not shared) without too much guilt.  After that, we took the Metro one stop north to the convention center so I could check in for my conference, then we decided to go out to the Pentagon to see the memorial, which was more incredible than I could have ever imagined.  Perhaps it is because it memorializes something that happened in my lifetime, but the symbolism displayed and the thought that had to have gone into the creation of the memorial is breathtaking.  You really have to see it and walk it to get it.  The war memorials were moving, but nothing like this for me.  We headed back to the hotel for our ice cream and a movie, and I mapped out my next day, of work.

And that next day started brutally with a 7:15 alarm (ok, so it wasn’t all that brutal) and a brisk 6-block walk in the humidity to the convention center.  My work stuf is blogged on EdTech Avenue - I won’t repeat and bore you with it here.  I had sessions in the morning then visited the exhibit hall, met Mom and Jo for a quick lunch, had another session then was done.  Many sessions are available through “video-on-demand,” which means I can watch them later - when I’m not on brain-overload from the rest!  I took my stuff back to the hotel and met Mom and Jo at the Air and Space Museum.  That was cool!  I don’t think I could spend all day in there, but parts of it were very interesting and engaging.  From there we met my friend Cara for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, and of course had to all go get some ice cream!  I had promised Cara that I had found her favorite ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s there… so we had to go there.  That was in the Old Post Office Pavilion, which was a neat spot too.  We even stayed longer and took in a “tower tour” to see the tall bell tower and look out over the city.  One of our tour guides said if you can’t get to the top of the Washington Monument (tickets are free but usually are gone soon after it opens), this is a close second, and the view was fantastic!   I only wish we had had a better view of the White House from there - it was pretty blocked by trees and the Treasury building.  By then we were pooped and headed back to the hotel.  After all, my next morning was to start even earlier!!

Bright and early at 6:45, that lovely alarm woke me again.  I had to go to a breakfast and overview meeting by a software company I had some interest in regarding an upgrade.  The free breakfast was good, but I’m not sure I got a lot out of the presentation.  Oh well, Tuesday was full of sessions, exhibits, posters, and very little rest and eating.  Then I met Mom and Jo down at the National Mall so we could see the war memorials in the daylight.  I’m glad we did that - the Korean and Vietnam memorials aren’t very well lit, so we really could see more of them in the day.  Tuesday evening we all went to a vendor appreciation party - Mom included - at a nearby “lounge” (bar).  They had brought in dueling pianos, as per usual for this party, and it was a great time.  It was loud for Mom, but I caught her laughing and smiling a few times too!  We headed back around 9, stopped for our ice cream, and they watched a movie while I packed up and got ready for our last day.

Wednesday I had just one morning session then spent a few hours in the exhibit hall sitting in on some demos, mostly of student response systems.  That was a better use of my time than I expected!  I also talked to some vendors and got some questions answered.  I met Mom and Jo for lunch (they spent the late morning touring the Capitol), a little souvenir shopping, and a quick trip back to the hotel to get our bags, then it was back to the Metro and to the airport!  Jo’s flight went off early, but before Mom’s and mine could take off, we were on a “ground stop,” we think due to weather in the area.  It was a bumpy flight in parts (enough to make me really nervous once), but overall it was good.  I’m glad we didn’t leave any earlier!

I can’t wait to get back home and see my boys.  Although it made it much easier to be able to actually SEE them using Skype, sometimes more than once a day, I still missed them terribly.  I saw many reasons each day to affirm my decision to NOT bring Mac along, but it didn’t mean I missed him any less or didn’t wish they were both with me.  I will be glad to be back in my own bed and be able to kiss my little boy and check on him before I go to sleep. 

Yesterday (Friday), we started out for a hop on/hop off bus tour of the city.  We were headed for one but were coerced by our bellman to use a different one, and I think we got a much better deal for our money!  We were on an open-top bus for a tour of even more of the city than the other tour offered.  We walked to the bus stop (about 8 blocks from our hotel) near the White House.  We got a great tour of the area around DuPont Circle, then to the National Cathedral, Georgetown and Embassy Row, and also Arlington National Cemetery, where we got out to walk around and view the burial site of JFK and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.  Amazing.  After that we “hopped off” at the Smithsonian stop and found some lunch at a cafe in the castle building.  And then we checked out the Museum of Natural History, which wasn’t something that interested us too much.  So we decided to “hop on” further on in the tour and ride back to our White House stop.  We then walked to where you can actually SEE the White House closer up (Pennsylvania Ave. is closed to vehicles since 1995 or so).  We saw some tents set up on the lawn, which we later found out were for a cookout the Obama’s were hosting for their staff.  We decided to head back to the hotel - it was almost dinner time and we were petering out… we ordered pizza and then watched a big storm roll through!  It was way bigger than we thought - lots of trees down around our tours today.  We topped off the night with some ice cream, of course.  Our legs and feet were pretty tired, and we all required a shower.  Other than that and a bunch of bug bites on my legs, we were no worse for wear.

Today we started out for the Museum of American History.  We were not sure how much time we’d want to spend there since none of us really knew more than that it had the ruby slippers, First Lady gowns, and a flag…  We ended up keeping ourselves occupied for almost seven hours, including lunch.  It was great!  I could go on and on describing it, but I just don’t have the time right now.  Then we re-traced our steps from yesterday and hopped back on our bus tour (we had paid for two days) to finish that, ending at Union Station where we had reservations for a Twilight Tour of the monuments.  We had some dinner at Union Station, grabbed some ice cream, and got on our bus for the evening tour.  The tour stopped at the Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln, Korean, Vietnam and World War II Memorials.  We also got great views of the White House and of course the Washington Monument.  I’ve been combining our pictures and posting mine, as well as others Mom and Jo have taken to fill in the gaps, on Flickr.  Check them out - there are too many to post here! Then we took the Metro and a short walk back to our hotel - now after phone calls and showers it’s late!  Good night!!

3 miles is WAY farther on a bike than it might seem.

Where there are sidewalks in Richfield, they are bumpy with not-so-great ramps.

Hills you’d never notice in a car look (and feel) like mountains on a bike.

I am out of shape.

Mac is an extremely tolerant child, moreso than I think any parent deserves.

While the shade is great for keeping stuff in the Burley, it somehow didn’t keep the water in his cup.  Next time use the plug on the sippy cup to avoid a wet baby AFTER being dry out of the pool.

Mac was really good at the pool, for the most part not going deeper than he was allowed.  I had to stop him a few times, and of course he whined about it, but he did stop almost every time.  He loved to watch the other kids play with toys in the water - you know, the kids with nice moms who brought more than one lame toy.  He also made a new friend, Charlie, who was playing with (and shared) his cool Spiderman toy.  Charlie is just 10 days younger than Mac.  It was really fun to watch them interact, throwing the toy back and forth with each other!  I didn’t get any pictures of him in the pool for obvious reasons - I didn’t want to risk dropping the camera or him!  I did get one shot of him after he crawled up on the chair and just sat down like he was ready to soak in some rays.  Doesn’t he look like a big boy?!

Then we had impromptu dinner guests - Jo and Steph - and had yummy burgers and corn on the cob.  Mac even got to try some!  Then he was treated (thanks to Jo) to his own, whole, Klondike bar!  He loved it, of course.  After a bath, he was ready for a nice long sleep.

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This weekend we helped Jane get ready for Timmy’s graduation party that took place on Sunday afternoon. Mac got to meet some new family members - a cousin of mine - and also got to play some with his daycare buddies. It was a great success and a beautiful day!

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This week has really felt more like summer vacation. I was so busy last week getting the video ready for Tim’s party, I didn’t get too much time to just relax. Not that I’d have it any other way, but these last couple days have been especially nice! Mac and I are just hanging out and for the most part don’t make plans ahead of time. I just wait to see how his schedule shapes up and figure out what we’ll do for the day, unless I have something specific I want or need to accomplish. It has already varied quite a bit - he woke up at 6:30 a.m. on Monday but slept until 9:15 on Tuesday!

I had found an inexpensive bike seat for Mac so we could take rides together.  He seemed to like it, but he was not thrilled about wearing his helmet. Once we got it on, he was fine, but that could be a struggle each time.  We also were very fortunate to get Jane’s old Burley bike trailer, so we’ll have another way of getting around.  That also means I could ride him to the pool with all our equipment, which I’d LOVE to do… but I’m not sure how he’ll do in the trailer yet.  It’s all a learning experience for us.

Mac is climbing into a whole lot of things lately. He surprised me a couple weeks ago by climbing into his stroller by himself, but now he can even climb in when the security bar is over the top! He seems to find a way to climb into most chairs, and even onto some of our couches!

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We don’t have any big trips planned as a family this summer. I will be leaving for my National Educational Computing Conference next week, but I’m leaving my boys at home. That will be very hard for me. Then, in July, I think Mac and I will spend a week or so in Madison to visit with family and friends. Beyond that and a trip to a friend’s cabin (and hopefully the family cabin at least once), we don’t have any more trips planned. With Jeremy’s schedule being so sporadic, we can’t very easily schedule or afford a vacation right now. Sadly, we aren’t even planning to travel to New Mexico again, but we were happy to hear that Mac’s Oma and Opa will be coming to see us for a few days in Minnesota!

Other summer outings I am hoping we’ll be able to tackle are the concerts in the park near our house, the farmer’s market, bike rides around the lakes, and getting out on the golf course more than once!

Besides a few errands, an appointment and a few projects at home, I spent the day with Jeremy and Mac.  We all took a walk to play at the park after lunch.  Mac was really happy to finally be outside after being stuck inside with all the rain we’ve had.  He also liked the smaller park where I took him last night.  We could even swing next to each other!  He sure loves swings and slides.  He also likes anything that moves - wheels, gears, cylinders filled with stuff that makes noise… anything!

I managed to catch some short videos of his adventures on the slides.  We made our way up to the faster ones, with Jeremy going with him on the fastest, biggest one at the park.

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Other changes are also happening since being home from daycare.  We probably should have started a few months ago, but now Mac is no longer using a bottle.  I think that might be harder on his mommy and daddy, though.  I miss out on the cuddle time that went along with his nighttime bottle, and Jeremy misses the same in the morning.  My time will need to be replaced with something to transition to bedtime, but the last two nights he hasn’t been too interested in either reading or cuddling without his bottle.  We’ll work on that.  He still went to bed nicely and went to sleep fairly quickly tonight.  He also has been using utensils to eat now that we have some good ones for him.  I caught a very short video of that too!

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Mac is still doing well with signs, though he seems to continue to concentrate on just one at a time.  Currently, he’s really good with “please!”  Tonight he imitated “eat” for the first time.  We’ll keep working on new signs like “thank you” and of course “Mommy” and “Daddy!”  And of course we’ll be working on talking!!

We had some fun this past weekend when Julie and Mom were visiting for Timmy’s graduation.  Check out some of my mom’s pictures from the weekend - she had her camera out more than we did around our house.

Our little guy is an absolute delight these days.  He is still learning at an alarming rate, and every day is a new adventure.  He loves to play outside - and I mean LOVES it.  I guess that’s pretty common among toddlers.  We do need to teach him his limits, though, as I get more flowers planted and he can no longer play in what is now being referred to as “Mommy’s dirt.”  We filled a little sandbox I was fortunate to find at the BT rummage sale, and he loves to play in “Mac’s dirt” too.  We are also working on the word “stop” rather than “no” so he knows how far he may wander.

New Signs!
Mac has started signing more, which we hope will help in our communication.  He really doesn’t whine too much, for which we are both very thankful, but this should help even more.  He finally came back around to signing “all done” at the end of a meal, and the throwing of food on the floor has become less common.  He still does better when we are all eating together.  And just last night, he started signing, “please” for us!  Jeremy said he did it again this morning.

Check-Up
Mac’s 15-month check-up went well yesterday.  He weighs a little over 27 pounds (80th percentile), is 31 inches long (50th percentile) and his head is 18.5 inches around (80th percentile).  He may finally be growing into that big noggin!  No worries as far as his health and development, though his doctor did seem a bit surprised he wasn’t saying words yet.  But as long as his comprehension seems ok, which it does to us, she wasn’t worried.  We figure if he can hear, “put your clothes in the laundry,” or “put your nuk in your crib,” and do it, he’s doing quite well!  But we will be more conscious of developing his speech now.  He also got two more shots to keep his immunizations up-to-date.  He did as well as could be expected with those, given the fact he was more than ready for his nap!

I am happy to report that Mac is back to himself again, though he really wasn’t very adversely affected by his bout with pink eye.  He quickly learned what the drops were and didn’t particularly care for them, but he was good for the most part.  This picture is from Wednesday when we were playing outside.  He loves that dirt (my favorite part is the ’stash)!  What will I do when there are flowers in those pots?!  Oh, and he loves the water too.  My mistake has been letting him get into BOTH too soon after we get outside…

This should be a relatively quiet weekend during which I hope to tag some items for a consignment sale next week and really dig in to my gardening (pun intended).

One other piece of news for those who used to catch up with my personal news on my blog, In My Own Little Corner, that blog is finally back up and running!  I thought I had sent an email to all my readers there, but I guess that part didn’t work.  Oops!  Anyway, you will need to log in to your profile to view the blog posts (there is a password recover/reset option if you forgot yours), but the rest should be much more easily managed with some new plug-ins I’ve installed.

I’m hoping to get more video soon too, maybe this weekend, so stay tuned for more updates!

Mac did amazingly well.  Because we were both there, we were able to take turns taking him out to the hallway to run around (being careful not to let him touch anything of course).  We tried several times to get him to go to sleep but were unsuccessful.  In hindsight (again), there were a few other things we could have tried, but all-in-all, he was a champ.  I even tried to get him to cuddle once we got to the “room” and just let him scream for a while, admittedly hoping it would make the doctor arrive faster… no such luck.

So there we were, finally confirmed, SO tired, and with prescription in hand.  We got a bottle of water ready for him, and Jeremy took him out to the car while I went to the pharmacy.  I gave them all the information, blah blah, and when they called my name quickly, I was disheartened to hear, “I’m so sorry, but we’re out of this medication.”  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” was my reply.  Ok, so now we’re off to a 24-hour Walgreens pharmacy nearby, at 1:00 in the morning.  Mac was STILL awake at this point.

We were able to get the prescription at Walgreens and headed home with a plan of attack to get Mac’s bed changed, get him ready, bottle, drops, ibuprofen, and to sleep!  I think we were both in bed a little after 2.

Luckily, one of the teachers was willing to cover my keyboarding class this morning, so I didn’t have to rush to work at 7:00 a.m.  I was up between 6:45 and 7:15 waiting to see if someone would come through for me then was able to go back to sleep.  Mac woke up at 8:30, though, so that was it for both of us!  We were also lucky that Jeremy was already off today, so he could stay home with Mac.  My week coming up is pretty busy with the BT rummage sale - I’m trying to get some old PCs ready to try to sell, and I only have today and tomorrow!  I told Jeremy I’d run home if he needed help with Mac’s eye drops, but by the time I called to check on them, our true-champ-of-a-dad had already done it!

Hopefully everything will be much better by tonight and tomorrow, and we can get back to busy-ness as usual!

Thank you to those of you who contacted us while waiting in the ER.  It’s so great to be reminded how very blessed we are.  We counted our many blessings on the way home in thanksgiving for what we DO HAVE in spite of our exhaustion!

Yes, friends, that’s DIRT he’s stuffing in his mouth.

Mac does love to play outside, no matter what we’re doing.  But he is a typical boy and also LOVES to play in the dirt!  He likes to dig with the shovel, too… perhaps I can get this interest to work to my advantage when it comes time to dig that border around my landscaping?!

More photos here of our dinner tonight and a cute one of him at Cold Stone - he had a blast running around the empty store!  Before dinner, he got a kids’ menu and a crayon.  We’ve been out a few times the last few weeks, and each time he gets crayons we work more on what he’s supposed to do with them.  Tonight he actually colored with it!  I only had my iPhone with me, so the photos aren’t great, but if you look closely (or click to see the original on Flickr) you can see red marks on the paper.  He did that himself!