100 Things To Do In DC

 This is how Calder spends a lot of his time. If I am busy and can't read to him he gets one of his "easy books" to read to himself. I'm surprised how many books he has memorized. Oh and I made those pants. I love them a lot. So does he.

 This is Calder pretending to be a doctor. Of course doctors check their own hearts and pants are totally optional. Shoes are not.

Just FYI, up at the top of the blog you should now see a link that says 100 Things To Do In DC. I found this list right before we moved here of things to do in DC and set out to do all of them. So far I am at 28 of the 100. Not too bad. Many of them are things we have to do in better weather but for now we are trying to get as many as we can. Ideally I would like to get it done before the end of 2011. That would give us a total of 18 months to do everything on the list. We'll see how it goes.

National Zoo

 We went to the zoo last Wednesday. It was in the 40s and I thought it would be a great, if not fast activity. We went in the afternoon and didn't get to see as much as we would have liked, but next time we have warmish weather we'll go back. Calder loves the zoo. If you look very closely in the above picture you can see an elephant in the background.

 The red pandas were so cute. Calder and I got to feed them some bamboo. I wish I had pictures of Calder feeding them but I had to hold him over the railing. They reach up and grab it from you. It was adorable. There weren't very many people there (as I'm sure you can imagine, it wasn't that warm) so Calder enjoyed running all over.

Calder at 26 months

I am loving this stage! It is like I have a little sidekick and we go everywhere together. Calder is so mild mannered. He doesn't really throw fits and if he starts to cry all I have to say is "listen..." and he'll say "yeah mommy?" It is so nice. 

We reason and negotiate like an old married couple. 

He is beginning to understand how the world works and is such a sweet kid. I have found if I explain why or why not to him he understand and accepts the answer. So if he wants to buy a toy and I tell him it is just too big for our house he understands.

He is convinced everything can be fixed by a trip to Target. If something breaks he just throws it away and says "next time I go to Target I get another one". This year of nothing new might be hard but good for him. He is starting to LOVE the thrift store though. 

He loves to pretend to be other people. We are often Thomas and Percy, his nursery song leader and her daughter and characters from various books. He also likes to pretend to be his friends. Although I enjoy it for the most part, it is a little annoying when I keep getting corrected when I call him by his name. And it is a bit embarrassing when I have to call him Zoe  or Cheyenne at the grocery store to get him to listen. I'm sure people think that is his name and I am a terrible parent.

He thinks jello is the cure-all. If you're sick, you need jello. 

Building Museum

Are you tired of seeing pictures of the building museum? See, we go there all the time because it is right off the metro so we don't have to walk very far in the cold. And it is Calder's favorite. We spent more time exploring parts of the building other than the toddler room this week. 

 Calder loves reading the books all about buildings and construction in the toddler room. In this picture I was chatting with another mom and he walked over, picked a book, found a comfortable chair and was reading it out loud to himself.

 They have awesome brick staircases all over the building. Calder loves to climb to the top and see how high he can see.

 Calder and I always eat lunch by the fountain in the middle of the great room. And he gets to throw a penny in to the fountain each time we visit.

 This is the view from the 2nd floor bathroom looking outside on the metro entrance. See, I told you it was close.

 This is the outside of the building museum looking from the metro entrance.

Spending Fast 2011

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just like it.

You may remember the spending fast I did this last March. I'm planning on doing it again for 2011 in February. If you want to join in, please do and start planning for it. Here is how it works.

You can buy:

• Groceries (no fast food or eating out)
• Gas / public transportation
• Rent/Utilities (please pay your bills)

 Not Okay to Buy:

• ANYTHING ELSE

See, it's pretty simple. I also limit my food budget to $50 a week. This is a challenge but I like it. If you were on the fence last year, this is your year! Please join us. February is short. I know you can do it!

I also want to point out that I don't do this just to save money. I do it for the challenge, the decreased consumerism and the increased creativity I get from it. Jason likes that I do it, probably for the money. 

Building Museum

We've all been sick around here so I haven't posted as much because we haven't been doing as much. Thankfully we're all doing better and are back to our normal outings!

On Friday Calder and I went to the building museum. It was great. We are always happy to go there because it's quick, convenient and it's Calder's favorite. Here are some pictures.

Since the play room was busy, and they kick you out after 30 minutes when it's busy we got to see some other cool parts of the museum. They have an exhibit right now focusing on the Worlds Fairs of the 1930s. It was fascinating. I loved walking through and looking at all the cool things they had. They don't allow photography, so you'll have to come visit if you want to see it.

Christmas Eve 2010

On Christmas Eve we went to Jeff & LuAnn's house for a German Christmas eve. It was fantastic. LuAnn and her cousin made German pancakes and Rouladen. It was delicious!

After dinner the kids (and some adults) performed a live nativity. Calder had been looking forward to being the shepherd for a few days. He even got to hold a sheep that the Oliver's had. He was in heaven. Jason read the story from the Bible and I did my best to herd the shepherd. We all had a great time and Calder still talks about being a shepherd.

I forgot my camera so I had to steal these from LuAnn's blog. Thanks for taking pictures LuAnn and thanks for the awesome evening.

Christmas 2010

 We had the most wonderful Christmas. I feel like this is the year Calder caught on to holidays. He now knows what his birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all mean. This is what it looked like the night before when we finished putting the presents out and stuffing the stockings.

 We feel greatly blessed to have such marvelous families. We would have loved to be with them on Christmas but the distance and weather (and buying a third plane ticket) limited our ability to be with them. We still had a marvelous day filled with love, friends and presents.

 I think this face sums up Calder's day. He loved every minute of it. Actually Christmas present opening lasted until the evening of the 26th. He kept wanting to play with each toy he opened and we didn't rush him so he had presents for quite a while. I really liked doing it this way. I imagine I couldn't force this schedule on a 10 year old though.

 We had three families over for brunch at 11:00. It was perfect. It gave us enough time to leisurely get ready for the day and finish making quiche and cinnamon rolls. This was our third time hosting Christmas brunch with friends and I really like it. It makes it feel a little more like an eventful day without being stressful.

This is how we spent the afternoon. Reading, snuggling under a blanket. What a perfect day!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Santa's Workshop

 On December 23 Calder and I met up with my friend LuAnn and her boys to visit Santa's workshop. Every year Santa comes to visit DC on the Ellipse of the White House. This is also the site of the National Christmas tree, which is not a very attractive tree in my opinion.

 It was a lot of fun for the boys and we were lucky Mrs. Claus was there as well. Calder was pretty excited to sit by Mrs. Claus and have a picture. It was nice to be inside while visiting the Claus family because it was a bit chilly outside.

 Calder weathered it well though.

And in the end it was all worth it to meet the man himself. I have to admit, this is the best looking Santa I've ever seen. The beard is real and even had a little glitter in it. He definitely looked quite comfortable in the suit. Calder was a little nervous but thankfully LuAnn's boys went first so he was okay with it. Although his wish list changed every time we talked about it he told Santa he wanted a train. Santa asked if he wanted a Thomas or a GeoTrax. Calder said GeoTrax even though neither of us have even seen such a train / track system. I love that Santa knows more about the toys available than I do.

Work Christmas Party

Last Friday we went to Jason's work Christmas party. It was an amazing event that started out with buffets of food and dessert, including chocolate fountains. They had a gingerbread cookie decorating station and ice cream sundae bar for the kids.

About half way through the caroling started. The bosses took charge and called out songs and page numbers for everyone to join in. It was really fun! Calder (and I) got to meet some really cool people and we all had a good time.

 

Of course we had to get a picture with Calder in Jason's chair. This is the face he makes when you ask him to smile. 

Capital & Botanic Garden

 We went to the Botanic Garden this last week with some friends to check out the model trains. On the way we walked by the Capital and admired the Capital Christmas tree. (Not to be confused with the National Christmas Tree) It was very pretty and decorated with hand crafted ornaments from Wyoming, where the tree came from as well.

 It was cold that day and this is how Calder travels around DC these days. I asked him if he was freezing and he replied "No, just cold." So don't worry, I don't freeze our kid, I just keep him cold. Speaking of, he is not a fan of the cold. Usually if we go outsize to run errands or something and it is cold he asks to go home instead. If we're going somewhere cool he's willing to face the cold. 

I would also like to mention that it is nowhere as cold as Chicago and for that I am thankful. Calder is too.

 The botanic garden has amazing poinsettias, model trains and DC building replicas made from plant parts. I can't believe all of this was built using only food and plants. It was fun to get up close and try to guess what they used to create it.

 A happier, warmer Calder.

 Calder was so excited to get to see Percy, his favorite of the Thomas series trains. He waved and pointed every time he came by.

And as with everything else in DC (it seems) it was free. I really love it here.