Port Discovery (the Baltimore children's museum)

We first went to Port Discovery on a weekday afternoon. It was pleasantly empty and the kids had a blast. We ended up going back on Saturday morning when we opted out of our trip to the park and the National Mall because of extremely cold rain. Saturday morning at the museum was much more crowded, but the kids still insisted they had a great time. I didn't take any pictures on Saturday, though, because I was busy trying not to lose any children in the chaos.

I had two favorite rooms in the museum. Perhaps not by coincidence, most of the pictures I took were in the same two rooms.

My first favorite was the art studio. My children never seem to spend a ton of time in the art studios of any children's museum we visit, but the little extras all around the room are really what made this one of my favorites.

We had this map on the wall growing up. I fully intend on replicating it when we buy a house of our own. I thought the drawing benches were a cool touch. The bookcase in the corner was full of really neat art books.

 It didn't take long before the art projects were abandoned in favor of the chalk wall.

The kids' favorite rooms were the water room, the kitchen, and the toddler zone. I thought the water room was neat, especially the squeegees and squirt bottles for "washing" the large windows.

Caroline could have spent all afternoon in the kitchen. Even when we went back on Saturday and the place was packed, there were plenty of dishes for the children to each cook up something delicious.

We were granted access to the toddler room because we had Miriam with us. Jonah and Caroline declared it their favorite room of the entire museum. We stayed there until Miriam started dumping sand all over the floor.

My other favorite room was called The Oasis. It is billed as a quiet resting room. Most of the pictures I took were of the amazing books on all kinds of fascinating subjects. I got especially excited when I found books that Mom had in her classroom. The activities were all of a quieter sort: puzzles, blocks, stringing beads, or "painting" rocks with water. After the excitement of the week, we were ready for a rest.

More D.C.

We spent the rest of the day Wednesday at the Natural History Museum. Josh loves museums of all kinds, so we definitely wanted to spend as much time there as possible before his conference began.

My favorite exhibit in the museum was skeletons of all kinds of animals arranged by family. Something about seeing them all grouped together made it really easy to see subtle differences between the species. Caroline kept asking when we would get to the werewolf bones.

Somehow my baby got old enough to take a "What Sea Creature Are You?" quiz all by himself. Sniff, sniff.

No trip to the museum would be complete without a picture of the elephant in the atrium. Roll Tide and all that.

More observations from Caroline.

"The hot water is red and the cold water is blue. To make warm water, you need a little of each. It should be yellow like the sun."

"When I get older, I will be even faster! When I am 113, I will be as fast as a cheetah." 

Baltimore/DC, take 1

The idea of writing about our trip to Baltimore and D.C. is overwhelming me at this point. That said, there are three lovely grandmas 2000 miles from here that would love to see some highlights of their darlings' vacation, so I'm easing myself into it.

So here we are, day 1: The Mays Family Tours D.C. (Or some of it, anyway.)

It has been a dream of mine to visit D.C. for as long as I can remember. Yes, it was as awesome as I hoped. Yes, I want to go back. No, I did not see even half the things on my list. That said, the first day we had Josh with us before his conference actually began, and he spent the day insisting that I go first into the museums and memorials while he found a place to park the unwieldy double stroller and juggled the girls (whose attention spans are about what you'd expect for a 1- and 4-year old).

That is how Jonah and I came to be in the Jefferson Memorial all alone for my very first D.C. selfie!

Then, we convinced Jonah to play photographer so we could document that Josh did actually go on the trip with us. Why are we sitting in exactly the same pose? Because after a decade of marriage, we are the same person at this point, I guess.

Although the Washington Monument is just across the lake from the Jefferson Memorial, we had already walked over a mile at this point. We chose the one day that the D.C. Metro system was completely shut down to visit, so parking was a bit more complicated than we'd planned. At this point, Caroline was not interested in posing for any pictures. So years and years from now when my grandchildren are looking through old family pictures, someone is going to start a rumor that Caroline didn't make the D.C. trip with us. I'll have to come up with an exciting alternative for where she was instead. Skydiving?

After much more walking (details to come later...I'm working my way up to this, remember?), Jonah was still happy and helpful. When we asked him later, he said his favorite part of the day was walking through this park and picking up sticks. If you look closely, you can see him wielding one in each hand. Let it never be said I deprive my child of the great outdoors!

Rotten Saturday

Today, our landlord reminded me not to do any gardening on Rotten Saturday. Not knowing anything about Rotten Saturday, I just nodded and smiled and waited for him to drive away so I could consult my trusty friend Google. While it is apparently tradition in some places to sow a garden on Good Friday* (but not in some parts of Louisiana where it is considered sinful), it is bad luck to plant anything the next day, dubbed Rotten Saturday. Of course, he followed up this advice by telling me about the time his mama planted cucumbers on Rotten Saturday and it was the best cucumber crop she'd ever had, so maybe I'll put some cucumbers in just to see.

*One theory I read: planting under a full moon is considered fortunate, and Easter always follows a full moon

Life advice (from Caroline to Mim)

"When you are four, you can get allowance. Then you can buy all kinds of things! You can buy bananas or slushies or fancy Nancy cakes or pupcakes!"

"When you are old, like 35, you can drive the car. Then you can go to the park or the hotel or anywhere you want!"

(When I stepped out of the room) "Mim, don't cry! Mommy is not dead. She is just in the other room. And I'm here to take care of you!"

The Borrowers (dictated by Jonah)

We just read a book called The Borrowers and they are little people who borrow things. They are very clever. They would use a fish bone for a fishing pole. They live under the floor. I think they'd probably live under the white mantlepiece in our living room. Or in it. (It is a fireplace bricked up.) They would definitely like the Legos. They could make all kinds of things out of that. And they would like the paper in my room. That would be like the size of their entire roof.  The Borrowers would probably use pieces of moss for carpet. There is a lot of moss in our backyard.

Miriam saw Mommy's computer out. She sometimes watches Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on it. So she said, "Tiger? Sure! Where'd Tiger go?" Miriam keeps breaking the silence by asking Mommy about Tiger.

We are planting a garden in the backyard on a hill. We also planted some flowers in our front yard. There is one of those flowers growing right in the middle of the forest, so there is one spot of green in the middle of the brown and gray.

[Editor's note: the flowers in question are daffodils.]

finally, a fried potato I can make

I have been trying to master hash browns for over a decade. My dad made great hash browns. Josh makes amazing fried potatoes. (When I was pregnant with Jonah, we ate fried potatoes and eggs at least twice a week.) I can get the texture I'm looking for with frozen hash browns, but not the flavor. After trying all kinds of tricks, I have solved the riddle: I'm not looking for hash browns. I'm looking for latkes!

Thanks to the America's Test Kitchen latke recipe, I am eating a tasty hash brown cake for lunch. Apparently the reason I've never been able to find the right combination of ingredients and technique is because I was looking for the wrong thing. The question is how many times a week I can get away with making these before we've crossed into Crazyville.

one each

Dear Dad,

Caroline likes nothing more than to pretend to be asleep when it's time for bed so that we will carry her to bed. I distinctly remember doing the same thing. I remember you carrying me all the way down the stairs and putting me in bed. I'm wondering now if I was as bad at faking it as Caroline is. (Of course, we happily carry her to bed anyway.)

Also, I made chocolate pudding and it was a lumpy mess. That never happens to me! I refused to eat it both because it would have been gross and because I know how you feel about lumpy pudding.

but where are all the pictures?

Anyone who likes pictures is lucky to have Josh. He reads the blog at work and recently reminded me that "lots of posts in a row without pictures is not enjoyable." I'm going heavy on the pictures and light on the text. I'll say it's to even things out around here, but really it's because I've been dreaming all day of eating Nutella on saltines and reading a new book. If I don't get a move on, it will be time for bed and I'll have to wait another long day to get started.

Taken while car shopping:

Taken by Caroline:

Taken while working on Caroline's doll house:

Taken after the aforementioned really long trip to Home Depot:

Taken this evening while attempting to make dinner. This was the third time tonight she completely emptied that cabinet: (Not seen in the picture, the extra mustard and olive oil and flour and honey she took off the upper shelf.)