Virginia is for Lovers. And Screamers.

We went to visit my sister and her family last week in Falls Church, Virginia. We got there Tuesday afternoon and stayed with them until Saturday afternoon. We went to a nature center, to the zoo, and to Mount Vernon. It was so wonderful to spend time with Leah and her kids, and I am so proud to say that Eleanor took a strong liking to me, and would even request to sit in my lap when Leah was around. That's huge, you guys. HUGE. And Philip is such a lover, he would constantly pat my stomach and talk to the baby, telling me what it was going to be (I think he settled on boy, finally) and telling me he loved me. Leah and I had a lot of great talks, and Michael and Brandon were able to go have a boys' hour at a wine a cheese shop.

And what about Elijah? Oh, Elijah... my suddenly 2-year-old mess. He's a very scheduled boy, our Elijah. And being off his schedule for that many days in a row, combined with sleeping with me and Michael for all but one night, turned him into a raving lunatic. I told Leah I'm just sorry she didn't get to see the sweet, happy boy with whom I spend my days. But, all told, he did a lovely job rolling with the activities (barring the fits at the zoo, which were probably my most horrifying parenting moments thus far). And through all those days and all the cousin-picture opportunities, I took a grand total of zero pictures. I even had the video camera with me, but still failed to get any proof of our being there. Leah took maybe five, and she has them on Facebook, if you're so inclined to go find them. I would steal them to put up here, but I'm honestly too lazy.

Saturday afternoon we headed toward our hotel in Baltimore because we were flying out early Sunday morning, and we decided to make a pit stop at the Natural History Museum in DC along the way. Michael didn't tell me until we got there that he had been dreaming of taking his own child to the museum since he was 15, so I'm really glad we did it. I only wish we had had a little more time, but the benefits of Michael working out of DC are that (1) he's there at least twice a month and (2) he earns enough free flights that our going with him is relatively inexpensive.

Anyway, Elijah loved the museum (until the end, but you'll see that in a second). We were basically running through the exhibits which, let's be honest here, is probably better for a kid his age anyway. He saw lots of dinosaur bones, or as he calls them, "chomp-chomps."

The fact that he smiled for these pictures is pretty amazing to me, and I will flash them everywhere until I get more. Which might take a while.

Then we ran over to the mammal section, which was by far his favorite. We talked about all the different animals, and he wanted to touch them all. Good thing they're all behind glass.

He always talks about the baby giraffe at the Nashville Zoo, so this guy was a hit.

All these pictures were taken with Michael's phone, so the shutter was slow. I was trying to get him reaching toward this lioness with both hands as he said, so seriously, "Hold me?", which means, "Can I hold this?" He was only temporarily disappointed, because then we saw THE HIPPO. My mom bought him a copy of Sandra Boynton's Hippos Go Berserk, so we've been reading that a lot lately. He was excited to see one in person, but his energy was starting to wane. When I asked him for one more picture, one more smile for the camera, this is what we got:

After that, we decided to make a quick exit, but not before running through the polar exhibit. And here's one of my two favorite stories from the trip: 

The polar exhibit is all white, and it's kind of like a tunnel, where they have things hollowed out so you can see the animals as if they were under water. There's also a part at the top that's glass, where a giant stuffed polar bear is staring down at you through the ceiling. I said, "Oh, look, Elijah! It's a polar bear!" And since he was riding on Michael's shoulders, he was much closer to it and looked up in awe. Then he stretched out those sweet little hands and said, "Excuse me, bear. Up me?"

We spent the night at the Embassy Suites near BWI (word to the wise: if you have a baby/toddler who needs quiet to sleep, do not go to an Embassy Suites. The design of their buildings leaves the entire middle section open, which means that 200 pre-adolescent girls who are going to see Justin Beiber will scream ALL. EVENING. in the open air atrium and keep your kid awake). The next morning, poor Elijah cried when Daddy's bag disappeared into the abyss behind the Southwest counter, and then got happy when Daddy took him on the moving sidewalks over. And over. And over again. Finally, as we were descending into Nashville, my other favorite story happened. 

Elijah was watching a show on the iPad, but had been fussy for a while, and was starting to get really annoyed with being cooped up. He was also pulling furiously on his ears, so I said, hoping to alleviate some of his frustration, "Here, honey. Take a drink. It'll make your ears feel better." He just stared at me, then slowly took his cup, but didn't do anything. "Take a drink. It'll make your ears feel better." Still moving slowly, but staring at me as if I were crazy, he placed the nib of his sippy cup in one ear, and then the other. I thought Michael was going to fall out of his seat. It took another minute, but I finally convinced Elijah to put his cup into his mouth.

Now we're home, getting back into the swing of things, and preparing for a birthday non-party on Saturday. It's just going to be Michael's immediate family and maybe Eric and his kids. I decided not to do a theme or anything, just cupcakes and some snacks, and just let the kids play. Maybe I'm too tired, but I think I'm just thinking it's silly to put so much money and effort into something I'm going to throw away. Especially since he has no idea. And he's happy to just run around saying, "Birfday, Friday, 2!" all around the house. 

I'll leave you with the only picture I have of me pregnant... I'm one day shy of 29 weeks here.