We Get Out of Falls Church for the Day

Healthwise, 2012 has not been so good to us.  Not that we have chronic illnesses or anything, thank-goodness, just we've been hit with back to back viruses.  We had the cough and congestion crud, then the stomach flu, back to cough and congestion.  Lulu and I never get sick and here we are all sick and stuff.  My all-knowing sister, Meredith, made a good point about being in a new environment and in closer quarters than we're used to (soviet style apartment life) so maybe we are a little more susceptible to new germs.  I don't like it one bit.  I had all these plans to go into the city every weekend and really enjoy our time here, but so far this year we've been kinda  cooped up.  Poor Lulu even missed 3 class sessions of her little toddler programs. This weekend we finally made it out to the Smithsonian.  Lulu really likes to ride the metro and she does a great job letting us be geeky and look at all the museum stuff.

Other things we've gotten to do between illnesses is host a few dinners, celebrate Chinese New Year, discover a couple new great parks (there are more great parks around here than anywhere i've ever known), and hit up the local thrift stores. Especially goodwill - i am seriously thinking i should be a full time shopper for used children's clothes i find the best stuff these days.  I've been out looking for nice clothes for Lulu for Brazil. Darrin discovered that kids clothes there are 3x more expensive so I'm working an inventory.
Anytime I preshop for Lulu I always think that the clothes are so big she'll never fit into them.  But I know better.  She grows and grows.  Child development never ceases to amaze me.  Lulu is making all these huge leaps in cognition, language, and motor skills. When you watch these things happen to your own child, all that teachery knowledge and second hand experience of watching other children grow becomes obsolete. In case you're interested, but you're probably not since this is our kid but whatevs, I'm still going to talk about it (ha!) - new things that Lulu is up to these days:

• Rides her balance bike...youtube balance bikes if you're unfamiliar...best invention ever and has seriously improved Lulu's desire to do physical activities. She tends to prefer literacy activities, make believe, and fine motor things like paint and playdough.  But lots of practice on the balance bike seems to have made her more confident and agile in many gross motor activities.  She has better balance - go figure.
• Draws circles, zigzags, and straight lines when asked to.
• Names basic shapes. 
• Knows some letters - C, O, D, and others depending on day (so random). And pretends to read everything. 
• Asks questions about things - "how it works?"
• Is bossy and controlling - "that bad manners." "that's mine." Pushing and hitting (cringe).  Throws fits to get her way.  Knows about time-out and does not want to have one.
• Is diaper free all day long and rarely has accidents. Old fashioned training pants are the cutest things ever!
• Shows compassion - worries over other kids crying and wants to know that their parents will take care of them.  
• Continues to be our little love.  Obviously.

Enough already, right?!  Here's the picture montage of our day at the Museum of American History.

Waiting for  the "mecho chain."

Our metro line from East Falls Church to the Smithsonian  no transfers.  How lucky is that?!

East Falls Church is the first (or last depending on what way you're going) stop above ground.  The next stop (Ballston ) is underground.

Playing ball waiting for the train.

It was kind of a long wait at the station today.  We had time to kill.

Lulu insists on her own seat.

The D.C. Metro is complex.

At the Smithsonian stop.

Some days when I'm driving in Virginia I can see the Washington Monument. It makes me remember where I live now.

I love the cheesiness of this picture.  I was like "I'm gonna pose for an action shot." And this is what we got!

Check out the garden.  Wow.

I loved these WWII propaganda posters.

Advertisements for WWII VA loans.  So CLICHE!

Jewish boys taking a break.  This I also loved.

Jim Henson's early puppets.  The pop-culture exhibit was disappointing, but they are currently redoing it.  I love pop-culture.

A fabulous metal flag.

This actor was portraying a civil rights era training session for non-violent demonstration.  Timeless.  He was amazing.

From ABQ to D.C./Va in thirteen parts. This being the second post of three.

Halloween in a Hotel

7. Now we get to the actual relocating part. We left from ABQ on November 1.  On Halloween we stayed in a hotel b.c. we had nothing left in our house.  I was super bummed that Lulu didn't get to dress up and go trick-or-treating, but she had fun swimming in the pool at our hotel instead. Lulu and I flew to Michigan. She learned to climb out of her pack and play there and spent every night crowding me out of bed.  Oh well...it's always worth it to reconnect with our family and that is all we did.  Lulu was great on all the plane trips and she sat in her own seat for the first time which made a huge difference on my sanity. I lugged her car seat through the airport but it was worth it to have her contained, comfortable, and asleep for much of the flights.  Oh yes, and we left our beloved dog, Pippa, with Darrin's mom and dad.  She's an old dog and we didn't think apartment living and world traveling would be right for her....BOOHOO, WAAAA.  I love that dog!

Lulu loves baby Mihren.

My dream come true...
Lulu behaves on the plane.

8. We joined Darrin in Falls Church, VA.  Falls Church is about 10 minutes from D.C. just west of Arlington.  It seems like any suburb with plenty to do.  It's pretty diverse and not too exciting, but it seems fine. One thing I am seriously disappointed in is the quality of community children's programs it offers more on that later.  We live in furnished short term apartments which seems to house mostly foreign service people and others somehow associated with the foreign service.  It has a shuttle that takes Darrin to the Foreign Service Institute everyday (and brings him home too, of course).  
9.  Lulu learned to climb out of her crib in the apartment.  We've had a one bedroom apartment b/c they had a waiting list for two bedrooms and Lulu had a crib in the bedroom.  Second night here she let herself out.  We said goodbye to the crib and put the mattress on the floor for her.
10. We've been getting around and keeping ourselves BUSY!  We've gone into D.C. a few times on the metro which is easy and convenient to use.  We've gone to some fabulous farmer's market where I am happy to find humanely raised meat products and other fine food.  I've been Christmas shopping and finding my way around Falls Church.  

Lulu and her new friend Solveig

As I said earlier, I've been looking for quality children's programs for Lulu and this has been my biggest complaint so far.  I think part of it has to do with my teacher's eye.  We have a little activity center at the apt. complex here and there are programs for toddlers three mornings a week.  Two of them are called Kiddy Korner.  Basically, the activity director of the complex sets out bins of toys and the kids have a free for all.  This drives me nuts!  It is utter CHAOS.  The toys are disorganized and you have to search through the buckets to find pieces.  There are so many toys that kids are tripping over them constantly.  I am appalled that this is even an acceptable activity.  Do the other mothers find it appropriate?  I wish I were brave enough to complain or even make a suggestion to organize the toys and designate parts of the room for different activities (blocks, dolls, puzzles, etc.)  On a positive note I did meet another mom whose husband is in Darrin's class.  She has a daughter just two months older than Lulu and we have gotten together several times.  The other activity here at the  complex is a 'music' group.  Here the activity director puts in a Raffi cd and has a sing along while all the other mothers sit around and talk.  I cannot stand this!!!  No wonder kids come to school and talk while their teachers are talking.  GRRR!  
So I started looking outside the complex for activities.  I started with the library since we loved going to the main library in ABQ for the music class and story hours each week.  Falls Church has a beautiful library housed in a lovely old brick building and an open children's room with big bright windows and amphitheater like seating.  When I first arrived, I thought 'this is going to be great!'  I was wrong.  The librarian read seven books and did three 30 second finger plays.  This class was specifically for 18 - 36 months.  After the second book most of the kids were acting up, but the librarian didn't seem to mind and just went on reading only to take a break after the third to do some fingerplays.  At that point, I was thinking it might be o.k. but as I said she only did three and then went back to reading.  Honestly, I was bored.  Lulu was a champ and held up pretty well, but jeesh, come on.  Again wishing I could be brave enough to make a comment to someone.  Of course, we had a good time checking out books after and the library has a great selection of wooden puzzles to play with.  I haven't been back for another story hour, but I'm hoping that there is another librarian who conducts some of the other ones.
Next I went to the county rec center which advertised music and gym classes.  The music class was first and in the teacher's defense it was better than the other activities we'd been to, but not much. The teacher was a little on the crazy side.  I ended up asking for a refund on the gymnastics class because it was taught by the same teacher. We went to the second class today and it was better.  Maybe I'm just too critical. I'm not giving up though and I have a few other classes to try that start in January at the Arlington Rec Center.  Keeping my fingers crossed! I am also going to start taking Lulu to the Smithsonian once a week.  I hear the Natural History Museum is a hit with the toddlers.  

Lulu turns 2...aka Christmas

December 22nd is Lulu's birthday.  It fell on the solstice this year which I absolutely love.  The winter solstice is my favorite.  While it marks the shortest day of the year, it also means a return of light, a promise that winter will not hang on forever and that we will begin again to have longer days. Christmas fare at our house - a bright tree, shining metallic ornaments, strings of lights and shimmery garland, and plants that bloom in winter - symbolizes this desire to have more light, to remind the sun to keep shining again through the new year.  Her name, AnaLucia, means grace and light, a name chosen so carefully more than two years ago.  Of course she has graced us with her own little shining light. Her birthday provides us a special moment to be grateful for the changing of seasons, to be graced again with the return of the sunlight, to remember things that are bright and new even as the world seems dark and old.  
Here are some pictures from our brightest of holidays.

Making our tree Merry and Bright.

Mmmm...cookie dough.

Decorating Sugar Cookies for Santa

Party Girls.

I made cupcakes...not pretty but delish if i do say so myself.

This is Lulu's 'Smile' face.  We visited the Natural History Museum on her birthday.

Darrin took her on her first carousel ride - on the mall in d.c.

Sleeping on the Metro on the ride home from Smithsonian.

Santa visited Oakwood on a fire truck.  Little bit scary for Lulu.

I've started a tradition of taking Lulu's picture each Christmas in her stocking.  It's hard to believe this was her third Christmas!  Look how she's grown!