mojo-momma: 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.