So here's the full report back from our aquatic botanical garden tour:
1. The scenery was gorgeous! [When on the website, you can enlarge the blog photos by clicking on them.]
2. You didn't think Charlotte was just serenely sitting below a tree? Right! She was only catching her breath after a solid 20-30 minutes of wild dancing to an African band ;-)
3. We all loved the nature walk, and discovered many critters!
We visited for their annual water lily festival. Every summer, fields of lilies bloom as wide as the eye can see. It was stunning - almost like an impressionist painting. The setting befitting, one of our little artists "posed" unknowingly. (Truth be told: Charlotte was actually stopping just for a minute to catch her breath after some wild dancing, and to check out this cool mushroom!)
Speaking of heartbreak: Charlotte had her very first pop idol or, better, celebrity crush last summer.
We had a magazine lying around with Brad Pitt on the cover. And Charlotte was enamored at first sight:
First she exclaimed "Look, that's Daddy!" -- who was (naturally) flattered, while Mama just sighed in wishful thinking -- and then Charlotte continued to look for it everywhere and requested over & over again to read Brad Pitt's "story."
Charlotte still sometimes asks for "Brad Pitt!" but the magazine has mysteriously vanished -- for all we know it's hidden under her mattress (until she's a teenager).
Although big sister surely still sets the tone... she has graciously handed over (aka assigned) an instrument:
Noah, on the xylophone, loves an audience -- happily cheering to his fans -- and he is already a heartbreaker... as you can tell from the paparazzi shots ;-)
Speaking of performances: Avid readers of our blog know that Charlotte does not sit still often... she rather likes to put on a show herself ;-) So we did not have much hope for taking her to her very first theater play last summer at just 2 years old. BUT: Charlotte was mesmerized and sat still for 45 minutes to follow the fascinating production on stage. "The Cat in the Hat" has been one of her favorite reads after that.
Since this life changing event, Charlotte has been a theater lover: from "Goodnight Moon" to "12 Days of Christmas," the "Jungle Book" and countless puppet theater plays. She even took her little Noey to a baby theater this Spring, and is already excited to see a musical with Mama this weekend.
Of course, there's lots of "night life" with babies & toddlers... but not so much the kind you fondly remember in connection with dinner, drinks and dancing.
BUT: Kudos to Noah. When he was barely a month old, he "allowed" Mama to elope for a fun concert night with Herbert Groenemeyer coming to play in DC last September.
There were only two things Charlotte wanted to do to celebrate the Fourth of July: attend a street parade and watch fireworks. The first was a success. The second? Not so much.
After the morning parade -- an entertaining who's who of local DC politics (with every local official running for election marching down the street) -- we went to a friends' house to BBQ and play in the yard. The kids played all right, running and jumping and swimming in the kiddie pool all afternoon. (Play should probably be clarified: the other two toddlers napped in the afternoon while Charlotte hung out with the parents. Play ensued once they were all awake.)
While swimming in the kiddie pool was fun, the highlight was (not) getting dressed thereafter [video below]. Somehow, in the mayhem upstairs while the adults, Penny and Noah were downstairs, Charlotte's underwear went missing. Like seriously missing. We checked every nook and cranny; it vanished.
The plan was to head downtown for the fireworks later in the evening. Noah would sleep in his stroller while Charlotte enjoyed the view from Daddy's rooftop terrace overlooking the Mall at work. That was the plan. Instead, Charlotte passed out and was a lifeless noodle and Noah was wide awake and giggly. Since Noah was awake, we took him out of his stroller. Charlotte was wedged inside in his stead. Her legs hung about 18 inches past the diaper bag.
We wheeled her around and left her outside until just before the show was to begin. That was a mistake. Everyone knows to never wake a sleeping baby. But. But. But Charlotte so wanted to see the fireworks. Faced with a no-win situation, we woke her and hoped for the best. Like I said, that was a mistake.
Daddy took Charlotte on his lap outside to the front row of the terrace. She was two seats down from the Chairman of the FDIC, faced with a gorgeous view of the Mall and the fireworks. But, alas, it wasn't meant to be. Charlotte watched a few blasts but then decided to go back inside to the cafeteria. Maybe we'll try again next year. Or maybe we'll just leave her sleeping and let the little(r) night owl enjoy the show by himself.
Speaking of colors... you might recall that Charlotte
a) is a tomboy (most of the time) and
b) her favorite color is "BROWN"
At a birthday party back in April, a friend had a balloon lady who was happily twisting balloon animals for the kids. When it was Charlotte's turn to request one, she exclaimed "I want a spider, a BROWN spider!" ... The lady, shocked, tried to confirm "Are you sure, honey, that you don't want a butterfly or something, maybe in purple?"
As for her birthday, Charlotte is excited about all kinds of celebrations now and knew there will be a street parade (!!!) and fireworks for 4th of July.
So we had a fun-filled, colorful day of waving flags, collecting beads (we counted 10 in Charlotte's final loot), splashing at the water park, bbq-ing & playing with friends, hitting a Pinata, and watching the spectacular display of DC fireworks.
Daddy thought the bomb squad truck was definitely the coolest during the parade (only in the nation's capital...) while Penny was happy that she got just a simple, ordinary hair cut this summer. Mama's best present of the day was Germany's soccer team win in the World Cup quarter finals. Despite great anticipation, Charlotte fell asleep and did not appreciate the VIP view we had from Daddy's office when she woke up to "louuuuud" fireworks! Noah, on the other hand, loved the colorful spectacle so much that he decided to stay up a bit.
For sure, we all had a lot to dream about that night.
