exercise

We almost always leave the house for a few hours in the morning, but my goal generally is to get back by 1-ish to have some nice structured time at home to get him ready for his nap.  We might have lunch on the road, but usually we come back to the house to eat.  I try to involve him in the food prep as much as I can, and the meal itself is pretty similar to the breakfast routine I wrote about last week.  After lunch we always exercise together in the living room, and it has become the staple of our mid-day routine.  We’re pretty active all morning, and I go to the gym two nights a week, but I have become hooked on these afternoon workouts and Joseph seems to really enjoy them.

I usually play about four or five upbeat songs while we do stretches, yoga poses, push-ups, sit-ups, and so on.  I have a lot of back exercises that I try to mix in, many with resistance bands.  His involvement is varied, sometimes he will really try to do what I am doing, and other times he just runs around jumping on me or just doing his own thing.

I then always end the sequence with Indigo Girls’ cover of the Elton John song “Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters,” not for any particular reason, but it has become part of the routine so I stuck with it.  It is a nice slow song and signals to Joseph that we are done exercising and that it is time to quiet down.  He definitely knows the song and says “night night” as soon as it comes on, but I still have mixed success with him actually settling down.  After the song ends we put away the mat and the bands, have a cup of milk, and I put him in his crib for a nap. 

Yesterday Danielle and I videotaped the routine.  With both of us here and the camera out he was pretty hyper and not as engaged as usual, but we had fun.  I cut the sequence down so that the first half of the video is snippets of exercise to Cake’s “Let Me Go” – which for a long time was the first song I would play to kick off the routine.  I have since started mixing it up more.  The second half of the video is the supposed quiet time with the Indigo Girls’ song.

I’m having trouble embedding the video here.  Click here if you don’t see it below, and if you want to see other other videos starring Joseph, click here.

Cabin John Park

Eric came over last night with his pasta maker and we made homemade ravioli with ground veal.  This is now the high-water mark for our expectations when dinner guests offer to bring something.  It was delicious.  We took some of the scraps of pasta from the sheets of ravioli and made a small portion of spaghetti that Joseph devoured.

This morning we continued to fuel Joseph’s obsession with trains by taking him up to Cabin John Park where they have a miniature train that weaves through the grounds.  It is a really nice park, very easy to get to, with a great playground and picnic sites and probably lots more that we didn’t get to.  The train is a replica of an 1860’s Southern Pacific Railroad steam locomotive, and the ride through the park takes about ten minutes.  Joseph was fixated on the playground until he heard the train whistle, at which point he stopped everything and looked up to investigate.  After that we headed over to the little station, bought our tickets, and caught the next ride through the park.  It was a hit.

playground hunting

Our plans to go to the annual kite festival on the mall were derailed by a 90 minute wait to apply for Joseph’s American passport. He already has a French one. It was a perfect day for the kite festival, but because of the time we went to a playground new to us on Lee St. overlooking the water in Old Town. It was a very nice spot.

I don’t mention it regularly in the blog posts, but we go to a playground at some point almost every day.  Joseph loves it, and has learned to say “playground” – it started off sounding more like “punna” and is moving towards “paygon.”  Recommendations on playgrounds trickle in from various sources, or we’ll drive by one that looks nice and make a mental note to come back.  Danielle and I tried to knock out a list at lunch today of all the playgrounds Joseph has been to in the last month or so.  We came up with twelve, but I think we’re forgetting a couple.

• The one near the Y
• The one near Caboose
• The Pit *
• The one on Hume
• Beach Park *
• Clemyjontri *
• The Blue One *
• The one in Old Town on Lee St.
• The one by Monroe *
• The one near Renee
• The one in Crystal City near the Korean Restaurant
• The one on Cameron Mills behind the school

The ones with an asterisk are our favorites.

A few of the playgrounds have discarded toys like play trucks, tricycles, play shopping carts.  Joseph can spend hours pushing them around and rearranging them, and he is very careful to point out a bicycle any time we see one.  He’ll also carefully haul a play truck up a slide with him and then send it barreling down.  He’ll go down most slides, though sometimes I have to coax him the first time or go down with him once.  And he loves the swings.

At our favorite playground, the pit, there is an immense number of discarded toys for toddlers, and recently there was a legal battle in which the city tried to remove them all for safety concerns.  The neighborhood apparently won by promising to self-police the situation and remove anything that doesn’t function properly.  They’re actually all in lousy shape, but Joseph doesn’t know the difference.

cherry blossoms

Eric’s been teaching at Glasgow Middle School for at least a few years now – I’ve lost track of how many – and ever since he started I’ve wanted to go see what it is like.  This morning we finally did.  They just moved into a surprisingly nice new building in January and he is still unpacking.  As Chair of the ESL Department he doesn’t teach as much as he used to and was able to give us a thorough tour. 

The highlight was when the students flooded into the hallways for a few minutes of total chaos between classes.  Eric strolled out into the hallway to survey the scene, banter with the kids, and dole out admonishments.  I could put a lot of positive spin on his decision to leave a blossoming career in PR in New York City to become a public school teacher, but I realized today it was probably just the easiest way to go somewhere where everyone would call him Mister.  Anyway, Joseph had fun playing with his new train and perusing an algebra textbook in Eric’s office while we chatted.

Afterwards we zipped downtown to see the cherry blossoms.  The outing encapsulated everything I love and hate about DC – traffic, parking, heat, humidity, tourists – but the cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom and it was great to be outside and strolling around the Tidal Basin.  We met up with Alisa and started at the Jefferson Memorial where Joseph put on a show scrambling up and down the steps.  He then enjoyed a sandwich in the stroller while we walked all the way around the Tidal Basin.

play date vs. play group

We’ve had amazing Spring weather most of the time since I started staying home with Joseph, but today was rainy and we went over to Renee’s to play with Cameron.  I asked Renee, far more experienced than I at these things, to explain the difference between a “play group” and a “play date.”  She said, basically, that a “play group” is a regular recurring appointment, whereas a “play date” may be one-time or sporadic.  Since we’re getting together every Thursday I guess that means we have a play group, though my fear of commitment leaves me a little uneasy about calling it that.  She said it was fine to refer to our get-togethers as play dates for now.

While I was there she gave me some photos from our last couple visits, and also this one from over a year ago at Julia’s third birthday party.  I don’t recall having seen it at the time.  So this picture would have  been taken less than a month after launching Politico.  Funny to think how much things have changed in a year.

So that’s a good segue to link to this article, a profile I did for The Wall Street Journal on being a stay at home dad.  Sue Shellenbarger, the Work and Family Columnist for WSJ.com, talked to me at length and managed to whittle the conversation down to what appears to be about 1200 words.   This is just a small step in my on-going campaign to promote world peace by providing people access to Joseph’s charms and good nature.

Roosevelt Island

We went to Roosevelt Island yesterday but I only just now got to uploading the photos.  I really regret not walking there during the day when I was working just a few blocks away in Rosslyn.  Though I’ve been there plenty of times, I hadn’t been in years and I hadn’t paid attention before to how perfect it is for toddlers.

The island is 88 acres with nice trails, and Joseph enjoyed scampering around the steps and fountains at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial in the middle of the island. 

morning routine

Our weekdays are breaking down into very defined chunks of mini-routines.  This is how it plays out usually:

7-9:30 Morning Routine
9:30-12:30 Activity
12:30-2:30 Lunch and Pre-nap Routine
2:30-5:30 Nap Attempt
5:30-7:00 Activity
7:00-8:30 Dinner and Bedtime Routine

I almost always write about our main activities, but have been meaning to document the rest of the day too.  So here is our morning routine.

Danielle gets up before I do and is showered and ready to leave a little after 7:00am.  Usually around 7:00 Joseph wakes up and she is usually still home.  She pours him a cup of milk and brings it into our room, and then brings him into our room.  Danielle leaves and Joseph he sits in bed with me drinking his milk.   We have a pile of books by the bed, and I gradually wake up and then we read for quite a while.  These days it is nursery rhymes, and he is starting to sort of hum/sing some of his favorites, Twinkle Twinkle especially.  He knows the words “twinkle twinkle” and then he sort of knows the last word of each line/verse.  So it comes out like this, “Twinkle, twinkle…..la la…. star.  Na na…… are.  Up ahhh…na…na…. high.  La..la….sky…”  And so on.

Eventually I take a shower, and Joseph brushes his teeth.  We have a strict “toothbrush stays in the bathroom” rule that keeps him in there for a few minutes.  Once he is done he usually stays near the door outside the bathroom where we have a small pile of his books on the floor.  He rarely wanders off, and if he does for more than a minute I wrap up the shower.  When I turn off the water he usually comes running back yelling “towel!” and helps retrieve it for me.

Before leaving the bedroom we stack up all the books and make the bed.  For a while he was very good about helping straighten the covers and pillows with me.  Recently he has discovered a new game of crawling back on the bed while I am making it and getting covered in blankets.  It is cute but usually at this point I want to move on.

Breakfast can take a long time.  His favorite breakfast is oatmeal.  We sit on the floor of the kitchen together with the saucepan, measuring cups, water, and oatmeal.  He helps me pour the water into the pan, and I put it on the stove.  Then he helps me measure the oatmeal.  Then he plays with the remaining cups while I make myself a bagel.  He generally eats some of my bagel, some fruit, and a bowl of oatmeal.

The meal takes so long, it will only succeed if he has a distraction, so we have started allowing one or two toys or books on the kitchen table where we eat.  I prefer him to be playing with a puzzle or a book for a while so I can shovel the food into his mouth more efficiently.  When we are done he likes to open and close the door of the dishwasher.

It is often 9:00 or so by the time we are done in the kitchen.  If we have music class or a play date we may have half an hour or an hour to fill.  If we are heading out for our own outing I often wait until 9:30 or so to be sure traffic isn’t a problem.  So we take our time getting him dressed and getting my things together.  He has become fanatical about shoes (wonder where he gets that from?) and he will go and get his shoes and bring them to me, and then get mine.  He’ll also wear my shoes or Danielle’s and traipse around the living room very proud of himself.  He is also very interested in pointing out our cars in the driveway, and in narrating as I grab jackets and house keys and car keys.  This can usually be used pretty effectively to round him up and get him out the front door.

So that is a snapshot of the morning.  Next up…  lunch, and exercise.

life, death, resurrection

We had brunch at the Stetzers’ on Easter Sunday.  It was our first nice sit-down breakfast in forever, and awesome food.  We celebrated the Easter bunny coming and leaving little plastic eggs with treats in them.

Today I drove back to the Petworth neighborhood to track down Rock Creek Cemetery, where I had intended to go on Friday.  The neighborhood has so many big chunks of land taken up by the Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home, the national cemetery, Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington Hospital, Catholic University, and Howard University.  The surrounding residential areas are a little rundown but the homes are very old and have great potential.  It is just a mile or so from the Capitol, and very scenic.  If the economy and real estate market weren’t tanking it’d be the next candidate for gentrification and investment real estate.

Rock Creek Cemetery was beautiful.  It is big and really old, with many Washington dignitaries buried there and gravestones going back hundreds of years.  There are a surprising number of mausoleums and large tombstones.  We were pretty much all alone walking around there – a little strange to be in such a quiet and solemn place with Joseph.  But he was very happy to be outside and pretty good about staying on the paths.

I have wanted to go there for a long time to see the memorial that Henry Adams had built for his wife after she died.  It is a famous memorial that I had read about years ago.  The site was captivating but hard to describe.  The sculpture is sitting inside a small plot with marble benches surrounded by trees, so you walk into the memorial and you’re removed from the rest of the cemetery.  It is very peaceful, and worth a trip.

7+ months and counting

So, it is starting to settle in that we are not far from having another baby.  Danielle had a shower with her Newseum friends this afternoon and we got lots of great little girl clothes.  This picture is from right before she left for the shower.  It’s obvious where Joseph gets his looks from.  (I do think, though, that he gets some traits from me – the stubborn and mischievous ones among them.)

This morning was friends and family day at the Newseum.  It was great to see the place in action, though with Joseph it was hard to focus on the exhibits.  Still, the place is amazing, and everything Danielle designed looks awesome. 

Brooklawn and Petworth

I may be biased in thinking there isn’t a bad picture of Joseph, but I took quite a few good ones at the playground today.  Some others are on our website. 

We had another rough night with Joseph waking up a couple times, and this morning he was in a very good mood but mellow.  We went for a long drive around Brooklawn and Catholic University.  We also stumbled upon the United States Soldiers and Airmen’s Home, which has a cottage that President Lincoln lived in at times, and the cemetery adjacent to it which is the only other national cemetery other than Arlington administered by the army.  I didn’t know any of this but read up on it on wikipedia and elsewhere after I got home.  We never got out of the car but it was a nice drive through an area I didn’t know much about.  I had intended to get to the Rock Creek Cemetery but we never made it – that’ll be next time.

Driving around Brooklawn was a bit of a nostalgia trip right after yesterday morning at Iwo Jima – we used to meet Lisa and Steph and Curtis there for brunch on the weekends all the time.