kaleidoscoping chaos...: Me & You Monday!

Jonah's third birthday is a week from today (6/11). We've got lots of Jonah stuff to do, see and be! We are very into birthdays around here. We are also into keeping ourselves up to date so to speak. Plus, this month, in mid June Jonah is going to start summer camp! So we've got lots going on.

Jonah had been in full time daycare from May 2011 until December 2011 when I was sick and recovering. Then I took him out of daycare and he started a preschool coop right near our old place. We had lots of drama around our move, and then we moved in March, so I had pulled him out in February. Since then he has been home with Vera and me. We have been having a great time, but it is time for him to move on a bit (it is only 3 days a week for 3 hours a day) but it will be good for all of us.

Before camp starts he needs his annual doctor appointment and a dental checkup. We've got those scheduled.

We've also planned a family birthday gathering this weekend and a buddy birthday party at the end of the month.

He is also going to get his haircut for the first time ever (trauma for mommy) this weekend to coincide with his third birthday - it is a Jewish thing (called upsherin)... (see my previous post on it, Jonah and his hair here )

And today, we went to the ENT doctor for his tonsil/adenoid checkup. The kid desperately needs them removed. The doctors have been telling me this since he was born... so we are going to do it this summer - hopefully in August after camp. Jonah was awesome at the doctor today. He got a lollipop and a sticker. We loved the doctor. So we are all set I just need to schedule the exact date.

Jocelyn and I went with Jonah this morning to the ENT doctor without Vera (she stayed home with the babysitter). So we when got back, the babysitter was going to stay for a while and Jonah had been such a good guy - I asked him if he wanted to go on a "Me & You" adventure. Jonah made up that phrase. He uses it when Vera takes a nap and we do things together. Usually we are home and we play things that we don't like to play with Vera, like Lincoln Logs. Or we do stuff that Vera can't do like cook something special or do a complicated art project. So when I suggested an adventure his eyes lit up - we haven't done that since I don't know when.

I grabbed my kaleidoscope because I hadn't really planned anything. Turns out I bought this little "deck of cards" this weekend (no, not at Ikea but the local children's store while shopping for a baby gift). It is called 50 City Walks with Kids - Washington DC and it was in my purse. So I whipped that baby out and picked one that was in our neighborhood - we didn't have all day.

Jonah loved the card. And he was excited about the walk. We did walk Number 43-Politics & Prose and Fort Reno Park.

We followed the card pretty closely and we had a total adventure in a not so adventurous sort of way - and it was great. We started a few blocks from our house at Marvelous Market (5035 Conn Ave) for snacks. We both needed it. Then we went to the awesome independent bookstore that I used to hang out in all the time - back in 1998 - when I lived in the Van Ness neighborhood - called Politics & Prose, it is in the same shopping center as Marvelous Market. We hung out in the children's section for a bit. Jonah had never been before and he had fun exploring. There is a little "nook" or rabbit hole for kids to go through a door and sit on comfy pillows and read. There are a ton of really great diverse and interesting children's books. There is a little table and chairs and a big reading chair to sit and read. We did just that. It was really fun. Jonah picked all these very different books and we read them together. Then we made our way out the back and we were surprised by the wall mural. Jonah stopped me, "mom, look it's paint on the wall!" and then he found Corduroy and the monkeys from Caps for Sale! He thought it was super cool and so did I.

Next stop: Fort Reno Park. I had never been and the description was basically that it is a big hill - well, the highest point in Washington, DC to be exact (see info on it here and here). It is also the spot where there was a battle in the Civil War. It is located between Chesapeake and Fessenden Streets at 38th street and Nevada. Very close to the strip of stores that includes Marvelous Market and Politics & Prose. We set off. Jonah was walking but then jumped into the stroller. It is an uphill walk to the park on Fessenden from Conn Ave. But then Jonah announced, there it is mom - the mountain. It was a pretty steep "mountain" - so we crossed over and went exploring. There is a cool stone tower which Jonah insisted was where Mike the Knight lived but it was behind this big gate. We ran up and down the hill chasing butterflies and the sun was shining but it wasn't hot. It was pretty fantastic. Jonah was laughing and smiling. We tried to find a way into the stone tower to find Mike the Knight but we couldn't - Jonah was quite upset by that (I had gummy bears to distract him). Then we walked toward another path and actually found the Fort Reno sign.

The park is big and is between Deal Middle School and the Wilson High School. These will be Jonah's schools if we still live here when it is time for him to go to them. We've been talking a lot about going to school and camp these days - trying to get ready for this summer and next year. Jonah is getting used to the the idea of going to school again. When we were running up and down the hill, all the middle school kids were out playing and he WANTED to go! He was all excited that one day that would be his school. This made me smile - extra big!

We were both getting tired and hungry again - it was quite a walk. We walked around the park to the other side and up Nevada to Conn Ave and we were back where we started! It was lunchtime so we grabbed a sub sandwich from Besta Pizza and walked over to the BP gas station on the corner. There is a picnic table there - Jonah's dream - he got to eat lunch at the gas station and watch the cars, trucks, police cars, mixer trucks. motorcycles and fire trucks pass us by on Connecticut Ave!

Me & You time today was pretty good!

Looking forward to working our way through all 50 cards in our deck!