Dia de Mia Vol. 2 No. 23 & 24 Abi and Bernadette's Visit

We had a very lovely visit with Abuelita "Abi" and cousin, Bernadette. Mia was so excited to greet them at the airport that Mommy and Daddy could hardly keep up with her. She just sprinted all over the baggage claim area with a huge smile.

On Friday, Abi, Mommy and Mia went to the Shops at Georgetown to window shop and have lunch while Bernadette took a tour of the Georgetown campus. Then we took a driving tour of the Memorials. Some time in the afternoon was when Mia developed a special friendship with a mama tiger and her cub that Tata sent with Abi. The tiger mom sings a little song and Mia just lights up when she hears it. She still wants to take it everywhere she goes!

We had a jam packed day of touring on Saturday starting with a delicious lunch at Union Station. Next we hopped back onto the Metro and went to the Hirshorn Museum. Mia wasn't too impressed with the art and showed it by sleeping through the entire visit. After a couple of hours, we expected her to wake up so we walked over the the Natural History Museum to see the gems and minerals exhibit. We were hoping to show Mia the giant elephants but, she was still not impressed and kept sleeping.

The weather seemed nice so Abi, Mommy and Bernadette decided to walk to see the Lincoln Memorial. Daddy and Mia stayed behind because at some point, Mia would wake up from her nap and need a snack. So Daddy and Mia ventured over to see the Jim Hensen exhibit while the others walked to the Washington Monument. By the time we made it to the obelisk, we noticed that those big puffy clouds we saw were getting larger, darker and wetter. To our surprise, we heard several crashes of thunder. Time to start running! We pretty much got dumped on for the rest of the walk. Luckily, Mia was having a great time indoors with Bert, Ernie and Daddy.

Later that day, we went to Chrisfields Seafood so Bernadette and Abi could have some crab cakes. We were so excited to find a new ice cream joint next door. Mia sampled a few flavors but was really not that interested...yet.

Sunday was the perfect weather day to explore Eastern Market. While we were there, we met Allen, Elaine and Owen for lunch. Lunch was taking forever and we were fighting off nap time for as long as we could and luckily there weren't any meltdowns from the kids (or adults for that matter!). Abi and Bernadette babysat Mia in the evening so Mommy and Daddy could go see the Black Crowes. We had a good time and the babysitters proved to have a successful evening because all was peaceful and quiet on the Western Front when we got back. ;)

Monday was yet another glorious weather day so Mommy decided to take Abi, Bernadette and Mia to Brookside Gardens to walk the grounds and see the butterflies. We had so much fun outside on our walk and enjoyed the geese. The butterflies sure did like Abi (because she's so sweet). She was the only one lucky enough to have 4 butterflies (we didn't have any) land on her.

We were sad to say goodbye to Abi and Bernadette but look forward to seeing them again at Christmas time!

Click here and here for more pictures of their visit.

The rest of the week proved to be quite laid back. Mia continues to talk up a storm. Mostly she says "What's this?", "This is...", and "That is...". She learned how to say "Pwease" (Please) and says "Tank You" when she does something for us and when we do something for her. A polite toddler in the making!

She also got another tooth on 8-8-08. We call that one her Olympic tooth. Mommy is going to enjoy her last week with Mia before going back to work and Daddy is VERY much looking forward to a week alone with Mia before she heads back to day care.