Anything But Wool

When I'm not traveling or watching Ela, I occasionally crochet. I used to do this a lot more, but Ela likes to play with my yarn, so now it's a rare evening activing if bedtime goes really well and I have energy left.

The thing is, unlike a lot of the knitters I know, I hate wool. It makes me itch. I don't usually make stuff for myself, but just working with wool yarn is iritating to my fingers if I do it for too long, so I tend to use yarn that feels nice and soft regardless of how natural it is. Usually, I make baby gifts, so I figure soft is good, and washable is better.

Lately though, I've gotten tired of pastels. I went through a phase where I both wanted to crochet and didn't want to look at anything in my yarn stash. Since I've promised Zack I won't buy more yarn until I've used up (and hopefully given away) a good bit of what I already have, this lead to a creative dilema for me. I went on a mad search for something to make that wouldn't require me to buy supplies. The result was this:






It's a pot scrubber. It's made from one of those shower scrubby things, which I cut into one long yarn-like strip. (The spoon is in the picture so you can see how big the final product is.) I had one made by someone else a long time ago and it worked really well, so I decided it was time for more. One shower scrubby thing made 8 or so scrubbers, so now I'm set for a loooong time. And it was a rather gratifying project. I mean, cutting up the material was rather a pain, and it took some practice crocheting it at first, but they turned out to be a nice useful thing. And it kept my hands busy while I watched Lost.

Now I'm back on another baby project, but I'm thinking about doing another non-yarn project again sometime soon. We'll see what happens.

Philly for a Week

A few weeks ago, Zack was sent to Philadelphia for a conference. Since it's not a long drive, Ela and I decided to tag along and do a little sightseeing. We stayed in a lovely Embassy Suites hotel outside of town, and had a really fun week. Unfortunately, my camera has recently broken, so I had only my iPhone to use to snap shots. The result is relatively few pictures of the week. Instead, I'll just have to write about it.

Monday was a "figure out where we are" sort of day. I took Ela by train into town to the Reading Terminal Market. She fell asleep, so I just kind of walked around the shopping district down there checking things out. We had lunch, then I brought her back to the hotel, hoping to catch an afternoon swim. The pool was broken, but we took a rest in the room, and then headed back out in the evening with Zack for dinner and a bit more looking around.

Tuesday was rainy, so I decided to take Ela to the aquarium. My thought was "it's a week day. It shouldn't be too crowded." I forgot that it's also May, which is prime field trip season. I think every school in a three district area was there when we arrived. There were kids aged preschool (armed with those huge strollers for six) to high school (who had to fill out biology worksheets and were often to be found hiding out in the bathroom). The good news is that Ela loves to watch people as well as fish, so she considered the crowds a bonus. We saw lots and lots of fish, a few "dodos" (penguins in this case) and even a hippo. There was a place where you could touch a shark, but I told Ela she would have to wait for next time. She didn't seem to mind. The trip wiped us out pretty well, so then we headed back to the hotel, where the pool continued to be broken, and we had another quiet evening with Daddy.

Wednesday was rainy again, so we headed for the Please Touch Museum. I was skeptical about this trip, but we needed to be inside, and it was better than the hotel room. When I arrived at the museum, my skepicism increased because they charge for all people age 1 and up. I was mildly outraged at the idea of plunking out 15 bucks for Ela as well as me. Then I showed military ID, and it turns out military get in for free (two people per ID). This improved my opinion of the place significantly. I even shelled out the extra three bucks for a carosel ride.

By the way, it's super hard to take a picture with a phone while holding a baby on the horse.
My opinion of the museum got even higher when I found out that each area in it has one section reserved just for toddlers (aged 3 and under). They have a museum worker standing at the gate to keep the big kids out. This section, obviously, had age appropriate play stuff related to whatever the theme of the bigger area was. Ela loved it!

There were areas with water, fairy tale, city and transportation themes. It was more than we could do before we ran out of steam. We finally had to give up and go home for a nap, but we had a super time. The day was ended with an equally super dinner with some friends who live in Philly, Lauren and Steve. They introduced us to an excellent Italian place. Ela entertained the other guests, and we had a nice chance to catch up.

On Thursday, Zack got a day off from work to come hit the historical district with us. It was the first really sunny day we had, and we took advantage of that. We saw Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's home, Carpenter's Hall (where the first Continental Congress met), a memorial tomb for the unknown soliders of the revolution, and of course the Liberty Bell.

We were exhausted by the end of all this sightseeing, so it was actually quite good to go home on Friday. We arrived at a clean house, thanks to Zack's meticulous work before we left, and now we've recouperated and started to get back into the grind. It was a really fun trip, though. I was happy to get out and see a bit more of the eastern coast.

A Trip to the Zoo

I meant to post pictures with this post, but haven't had time to load them, so here's the text anyway.

Last weekend seemed like a good time to go check out the zoo, it being free and the weather being good. Ela has recently taken an interest in furry things that move and also birds (which she calls "Dodo"). We figured she'd enjoy it. The only problem was that everyone else in the DC area had the same idea, so it was pretty crowded. Also, it got a little warmer than we expected, so some of the animals were hiding.

All the same, we had a good time. Ela noticed the animals (an improvement from her last zoo visit) and really liked watching the wolf (which she told "woof woof"). She had a great time in the Bird House, and loved the flamingos, too.

I have to admit that I kind of missed the BioPark and Jungle Safari from Japan as we walked around. The animals there had a lot more freedom. We spent several hours wandering, and only hit about half of the zoo. Then Ela was getting fussy and Daddy needed a coffee and Mommy needed something cool, so we skipped the petting zoo and called it a day. We'll go back some time to do the other half. It was a good trip, though, and it is so cool that we live near a zoo that's free! Ela and I may check it out on a rainy day and/or weekday over the summer.

Story Time is Politically Correct

Every Wednesday, Ela and I go to story time at a library near our house. It's good for us in several ways. 1) It gets us both out of the house. 2) It gets me exercise, since we walk there. 3) It allows Ela to meet people her size. 4) It reinforces for Ela that books really are fun (not that she really needs it, but it doesn't hurt). 5) It teaches me, or reteaches me, the fun little rhymes and songs that people use with their babies. I have a pretty good memory, but most of what we sang as kids is gone from my head now. When I hear it in story time, it comes back pretty quickly, but I need that jump start to get to it. I'm growing a pretty good list of hand games and songs that Ela likes.
Once in awhile, though, I hear a song and I think "I know this" but discover it's been changed in the almost thirty (yikes!) years since I was young enough to appreciate it. Sometimes, it's an improvement. This was the case for "Ten Little Indians." It's a pretty basic counting song. When I was little, we held up our fingers and sang "one little two little three little indians" and so on up to ten. The library story time doesn't count indians. Most days, they count bubbles. At the end of the song, "Ten little bubbles go pop pop pop!" and we all clap our hands. This makes a little more sense than counting indians, in my opinion. In the other version, which can be sung in either Spanish or English, we sing "two little hands and ten little fingers" first, and then we count the fingers, which makes even more sense. Also, it gives kids a chance to practice a little bit of Spanish, and I'm always for encouraging multi-lingualism.
However, there are other songs that should have been left alone, and one of those is Little Bunny Foo Foo. I'll be honest, I can't remember all the words to this song as we sang it back in the day, but I do remember, quite clearly, that it involved scooping up some imaginary creature and boping it on the head. That part was fun. It was a story song about a bunny wandering around and being naughty. Occasionally the good fairy would come by and tell him to cut out the naughtiness. The song had a moral, too. The bunny eventually got turned into a goon for boping things on the head because hitting is wrong, right? And we all said that cheesy phrase, "Hare today, goon tomorrow." Not anymore. Now, the story is that Little Bunny Foo Foo wanders through the forest to play. No naughty behavior at all. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, the good fairy stops by and tells the Bunny to hurry up, so he wanders a bit faster. Finally, his mother calls him home, and off he goes.
I'm totally annoyed by this adjustment. For one thing, it's not nearly as fun. Sure, the kids get to walk, hop and run in place, but it just doesn't seem nearly as cool as the fun boping motion we used to have. I don't know why. May be that's just my perception because I like the old one better. The bigger issue, though, is that the story doesn't make sense any more. Also, I don't really know what was wrong with the old version. Sure, the kids used to practice that naughty behavior (and enjoy it) but 1) how naughty was it really? and 2) they were taught that this was wrong as they were listening. I can't figure out why it was changed, and I think it was changed for the worse. May be someone reading this will disagree and explain it to me.
My mom works at a church that has a preschool, and she assures me that Little Bunny Foo Foo is still sung in the old way there, so that makes me feel better, but I still feel a little irked every time we sing it at story time. I'll have to look up the old words and teach it to Ela the right way when she's old enough to enjoy it. In the mean time, we enjoy the other songs and games at story time. It's a good break in the middle of our week, and always educational!

Easter

I posted about the cherry blossoms, and then I lost all desire to blog for a week. I think part of the reason I was so lazy was I went to North Carolina to visit family, and I was out of my routine. It’s hard to get motivated when I’m on vacation.

But Easter was very nice. We got up and went to the 10:30 service at our church. It was super packed, so we couldn’t even all sit together, but it was a good service. Minjee was kind enough to take Ela out when she ran out of church steam, and they played with the Easter Bunny. Apparently, Ela thinks the Easter Bunny is pretty awesome. I’m guessing this is due to the fact he looks like a really big dog (from her perspective).

Once we got home, we put together a yummy lunch consisting of ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, pasta salad, and the traditional lamb cake. My cousins came over and we all smooshed into our dining area and had a very nice meal.

Dad had to leave after lunch, and that kind of set us all of on our own directions. Minjee and her boyfriend went out to do some sightseeing, and Mom went into full cleaning mode. I packed up my bags for my trip to North Carolina, and Zack mowed the lawn, so it was a productive day. We traded off on baby duty so we could all accomplish our goals.

Late in the evening by our usual standards, we went out for Korean dinner. Then Ela passed out and Minjee took over baby duty again and we got in one last game of Rock Band with my cousins, who were preparing to move. (We miss them already!) So we had a good time all day with family and friends.

The next day I headed to North Carolina for the week, and now I’m back and Zack’s heading out, so we’re still keeping pretty busy. I’ll try to keep things updated.

Hanami in DC

One of the things I am going to miss about Japan is the cherry blossoms in the spring. They are just beautiful. There are parks filled with the cherry trees, and when they bloom it’s like having warm snow in seventy degree weather. I will miss seeing them all, and I will miss the lovely Hanami (Flower Viewing) picnics that take place there every year.
Luckily, we moved to a place that has cherry blossoms, so this year we decided to have a Hanami party just like we would have in Japan. Mom, Dad, my sister Minjee and her boyfriend Tristan came up for Easter, and on Saturday we got together a nice little crowd for our picnic.
I spent the morning making rice and onigiri (rice balls). Mom and Minjee made sushi. We also put together some raw vegetables and edamame and fruit and packed it all up to go to eat under a blossoming tree with a few cousins.
Our original plan was to have the picnic actually down at the tidal basin where the most trees are. Thankfully, we decided that it would be a long way to go with all our food, so we went to a park nearer to our house where we knew there were cherry trees. Unfortunately, only one was still in bloom, but it was enough.

Our cousins brought mochi (sweet rice paste) and the food was all delicious. We had a good time chatting.

Ela decided that it was a good day for a walk. At first, she only wanted to walk on the sidewalk, and she took off around the park without the slightest concern for whether anyone was following. Then she set to work learning to walk on the uneven terrain of the grass. This is still a work in progress,but she got to the point where she didn’t need a finger for moral support.

After our picnic, we sent the blankets and food home with our cousins and headed out on a very ambitious walk to the tidal basin to see a few more blossoms. We quickly discovered just how good it was that we didn’t try to picnic there. It was super crowded. All the same the flowers were beautiful.

It wasn’t quite Japan, but it felt great to be out and see the flowers. We were exhausted by the time we made it home, but it was worth it.

Off to the Ball

The Supply Corps Ball was held here recently. Zack and I managed to get a babysitter and go. It was Ela’s first non-family babysitter in the States. It was our second Supply Corps Ball, and a bit bigger of deal than the one in Sasebo could be.
The ball was held at a lovely place just outside of the city, called the Sunset Room at National Harbor. We got a great view of the sun setting over the river as we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink or two.

We were seated for dinner with a bunch of Zack’s friends from work. We were supposed to be joined by an admiral, but he had something else come up at the last minute and couldn’t make it. We had a fun time at our table anyway.

There was a lovely speech by a Lt General from the Army about all the usual things. She said she was going to try to make it different from the usual speeches at these events. I’m not convinced she succeeded, but I appreciate her efforts. Then there was a superb dinner. I felt a little tiny bit homesick for the food that was always served at the Harbor View for these events (which was predictable and good) and for Louis, who ran things there. Then I tasted my steak. Harbor View is good, but this was heavenly.
So we enjoyed our meal, then a lovely cake, and then we returned home to find our miracle worker of a babysitter had managed to get the princess to bed. So it was a very successful and pleasant evening.