It Was Not An Earthquake!

It was this dinosaur!! Okay, back story. Henry and I decided to play tourist on Tuesday and metro-ed in to DC.
Here he is super interested in the Washington Monument. Apparently now it's tilted?

Headed to none other than the Natural History Museum for the obligatory shot with the big elephant in the lobby. Then we were off to, "hunt dinosaurs!" This was actually the best trip ever to a museum with Henry.We've been there at least 4 times. This time he was so involved in the exhibits and paid attention to everything! He knew the names of all the dinosaurs!

The best exhibit by far was the informational video on the wildebeest's digestive system. Did you know that wildebeests have 4 stomachs!? They do! We counted them. Did you know that in the initial part of digestion they regurgitate their food (grass) and chew it again? It's called cud. Then, it goes through the next three stomachs and breaks down. THEN...Henry's favorite part and the reason we had to watch this clip no less than 5 times....

IT BECOMES......
(Henry is tee hee hee-ing)

You guessed it...POOP! My child can now read and spell poop. He can also say that it is not a "potty word" because it was in a museum. Thank you for that Smithsonian!

Awesome, really.

Then, yet another reason that I am certain that I have a little boy on my hands.

The tarantula feeding!!

Did you know that tarantulas do not have teeth? Nope, they inject their prey (in this case a cute little grasshopper) with venom that makes their insides turn to jelly and...well, I'll spare you, but I'm not sure that Henry will never use a straw in quite the same way.

Again, thank you Smithsonian!

After that, what else was there to do but go outside to enjoy the glorious weather and have a snack.

And, yes, I bought the plastic chomping dinosaur. There he is eating from the swamp. The one puddle on 1,000+ acres of National Mall. Henry finds it.
So back to the quaking earth. Sadly, embarrassingly, we did not feel it. I think we were the only two on 1,000+ acres of the National Mall to not feel a thing! We were on the carousel. We got off the carousel and I thought to myself, jeez, it's getting pretty crowded out here, it was empty a few minutes ago. Then I noticed that everyone was wearing business attire. Strange? Lucky Fed employees, get to waltz around on their lunch hour! At that point we were walking in front of the Smithsonian Castle and people were RUNNING out of it. Yes, the fur definitely went up on the back of my neck at that point. At the same time I heard someone say, "...it was a 5.8..."

So Henry and I just wandered around the mall as the metro was closed.

Naturally Henry had to make friends with most of the people on the 1,000+ acres! Here's a new friend that he decided to plop down on because she had a book that had maps in it (oh, he's obsessed with maps).

So we eventually braved the Metro crowds; and boy do I mean crowds. Thank goodness I had him strapped in his stroller or I would have been a wreck. We made it as far as we could and I finally got hold of daddy who drove out and found us walking (oh did I mention that my cell phone completely broke?). Thank you to the random people who let me borrow their cell phone once we got off the Metro! We were happy to see the house still standing and that the chickens had not gone berserk (not that you could tell the difference). A few broken candle holders and, unfortunately a figurine that was Billy's Mom's.

Speaking of berserk chickens. I have put in egg boxes for them to start using to lay their eggs. Per my trusty chicken owner manual. Well, they are freaked out by the boxes (which are actually small and fit under their roost) and refuse to go into their coop at night. So they have decided to start their evening on the steps of the deck.

How do I explain that foxes can climb stairs?

Crazy birds!

So now Henry comforts them. Great, this will stop them for sure! This is super cute for about 5 minutes, then he can learn about the digestive system of a chicken on our DECK! YUCK!
Onward!

Today we went for a hike. Or should I say, I went for a hike with...let me get this straight..., "super batman boy!"

And a baby blanket works just fine as a cape! You will never catch me buying a new cape (just like I would never buy the plastic chomping dinosaur!).
Then it rained.

We got soaked. I said to Henry, "A soggy/bad hike is better than a great day at work!"