A Day at the Smithsonian and Solid Food

A couple weeks ago Allison, JGray and I ventured up to our nations Capitol to visit the Smithsonian. For those who have been around our son in the past year you recognize the obsession this boy has with dinosaurs. While he was excited to see the fossilized remains of his favorite T. Rex, I think that Allison and I had expected him to be more excited. He ran into the room, pointed and said "there's T.Rex" and continued running to the next exhibit. I was barely able to catch him so we could get this photo.

We continued to look at prehistoric bones for the next hour and realized the best exhibits to show him were those encased behind glass. For some reason the 'DO NOT TOUCH' signs don't resonate with youngsters who have yet to master reading.

We did find a children's area at he museum where they encouraged the handling of exhibits. JGray was fascinated with pulling the jaw off of this human skull. He did get quite upset each time that he pulled it off so Daddy became quite skilled at resetting a jaw bone.

It was quite a successful trip to the museum. We chose not to dine at one of the museums cafeterias (we realized very quickly the there where about 80 different 8th grade school trips that would be utlizing those fine dining establishments) and chose instead the ESPN Zone Restaurant that right near our parking space (I might have influenced a bit). While the meal was good, the highlight for our son was the desert.

On the trip back we made our annual pilgramage to IKEA to pick up a bunch of household stuff we'd rather not pay more for in Richmond. I know we were pushing it but we didn't expect JGray to attempt naptime in one of the stores beds. I would have picked a more masculine bed for him, but if my son likes pink beds... I'll support him.

Lately Delia has become a lot more interactive, sitting up has been a game changer in terms of John Grayson's interaction with his sister. I think he is very happy to have an audience for any and all occasions.
Delia has also started on (somewhat) solid foods. Below is a pictoral of her first experience with food coming outside of liquid form. She was in a great mood leading into it....

... but was not really sure to know about it once it got in her mouth. It ended up about 50/5o in terms of food that she actually ate vs. that which she spit up, put in her hair, spread on her face, etc. Each subsequent day the ratio has been better, but for some reason she is very excited about getting a coat of rice cereal in her hair each night.