The Doodlebug Takes the Capital

The three of us headed to D.C. last weekend for my best friend's baby shower, which I co-hosted. When planning the trip, I said to J., "I guess we'll come in by train. It's too much of a hassle to drive so far with the Doodlebug" She said, "That's fine. But you know, it's not that much more to fly." Fly? Fly from Boston to D.C.? Um, why did that never cross my mind? Other than the fact that I'm not crazy about those tiny commuter jets, it was a pleasant journey that took less than an hour and a half.

This is my fourth trip to D.C., and I still haven't seen much of the city. I saw the city on my first trip, when I was about ten or so (can't remember) and I went with my cousins and my grandparents. But since then, I've been for a single-day trip for a pro-choice rally (from New York), for J.'s wedding, and now for her baby shower. During the wedding trip, Adam and I visited the Holocaust Museum and we walked around a bit. The city was deserted because we were there in September of 2001. But I haven't been to the Smithsonian in the past few decades nor visited any historic or political sites. However, we certainly weren't up for it this weekend. Besides the cold weather, it's just difficult to get around with the Doodlebug. The next time we go, he'll be old enough to at least have an interest in looking at things, which will make it worthwhile. Besides, I was spending a lot of time indulging my Martha fantasies as J.'s sister and I prepared for the party.

J. and her husband are very politically aware and definitely liberal-leaning. Adam, as you are aware, is, well, not liberal-leaning. The three got into a friendly debate about the upcoming elections that I remained silent in. After we went up to our room, I smacked Adam and accused him of not doing his share with the Doodlebug. "What do you mean?" he asked. I replied, "If you have enough time to read the newspaper, then you can obviously be doing more!" Oh, sure, I've read the newspaper. If you count trying to peer at the headlines over the Doodlebug's head while he's feeding as reading. I've yet to make it to "continued on xx."

The weekend was great and the Doodlebug was on relatively good behavior, although I thought I glimpsed moments of concern on J. and her husband's faces (they've less than two months to go). I will say that visiting people who don't have kids (even those without kids who have kid on the way) is challenging. We rely greatly on the Pack N Play, the Exersaucer, the Boppy for places to just set the Doodlebug down so we can have free hands for a few moments. Of course, having extra hands to hold him is great, but I didn't want to scare J. off with the spit-up, the crying, and the squirminess. After all, it's way too late for her to back out now.