Dancing and Touristing

That's right, blog friends: we can sum up this month in two words:  Dancing and Touristing.  It's been really cold here, and with each passing day my walking skills get better and better.  All I want to do is MOVE and explore and get into trouble.  This presents an interesting problem for my parents.  I want to move, move, move.  My desires come before anyone else's.  It's too cold to really go anywhere.  What are parents to do?  Well: here's what mine have come up with:

IDEA #1:  Dancing

I got these great new CD's for Christmas based on my friend Lila's recommendation.  I love them!  I love to march around to the music and I've been learning a lot of the dances that go with some of the songs.  If a picture is worth a thousand words - these videos are worth millions.  (If you feel that they are worth millions of words:  that's cool - leave us a comment.  If you feel they are worth millions of dollars: my parents are all ears.  Please contact them.  Quick!)

Here's how I like to march around my kitchen with my mom or dad:



The first organized dance I learned started over Christmas vacation but I really had it down to a science by early January.  It's the Hokey Pokey.  I pay no mind to "left" or "right" (When we drive around with mom she doesn't seem to know the difference so why should I learn?!)   I also chose to ignore when they ask me to put "feet" in... I still need both of my feet planted firmly on the floor in order to succeed with this walking business.  We'll leave the fancy stuff for when I'm 3.  When you're as cute as I am you can take such liberties.



The next dance I really like is "Row, Row, Row your Boat".  You can see that I concentrate VERY hard on using proper rowing techniques and form.



And finally - the last video really doesn't show much dancing... because I get side tracked by my own good looks.  I'm sure you understand.  Sometimes I walk by a reflective surface and I catch a glimpse of myself and I just have to stop and admire.  I mean, sometimes even I have trouble believing that really am THIS good looking.  So I seek out any sort of reflective surface that allows me the ability to admire myself.  A little background:  for Christmas my aunt, uncles and grandparents all came together and organized a fund for Mom and Dad to hire a cleaning service so they don't have to spend their weekend time cleaning but instead can spend it with ME (FINE. Truth be told the card said spend time with "me and my sister".  But let's be real.  It's all about Abby. At least for now.)  Well, that cleaning service came through here for the first time and this place shines like never before.  Mom and Dad think it's the best gift EVER (esp. since it keeps on giving!) and I have found about 100 new clean and shiny places to check myself out!  Great gift all around.  Oh! And also in this video - you can see my new wacky habit of walking with my eyes closed.  What can I say - plain old walking is old news these days.



And so, dancing videos aside: we come to Entertain Abby In the Freezing Cold IDEA #2: Touristing.

A while ago one of my mom's friends' told us about the Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport - which is very close to our house. It has free parking and free admission after 4PM: so one Sunday afternoon we decided to head out there and see what it was all about. 

 Well: here's what it's all about. It's HUGE. There aren't a lot of people there that late in the day and there's TONS of space for me to walk, walk, walk around.  I like airplanes; they're pretty neat.  Or at least that's what Dad keeps telling me.

Standing on chairs is REALLY cool.

Being able to do the splits has saved me from serious learning-to-walk potential injuries - so I still practice them from time to time.  (Sorry, Erin!)

 Here's the thing that puzzles me about museums.  They have face-less people locked in glass cases.  I am quite a friendly girl and there's nothing I like more than the attention I get when I walk around a mall or museum.  I love to walk around and wave "iiiiiii" (hi) or "buh-buh" (bye-bye) to anyone who will pay attention to me.  (And let's be real - when I talk: people trip over themselves to listen - everyone wants a greeting from Abby!)   SO - these faceless people that I found at the museum.  I'm really quite puzzled.  I walked up to their glass case and knocked.  They didn't budge.  Who doesn't want a visit from Abby?!  I waved to them.  No waves back.  I said bye-bye to them... NOTHING.  NOTHING.  They did not move, or crack a smile, or gush on and on about how cute I am... NOTHING.  This is just NOT the life to which I have become accustom.  I tried to get Mom and Dad to intervene on my behalf but they were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.  They told me these people are "mannequins" and are just modeling outfits... but I just don't get it.  How do you not wave back to Abby??

So after an hour or so of tearing around the museum, Mom and Dad found a HUGE ramp that took us from one floor to another.  They wanted to make sure that I was really worn out... so they had us start to walk up it.  Walking up hill is HARD.  Really hard.  And LONG.  Really long.  I made it 3/4 of the way before I did this.  Boycott.  I'm done.  Somebody pick me up and carry me.

So after the big success of a free outing to the museum near us; Mom and Dad decided we could try out one of the museums in Washington, DC.  And since I LOVE animals... we decided to try out the Natural History Museum.  These days I really love to say "ROAR" - so dinosaurs are super awesome.

Whoa, Dad - check out his TEETH!  ROAR!

 I have teeth too!!!  (These days I'm really getting good at seeing pictures of things and then pointing out to you or signing what I'm seeing.  Keep that in mind - I did that all day at this museum).

 Most people go to museums and look at the displays - personally - I like to squeeze between displays and really make sure I'm seeing things from ALL angles...

Whoa.  That is one big giraffe. 

I got this one guys - let me teach YOU a thing or two about zebras.

 

Do you see that moose in the case behind me?  Granted, I'm signing "Deer" here - but really - pretty impressive.  What's the difference between a moose and deer anyway??  Nobody told me what it was - I just saw it and signed it.  Abby = STAR.

 Dad and I check out the pretty view. 

In other news this month, we had a nice snow storm one Wednesday afternoon.  It came down so hard, so fast and it was so heavy we lost power at my house (but only for 12 hours - others had it much worse) and my mom got 3 days off of school to hang out with me!  Once the roads got clear we had some playdates and went on a few outings and enjoyed our unexpected mini-vacation.  I guess that's pretty much it for us in January... see you next time!