Baltimore - July 2006

Below is an accounting of Mom & Daevy's trip. I only have pictures from the day we went to Baltimore. And no, these are not the only pictures. I was having some issues getting them posted, so I did what I could. Some are ones I took, others are ones Megan took. At this point I'm not sure whose is whose, but if I'm in the pic, chances are Meg took it. If Meg's in the pic, chances are I took it. :)


Mom and Daevy got in late Thursday night/early Friday morning. I had to go to work on Friday, so I didn’t get to see them until after 5. During the day Daevy apparently had an altercation with a tree. The tree won. (He was riding his bike down the hill and apparently let go of the handlebars or something and ended up crashing into a tree.) He’s okay, just scraped up his face a bit. We had dinner at the house and then headed to downtown Silver Spring for some ice cream. We went to Cold Stone Creamery for the ice cream and took it outside to the Astroturf park. (It might not be actual Astroturf, but it is fake grass of some kind).

Daevy said he wanted to go for a walk, so we walked over to see the “shark” building. Discovery has a big building in Silver Spring. To promote Shark Week, they have added a shark head, tail, and fins to the building. It’s kind of cool looking. We walked around for a little while and then headed back to the house to get some sleep.

Over the course of the weekend, Daevy asked about Lisa a lot. “Where’s Lisa?” “She’s away.” “Oh.” Grandma got to have that conversation with him many a time.

On Saturday, the plan was to head up to Baltimore for the day, but they were predicting some severe storms, so we decided our outdoor activities in Baltimore might be better suited on a different day. So we got up and first drove to Rockville to scout out the place of Megan’s interview on Monday. Then we headed over to College Park. Daevy was asleep, so we didn’t get out, but drove around the campus for a bit. Drove them past the Jim Henson and Kermit statue.

Then we went to IKEA. (We took the long way because the beltway was all backed up and I didn’t feel like sitting in traffic.) We tried to get Daevy into the playland at IKEA, but apparently you can’t wear Pull-Ups in there. He’s potty trained, but since they were coming out here, Mom decided not to bring any of his underwear and just use the Pull-Ups. Seems smart to me. And honestly, I think I’d rather have the kids wear Pull-Ups. Potty-trained kids still have accidents. Anyway, he unfortunately couldn’t go in. L But we had fun shopping. He got some little stuffed animals; a couple of sharks, a fish, a turtle, an octopus, a snake and an owl. We introduced Megan to lunch at IKEA. Then someone was kind of grumpy so we headed home for a nap.

Felt kind of bad for Daevy because it hurt for him to use one side of his mouth for eating. So he tried to take a bite and said it hurt. We told him to bite on the other side. He said “what?” and we said, “bite on the other side of you mouth”, used hand gestures and everything. He just looked at us and bit on the same side again.

A little later, Mom, Daevy and I went to Home Depot to pick up some stuff for the yard. As soon as we got ready to leave the house it started pouring. So we got our stuff at Home Depot. Daevy fell asleep on the ride over. We tried to let him sleep in the cart, but he got a little wet when the overhead cover dripped on him, and then the cart ride was a little bumpy. After a while he got up. Then he got to play in the drips from the ceiling. He seemed to have had a good time.

Then we went to Target to pick up some other stuff. Daevy brought in a couple of his stuffed animals (they were smaller than beanie babies) and while going around the store, mostly while we were in the check out line, we used them as cell phones. It was kind of funny.

When we got back Mom and I started pulling weeds (from the half circle in the driveway for any of you who have been here.) Daevy was out riding his bike around the driveway, and “assisting” where he could. After the weeds were pulled, we laid down some landscape paper and threw mulch on top. Didn’t quite cover the whole area. Mom and Megan did most of that work. I was giving performances on the stoop.

We were kind of standing around and Daevy went up the steps in front of the door and started talking into his “microphone”. Then he says “and now Paulanne will sing a song.” I was thinking, “I will?” But I went up and sang a little ditty. I think my song selection was Tomorrow, from Annie. I had to sing a couple of times, but I won a cake. It was the best cake ever. (I realized I said “the best ever” quite a bit over the weekend. I think Daevy will be taking that phrase home with him.) It was fun.

Daevy helped me with dinner. He chose to have sausages and eggs. I put him in charge of making the crescent rolls. He did a good job. We only had to re-roll 2 or 3. Then he helped with the eggs. I had him stirring some in a bowl while I turned the sausages, I turned back around and he was trying to crack another egg! I think that was it for our excitement on Saturday. Well, that may have been the evening that Daevy and I read 5 or 6 stories.

Sunday we got up had some IKEA cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then headed up to Baltimore. Too try and make the trip a little more interesting for Daevy, I asked if he’d like to be the navigator. (it may have actually been on Saturday.) And he said he would be the “alligator”. lol

We parked by the aquarium and headed north for a bit. We brought the stroller, in case Daevy got tired during the day, no one wanted to carry him. But he chose to ride in the stroller most of the day. The stroller was his “horsey”. He kept saying “Go horsey. Go faster.” And he held his hands like he was holding on to the reins.




We walked along a couple of the piers. We got to watch the garbage boat come by and pick up some of the garbage in the canals. It was actually kind of interesting. We walked over to the red lighthouse. We went up and around the outside (we were not paying to go in). Then we headed back toward the inner harbor. We saw the dragon paddle boats and the USS Constellation. Daevy and I steered for a bit (they have a wheel set up that you can turn and see the rudder move behind you).




Then we hopped on the water taxi. First stop was Fells Point. This was our transfer point to catch the water taxi to Ft. McHenry. We took the boat over and had a nice picnic lunch outside the fort. Then we headed in to pay the entrance fee and make use of the facilities.



Mom got Daevy a little American flag. He had a good time with that. We watched the 15 minute movie on the history of the Star Spangled Banner. I got to answer the questions “what’s that? What’s that boat doing? Why are they fighting?” and on and on. Then it was out to fort. We walked around for a few minutes and then went and watched a “performance” where they showed how the guns were loaded and fired.



Then Megan and I took Daevy up to walk along the wall of the fort. For awhile he ran along the top wall pretending to be a bird. Very scenic views up there looking over the river. We went back inside the fort, and one of the park rangers gathered people to pull out a replica of the original flag. I don’t remember the exact dimensions, but it’s a really big flag. Daevy went to help hold it out. He even got to help roll it up.




After some time at the Fort we headed back to the boat dock. When we got off at Fells Point we decided to walk around for a little while and got something to drink. Then it was a boat ride back to the Inner Harbor. We checked out some of the stores, but didn’t purchase anything. Then we headed around toward the Rusty Scupper for dinner. On our way we stopped and watched some people at the trapeze school, that’s on the inner harbor. A couple people did very well. Others, well, I wouldn’t have even climbed up there. It was interesting to watch.

During the course of the day many pictures were taken, by both Megan and me. Daevy was a hoot. He’d see the camera, or hear the click of the camera after we had already taken a picture, and he’d turn and say “cheese”. He wouldn’t smile, just said “cheese”. Then, he’d say to me, “Paulanne, let me see”, so I had to tell him, I don’t have a digital, there’s not picture to see. We had this conversation multiple times. He did get to check out some pictures on Megan’s digital. I told him I’d send him some pictures after I got them developed.

Dinner was very tasty. Daevy fell asleep during dinner. After Mom, Megan and I finished dinner and dessert we headed back to the car and drove home. Daevy was up and ready to go, but the rest of us were ready for bed.

Monday, I again had to go to work. Megan had her interview. Apparently after the interview Mom, Daevy and Megan went to Home Depot and the cheap gas station, as well as cooked dinner (which included IL sweet corn. YUM!!!) After I got home and before dinner, Daevy and I went on a walk. We raced up the hill to get away from the monsters. And then there was the horse ride at the park, where Daevy galloped off to get me a candy bar from the store. And then he was a bus driver. We went home and had dinner and dessert (pineapple upside down cake, yummy).

Somebody was being a little squirrelly so we headed back over to the Astroturf park after dinner. Had a really good time. Daevy played “race”. He came over to Grandma and said, “say ready set go” so she did. Then it was my turn. Then Grandma’s turn. Then my turn again. Except I said “Ready….Set…..Horses” or something. He thought that was pretty funny. So I did it a few other times with different end words. Then he came up with some word that he wanted said instead. I’d tell you what it was, but I don’t remember because it wasn’t a real word. It was like “cordly” or something equally strange. But he thought it was the most hilarious thing ever! I was cracking up.

Then he found these little plastic things and so then those became beans. He “cooked” the beans and some rocks up on the manhole cover. He was very serious about it. He gave me some beans and then said “I’m sorry, they’re not hot. I’m sorry.” What a goof.

Daevy decided he was going to sleep with me instead of grandma. So we turned out the light and he was supposed to be quiet, but he wasn’t. So we talked about how he was going back to IL the next day, and then his TeTe was going to come pick him up and they’d take the train back to TX where all his friends are. Finally he drifted off to sleep and I slept too. This morning he woke up and told me the sun was up and then went back to sleep. Also kicked me in the head. For such a small person he sure does take up a lot of space.

Overall it was a fun visit and I’m glad they came. I do miss them though.