Virginia is for Friends

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit my friend Janette in the Norfolk, Virginia area. The hardest part about leaving St. Louis was leaving the people. I plan to visit St. Louis before the end of the year, but so many of our friends moved at the same time we moved- you can never go home again. Another huge batch of my friends moves away from STL this summer, so I have go back a couple times before then.

So visiting Janette and her two girls was a huge treat. There were also very occasional sightings of her surgical intern husband. We spent a week there and it was so nice to be with another adult all day, not to mention that Janette's one of my favorite people ever. During the week we spent a lot of time in their beautiful home, hosted preschool, and visited the aquarium.

Henry generously shared his cold with the girls, after a little boy generously shared it with Henry at church. But karma is out there somewhere, so we came home with a different cold. So, sorry Miss M about the runny nose. That's all our fault.

Henry loved the aquarium, pointing at the fish and watching the people. He wasn't as interested in Colonial Williamsburg, and so he tried to steal some old guy's scooter in order to make an escape attempt. He would have been content just to play with the girls' toys all week. They have a horse on springs just like the Wheadon's had when I was growing up. He also loved their slide. The stroller was loved a little too much- Henry would freak out if anyone touched it, so it got put away for the rest of our visit. He is not good at sharing, and was constantly taking toys away from Miss M, who then generally looked sad but didn't do anything about it. He tried to take away a helicopter from a girl during the preschool session, who put up a real fight. If it hadn't been my kid causing the problem, I would have loved to just watch those two wrestle for it. They were both very determined and adult intervention was necessary. As it stands, we're continuing to work on the problem.

On our way to the airport, we visited their botanical gardens. Of course they were beautiful, but Henry's favorite part is the playground. After he came down the slide, I realized there was a problem with his diaper. See how his right pant leg (our left) has a bit of bulk to it? Yeah, that is his diaper around his ankle. I have no idea how that happened. A quick diaper and outfit change later, he was back on the playground.