Zoe&Caleb: Everyone should ride the carousel

It's no wonder that the gods brought in the 90 degree summer-time heat today, as it was the perfect day to play hooky from work and school and responsibility! Sara, hubby, and her three little monkeys plus me and Z&C decided to brave the Air and Space Museum downtown. What a fantastic day.

Z&C were little troopers with their mini Camelpacks on, and everyone was on best behavior for every second of the day and I felt monumentally rested and content by the time we boarded metro in the late afternoon sun...ok, reality check. It was a kind of challenging and truly there was some intense kid-wrangling, but nobody got hurt, sick, or had "I'm embarrassed to be alive" tantrums, and that's good enough for me. We watched an IMAX film (Rescue) that was very entertaining and actually, quite good from a marketing-the-military's-complementary-missions point of view. It was a far cry from the last IMAX film we took Z&C to a couple of years ago which resulted in a traumatized little boy who kept wanting "the bad black cloud" (exploding star) that came towards him to go away. The flight simulator (the ride, not the interactive one) went over famously -- highly recommend. That place has an enormous McD's / Boston Market food assembly line thing going on, which is disturbing and impressive all at once. No outing is complete without a potty emergency and I had to half drag C into the Hirshhorn as we desperately sought a potty for Z on the way back, and then the sloping sinks with automatic taps were a recipe for a splash-fest. Fun, fun. I don't think I can go back there anytime soon, though.

Sara +4 headed back for some quiet time and as Z&C and I passed the Smithsonian Castle, we decided to ride the carousel. C asked for me to ride next to him, so even though all the other parents with kids younger than mine lined up like good soldiers along the fence-line, I swung my skort-clothed mommy leg over that tiny horse and sat back for the ride. As the bell clanged and we started away, I turned to look at Zoe a few rows behind and the look of total joy on her face was just perfect -- she gave me one of those ear-to-ear smiles that make her look so grown up, now! As we spun around, I caught the frequent glare from the one-eyed camera'ed faces snapping away for that perfect kid shot. There was the quintessential papa in a summer suit, waving and calling out "Sofia! Sofia!" at his tiny one, while the dolled-up mom in platform heels tried to look calm and chic and balance holding the wriggling toddler.

All of us were tired and cranky when we got on with achy feet and chapped lips from the heat. As you spin around with the assault of blaring circus tunes, and the hot breeze somehow cools you down you get a little dizzy on the tiny, spinning, somehow isolated world of the dancing horse carousel, and it's hard to stay cranky. Fun times out in the nation's capital.