I like driving in my car

We also went overnight to the house near Charleston where Emily grew up. Wilder mainly liked the 'little car' until the battery ran out, at which point we had to charge it up so he could go again. 

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This is Wilder's 'angry face'. I think he learned this when he used to go to daycare, in the good old days. He has a happy face too but it isn't as funny

Lego

This weekend we didn't get up to much exciting, giving Bluet an opportunity to play in her room. Thus, she built her first ever Lego car all by herself. I am very proud. I think that this means it is time to start indiscriminately buying lego in vast quantities.

Wildlife

We've been spending a lot of weekends staying within the four walls of Houston, so this Sunday we took a drive into the countryside. It doesn't take long to escape the city sprawl and find yourself out in the wild. We have a book of hikes around Houston, so we found one and set off. On the way into the Wildlife Reserve, we saw a sign describing the Auto route for the park, allowing you to drive around and see the wild life from the comfort of your car. "Ha", we thought, "what kind of wimp would come to a wild life reserve and stay in the car? We will walk." So we stopped and got out of the car at the location for the start of the hike 1000 mosquito bites later, and a close encounter with an alligator, we were back in the car, swatting mosquitos and swearing never to leave the car again. We did the autoroute, and saw a snake (possibly a cottonmouth, see picture. It stopped on the road and hissed at the car), a woodpecker pecking a fence post, lots of alligators, lots of birds, and best of all, a bobcat. All from the comfort of the car On the way back we stopped at a State Park (NB I may edit this and put the names in - they both began with "B"). This was much more tranquil (we didn't see any of the alligators, or get bitten by any mosquitos, although we did have a narrow escape from a wild boar. This meant Bluet could get out and run around, which made her very happy. She particularly enjoyed picking the wild flowers, and, of course, playing with the gravel.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,13,14

We're about to go off to the Zoo, but as Bluet is happy in her room playing, an unexpected opportunity to update the blog has arisen. Yesterday we went to the American equivalent of B&Q ('Lowes') and purchased some household items. Keeping Bluet under control as she ran around the wide-aisled shop made this the most strenuous shopping trip ever. She seemed to like the plants best, correctly identifying 'purple', 'red' and 'black' plant pots, climbing under shelves, and finally exhibiting herself for sale, viz:


 
Whilst the initial investment may look very cheap, remember there are a lot of hidden costs with a purchase like this.

Whilst in the car or riding on my shoulders, Bluet likes to practice her counting. Here she is counting to 14 (minus 11 or 12, but who needs those numbers) in the back of the car:

After the wedding

On Sunday we were pleased to leave the hotel, and accepted the offer of one of Emily's friends to stay in their house in DC on Sunday night, even though they were going to be away. They have 3 kids, so Bluet was happy to play with all the toys, and we all enjoyed pretending we had a real house, even if just for one day. We even had some regular blog readers over for dinner - I think they really came to see Bluet though.

Then on Sunday we got back in the car and headed home via Baltimore. Another well designed city with proper rows of terraced houses made of brick. We stopped by the harbour and had breakfast at Jimmy's, then hung around with another of Emily's friends, a local resident now working for Obama. He took some pictures of us which I will add to the blog once Emily has vetted them. Hopefully there are some of Bluet feeding left-over toast from Jimmy's to the local duck population, which I think was one of the high points of her life.

Breakfast at Jimmy's

Bluet just wanted to watch the witches above this bar

The building in the background was the police station in "Homicide: Life on the Street", TV Fans

Homeward bound

Hello, New York skyline

Bluet's first road trip

Friday

Even though it doesn't take that much longer than travelling from the St Louis airport to her Grandparents house, I am going to classify this weekend trip to DC as Bluet's first road trip. We picked up the rental car at a shopping mall in Jersey City (a money saving tip there) stopping only to purchase Bluet the fancy shoes you will see her wearing in some of these photos.

Once we strapped Bluet into her lovely new car seat, she was happy and was extremely well behaved all the way. As a bonus treat we stopped at the house of some friends with kids in DC and Bluet got to try out many new toys. Which is what she is also doing right now. Then we headed on to Alexandria for the wedding. More to follow.....

In the back of the car

We aren't in New York any more