Exploring D.C. With A Baby

Busy Bee

I'm not one to sit still on a weekend. It drives Matthew crazy because all he wants to do is stay in and not do anything. As the years have passed, we've learned to compromise, although we're still working on finding that happy medium between staying in or going out and 'splorin as we call it. Being so close the building blocks of our country's history, you better believe we're out and about on the weekends! And we're bringing baby along with us. 

When Jellybean was still sleeping most of the day and didn't weigh a billion pounds, I'd carry him in the Ergo and we'd check out popular sites. As the summer heat raged on and my little man turned sleeping 20 hours a day to just needing naps, we transitioned to a stroller. Although I prefer the ease of baby carrying, little man would sweat his baby booty off and my shoulders would be in so much pain. Yes, I say my shoulders because true to mama's boy form, Jellybean preferred my carrying him vs. dad. He stays pretty cool in the stroller, and it's nice having a place to store all that baby gear. I just hate pushing a stroller through a crowded area. To the dismay of many security guards, we've become experts at pushing a stroller up/down an escalator. :) 

I'm pretty adamant on making sure having a baby doesn't mean scaling back on our family activities! We can still go 'splorin, it just now has to account for naps and feedings. Although there are still quite a few places we need to knock off our D.C. list, I can say we have successfully done most of the touristy activities. Matthew HATES, and I mean HATES, museums (unless they have airplanes), so those will be last on our list. 

Visiting the Capitol 

Washington Monument 

Vietnam Memorial

Abraham Lincoln

A stroll along the Patomac 

Air and Space Museum 

Space Shuttle Discovery! 

Annapolis

Tips and Tricks 

1. Jellybean is in the best mood first thing in the morning and gets crankier as the day progresses. We try to get an early start to take advantage of his good mood. 
2. I bring a nursing cover everywhere we go. Can't let a hungry baby cut our excursion short! I could bring a bottle but then I have to deal with the engorgement/pain problem. It's definitely forced me to be a strong advocate for public nursing. 
3. Toys! Toys! Toys! Even though my little one is pretty happy people watching like mom and dad, I still bring an assortment of toys for him to gnaw on when those pesky gums start to irritate. 
4. Bring a real camera. At first, I used my iphone for the convenience. But I'm not one of those lose my pictures in my computer kind of people. I make scrapbooks and photo albums so and the quality on a point and shoot is still better than that of my iphone 5s. These aren't memories I want to capture with blurry photos 4x6s. 
5. Do your homework. I've always been this way anyway, but we never go to a place without looking it up online first. Finding the busiest times, having restaurants and stores picked out, and a general plan is always good when baby keeps you on a schedule. We aren't sticklers for that plan, but we try to knock out the important stuff first just in case Jellybean throws a fit and we have to cut the day short. At least we saw what we came to see!