Celeste Goes Postal

This afternoon, Celeste surprised me a bit. First off, she didn't sleep very late, which wasn't a great surprise (for the past few of my afternoons, she's been taking a long nap, giving me about 90 minutes after I get home to have lunch, tie up some loose ends from the office, etc. — today she woke about five minutes after Evelin left ...), but she was pretty game for spending much of the afternoon out.

Evelin'd warned me that this morning Celeste had been pretty grumpy and didn't want to go to playgroup or outside at all, which really isn't like her. She did, however, have a 30 minute tea party, so it wasn't much of a surprise when she toddled straight from her nap to the table and started signing PLEASE while pointing at her tea service.

I wasn't ready for a tea party, so I distracted her with some books and made her lunch. We then started talking about the rest of the afternoon and she seemed game for going out.

I gave her two options: ride a train or go to a museum. She seemed to waffle a bit, but as we got closer to the Metro station, she signed TRAIN more definitely. Because I didn't know how long she'd enjoy the trip and to keep us more above ground than not, we headed from West Hyattsville toward the end of the line in Greenbelt. She spent the entire time standing on the seat staring out the window (or when we were underground at her reflection in the window). There were a few excited squeals, including one when she saw the airplanes at the College Park Airport, so as we got closer to West Hyattsville on the return, I asked her if she wanted to keep riding the train or to get off ... she said TRAIN.

So we went to the National Postal Museum, which isn't quite the non sequitor it might seem to be. We changed from the Green Line to the Red at Fort Totten and headed in to Union Station, which is next door to the museum. I figured the Postal Museum would be a quiet, small, easy-to-get-to museum with several different things to look at, and Celeste was amazed by the airplanes at first and the stagecoach/horses, but I think the thing she liked best was just walking around. She also liked petting the statue of Owney; rubbing his nose is supposed to be good luck, according to the docent at the front desk of the museum.

Afterwards, we walked back to Union Station to see the Norwegian Christmas trains and tree and Celeste had a little snack before we hopped back on the train to head home. Luckily, we didn't have a long when changing trains at Fort Totten, and Celeste enjoyed the train ride home as much as the one into the city.

The trip through the Metro system also gave me the chance to point out to Celeste the importance of standing to the right and walking on the left when on an escalator.

Back home, Celeste could not be dissuaded from a tea party. We were lacking scones and clotted cream, but she was happy with a little cheese, some bits of apple, and a 100% Whole Grain Fig Newton. Actually, we both were supposed to get a Newton, but she bogarted them; as soon as I put a quarter of a Newton down on my plate and a quarter of a Newton on her plate, she dropped whatever was in her hands to grab both bits of Newton.

Technoarti tags: train post office tea party