Gratitude Sunday: Unexpected Adventures

Yesterday, in what turned out to be the longest of nights (during which my husband and I pleaded with our daughter  to sleep or at least rest), I made the decision to get out of bed with my daughter at 6 a.m. and take her for a drive so that my husband could get a few hours of sleep and function as a somewhat sane person during the day.

I quickly dressed and brought Annabelle downstairs where we strapped on her sparkling pink sneakers over her polka dotted footy pajamas.   Since it was so early in the day and the air was cool, I selected a puffy white vest for her to wear over her pajamas.  Looking at her (and thinking about it now), I realize how much we, as parents, get away with when it’s that early in the morning (i.e. dressing our kids as though they dressed themselves) and how much fun it is to be a parent (though I would vote for sleep over a silly outfit any day).

At first, I thought I would take her to see the ducks, although we were both disappointed when some early morning walkers told us that even the ducks don’t come out as early as we do (I politely told the walkers that we usually prefer to sleep at that hour).  I then promised Annabelle that we would have more fun with the ducks at a later time but that we needed to go elsewhere.  Still, I had no idea where to take her.

Then I jogged my memory for ideas of other ponds or at least safe places to go so early in the day.  With all the excitement of the election and my a rekindled interest in politics, I decided that we should drive into the city and take in the national sights early in the day–something that I had never done before.

Driving into D.C. on Constitution Ave., we took in the colorful foliage and parked nearby the World War II Memorial.  As we headed for the Memorial, we saw

dazzling red and gold trees

the Washington Monument reflecting in the pond with gorgeous trees decorating its base

and  on our way back we stopped at the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue

As we jogged up to the White House, Annabelle and I sang her favorite “Choo-choo” song with lyrics that go something like, “First we go to so and so’s house and then we go to so and so’s house.”  Since we were at the president’s house, I sang the song that way too.  The only other visitors were 2 middle aged men in law sweat shirts, and I can only wonder what they thought of us since we literally jogged up, sang our song, snapped the above photo, and jogged away.

While my night and morning didn’t turn out as I had expected them to, my daughter and I still managed to enjoy the morning and do something we had never done before.  Admittedly, I felt exhausted for the rest of the day, and yet, I am still happy for my adventurous morning with her.