Spring Break

Oh boy. Spring break. This week should not come immediately after the intense cold and flu season. I swear the kids have only gone to school half of the last month thanks to one illness after another. And now they are out of school for nine days. I really love my kids, but, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder. But, to keep myself and them from going insane, I am determined to do something other than sit around and let them watch Curious George all day while I self-actualize. Today, we went to the Air and Space Museum. Can I just say that I am so proud of myself for not a) screaming at my kids in there and b) not losing one of them? Because my five-year-old and two-year-old are typical kids, they never wanted to go in the same direction. And as we all know, during spring break there are a million kids in DC on field trips and a million tourists on vacation. How awesome is it that my kids wanted to go to the most crowded museum on the mall? The highlight was when Henry decided he was a baby and crawled around people looking at the exhibits, then just decided to lay down in the middle of the floor of the World War II exhibit while Summer moved on to explore the Wright Brothers area. Dan Ariely, some sort of psychologist type person, said that when we buy things like clothing and cars, the value of those purchases decreases over time. When we buy experiences, their value increases over time. We forget the long waits for misplaced baggage and kids whining about how long they have to walk. Instead we remember the fun conversation we had over dinner, the crackle of the campfire, and the beautiful white sand. When I'm struggling with the kids while we're having one of those "experiences," I try to think about that. Eventually I am going to forget about Henry freaking out over his cracked cheeseburger bun and instead remember the way he and Summer said "cheers!" as they touched their ice cream cones together. I will forget about struggling with carrying three coats, a stroller, a giant purse with everything in it, plus a two year old, and I will instead remember the kids delight as they sat in old-fashioned airplane seats and as they sat inches away from a war plane. That said, I think our activity for tomorrow will be the playground and then samples at Costco. Maybe I will force them to go to the art museum on Wednesday.

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