Baby Iauco: Business Trip

I had to take a business trip to Washington DC this past week, so we decided to pack up the car and make it a short family vacation to see the Mann clan. Mary Grace always loves visiting with her cousins, and being back in the District is a nice change of pace for us. Molly and I always wonder if Mary Grace recognizes any of the places we used to go, like the parks, stores, restaurants and of course the Glover Park Whole Foods. Whether or not she remembers, she definitely likes being up there. We visited many of the old hang outs, went to watch the airplanes land at Gravelly Point, ran on the dearly-missed running trails and had a good time hanging out with Lanie, Richard and the kids. The adults sneaked out one night and went to Birch & Barley, a new beer bar and restaurant in Logan Circle (Beer Organ ftw). We had a great time, but morning came a little sooner than we would have liked.

We celebrated Mary Grace's birthday with James, Owen and Maggie, but she got a little scared when we all started singing Happy Birthday, so we had to postpone the rest of the celebration until the following morning. Since then, we have been practicing to avoid a similar reaction at her upcoming birthday party. I guess it is kind of scary when you think about it, a bunch of people looking at you, singing some strange song in unison. I don't blame her.

It is great to see Mary Grace interact with her cousins. Now that she is old enough to keep up with James and Owen, they have a lot of fun together. Maggie is aware of everything around her, so it is obvious that she wants to get up and follow the other kids around the house. She crawls well enough to keep an eye on the action so that she doesn't miss anything exciting. They are all going to have a lot of fun together in the years to come.