Attack of the strawberries

Attack of the dried strawberries.

This is from last weekend at our quasi Super Bowl party. Andy looks like such a kid there - not just a toddler, a full-fledged boy. When did that happen?

I tried to meet a friend for a playdate this afternoon. We planned to meet at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. It says very clearly on the Web site that it closes at 5 p.m. in the winter, but apparently the folks that work there don't care because they have a big sign outside that says it closes at 4 pm. So when we showed up at 4:10 p.m., there was a big "closed" sign outside. We took Andy and Madeline down to play on the playground for a bit, but it was cold - much too cold for the mothers anyway.

The backup plan was Einstein's bagels in Fairfax City, which closes at 5 p.m. although they clearly sensed the day we were having and were closed by the time we got there at 4:50 p.m. We decided to hit Trader Joe's for a bit. I didn't need anything, but wandering the aisles is always fun since it's not a regular supermarket. I found a few things, including some dried strawberries for Andy. He loved them (see picture) and nearly had a fit when I tried to pry them from his hands to pay for them. Those suckers really do stain though - good to know if I ever want to shoot a horror film in my backyard.

Earlier in the day, I went to drop off some paperwork at Andy's new school, talk to the teachers and reaquaint him with where he'll be going. He immediately felt at home and was participating in their story time. The teachers were nice and friendly and Andy was eager to play with all the toys. I liked that I felt like I could just walk in at any time. When your babysitter is at someone's house, it's not as easy to just pop into the classroom the same way. What was strange though was seeing 16 kids all in the same class with three teachers. The ratio is really good and I think he'll like all the activity, but it's still strange to see so many kids all together. It definitely felt more like a school and less like a babysitter, which is exactly what I was going for, fortunately.