A Pilgrim’s Digression

On April 16, Brendan turned five years old.  I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that fact.  I thought we still had a baby, but as it turned out, we are now raising a little boy.

Apparently, the fifth birthday is a big one, because everyone in the family wanted to give him a birthday party.  One weekend, we travelled to West Virginia so my family could give him a party; the next weekend, we travelled to Pittsburgh so my wife’s family could give him a party.  We had planned to give him a party back home in Virginia, as well, so he could have some friends over, but after all the partying we did in other places, we were sick of it.

And by then it was early May anyway.  A month of birthdays.  That’s probably why now, Brendan is still saying, “On my next birthday, I want…”, because he probably expects his next birthday to be next week.

 On a child’s birthday, it’s always good practice to stand back and take a look at who they are at that point.  We always make a point of taking more pictures than usual around this time of year, and when we had a video camera, we shot more video, too.  Hopefully, this summer we will buy a digital video camera so we can resume that practice.

Two weeks ago, Lynn took a group of students into Washington to see the Impressionist paintings in the National Gallery.  And while she was having a “teaching moment” with her students, Brendan and I walked around the mall and visited the Air and Space Museum.

First we rode the carousel on the Mall across from the Castle.  The first time Brendan rode a carousel, he was three, and deathly afraid of it.  It was all I could do to keep him from leaping from the horse while the ride was in motion.

This time, he was excited and wanted to ride again and again.  Whether he remembered that first experience two years ago, I don’t know.  This first picture is from two years ago; the second two are from two weeks ago.

After riding the carousel, we went to Air and Space.  Brendan has been really excited to learn about the Universe and the planets in our galaxy.  Within the past couple months, Brendan has been asking about space.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard him say, “Daddy, did you know that without the sun, everything on earth would die?”

He can name the nine planets and tell you a little about each one.  Mercury is hot, Venus is hotter, Saturn and Jupiter have rings, Uranus has rings, too, but they go from top to bottom (north and south), Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun but sometimes Neptune and Pluto trade places and Neptune is the farthest from the sun.

Last week, he brought home a drawing he made depicting the sun and nine planets.  It was hard to tell which planet was which, without him telling me.  They didn’t necessarily seem to be in order from closest to the sun to farthest from the sun.

But he included the asteroid belt (”Daddy, do you know what this is between Mars and Jupiter?  The asteroid belt.”).  He also included the red spot on Jupiter and the dark spot on Neptune.

So the trip to the Air and Space Museum was a real treat for Brendan.  In advance, I told him about the space capsules on display there, and I told him we would be able to go inside a real space station (Skylab).  We would also go to the Planetarium and see spectacular show about the Universe.

We did all these things.  He was most impressed by the Planetarium, I think, though it was so dark in there at times I had to reach out and put my hand on his knee so he wouldn’t be afraid.  The Planetarium and the astronauts were what he talked about most, upon leaving.  The airplanes, he didn’t care about so much, but I told him if he wanted to be an astronaut one day, he’d have to join the Air Force when he grows up and learn to fly planes.

I also told him he would have to brush his teeth more regularly than he does, now.  Astronauts aren’t allowed to have any fillings because the pressure during liftoff would rip them out of their teeth.

Here are a couple pictures I took in Air and Space.  This first pic was taken at the McDonald’s in Air and Space, which has to be one of the shittiest McDonald’s ever to disgrace the Earth.  It’s sole good point that it was inexpensive, whereas the other Washington museums typically try to make up for their non-profit status by exacting blood money from patrons who actually want to eat somewhere in the museum.

This picture is one of several Brendan wanted taken as he stood alongside the astronauts under glass.  The astronauts looked pretty creepy to me, but Brendan was fascinated.

There are more photos of our trip at my flickr page.  I also took some snaps of the art in the Hirshorn sculpture garden, one of my favorite places to visit.  The National Gallery also has an outdoor sculpture garden, but I like the Hirshorn’s the best.  Here is just one sample from my pictures of sculpture.

I have more to say about my son at five.  I’ll have to save that for another post, however.  Needless to say, it’s pretty remarkable to realize he’s growing up fast.  I can understand why, at this point in an adult’s life, we start wanting to have another child.  There is a part of me that does not want this time in our lives to end.