space and baseball

After such an exciting day of grilling and fireworks, we took July 5th pretty slowly.  Jed spent much of the day playing with blocks:

Friday, though, was another adventure-packed day.  It started off quietly; we played in the apartment, sat outside on a blanket for a few minutes, and organized baby clothes.  But after lunch, we met my friend Emily and her family at the Goddard Space Flight Center and went on a tour, given by a mutual friend of ours.

We started off at one of the robotics labs:

We then continued on to see one of the clean rooms (through a glass window of course), the vibrations and acoustic testing centers, a model of the James Webb Space Telescope - which will eventually replace Hubble, if they ever get it off the ground - and a centrifuge (which simulates the g-forces on the astronauts).  It was very cool.

Jed and I didn't go to the visitor's center, because we had to run to the grocery store before we picked up Scott from school and we were running out of time.  We got through the store as quickly as we could, raced home, and packed our stuff to go out again.  This time we were on our way to a Nationals baseball game with Scott and Jeff.  Jed and I brought Scott some chicken for dinner, and the 3 of us headed to the metro station.  On the way, we heard that there was no metro service between PG Plaza (our stop) and Fort Totten, due to a derailed train at West Hyattsville - which is the stop between those two.  So we drove to Fort Totten and got on the metro there, and once we did we had no problems getting to the ballpark.

Now technically, Jed had attended a baseball game prior to that one, in my belly, but at that point I didn't even know I was pregnant yet.  We wouldn't find out for another week - at which point, I would be 4 weeks along (pretty much the very earliest you could possibly know).  But since he was still smaller than the size of a pea, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it doesn't count.

It was about a million degrees outside, and even when the sun went down it was so humid that it made little difference.  I had brought a bandana to soak in water to keep us cool, and for most of the game we gave it to Jed.  He found multiple ways to wear it:

Jed spent some time flirting with the teenage girls sitting next to us, and when I asked one of them if she'd like to hold him, she was thrilled. 

The Nationals lost in style - though we thought they were going to make a comeback in the 9th inning.  But we got to see Strausburg pitch and Bryce Harper bat, so we still enjoyed ourselves.  Jed didn't want to go to sleep with all the excitement, so he stayed up WAY past his bedtime again.  But it was totally worth it.

And just for fun, here is the best picture EVER.  So glad I caught this on film.