Life in Portrait

We took a field trip to The National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday for a homeschool event. The day started out rushed, of course. I had to get everyone up, fed, dressed, then go to the grocery before I could pack lunch before we could get on the metro at 9:30am. When I returned from the grocery the kids were playing outside, enjoying the fall leaves and cool weather.

Around 9:30 when we were scheduled to leave, Lillee informed me her tummy hurt. I thought it was about snack time and she was just hungry or needed to go potty. So I sent her to the restroom, grabbed our snacks and lunch and headed out the door for the metro. Her tummy did not get to feeling better. Once we were on the metro she was moaning, rolling around and looking quite pale.

We had to hop off the train and wait for the next train to come along just to give her tummy a little break. She was such a trooper. We arrived at the portrait gallery, had our picnic lunch and waited for the doors to open. Lillee was still feeling bad. She did enjoy seeing some other kids waiting to get in and being Lillee, decided to go over and make friends with some older girls. When the girls' mother wanted to take a picture of them Lillee wouldn't move out of the shot. She just sat there with a long face and tried to blend into the group. 5 years from now they'll look at their picture and wonder, "Who was that young girl?"

We saw some fascinating portraits, sculptures, daguerreotypes and even the Preamble of the US Constitution in license plate short hand. We were able to make corn husk dolls thanks to the homeschooling event the gallery was hosting and self-guide ourselves through parts that were interesting to 3, 4 and 6 year old children. Since we're studying the Presidents of the US this semester, this was a great place to see the presidents of the past and even read a bit of their history.

We also found it fascinating that in the exhibit Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845-1924 there was a wall labeled Discord and on this wall was a daguerreotype of Brigham Young. And in the center aisle of hallway there was a large poster of Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife, and her role in speaking out against polygamy and Mormonism. It is always interesting seeing an outsiders view of being Mormon.

By the time we finished our corn husk dolls, Lillee was certain she had had it. I carried her out of the gallery, back to the metro where she eventually fell asleep on the ride home. As soon as we came out of the tunnels I was on the phone to the pediatrician trying to secure an appointment. They had only one left for the day and we took it!

She fell asleep in the car on the way to the Pediatrician and I carried her again and held her all through the appointment. If you don't know my Lillee that well then these statements mean nothing. At the age of 4, she is fiercely independent - at 18 months she stopped napping, completely...I think she was afraid she would miss out on something if she slept.

The Dr checked her ear, which she had been complaining about, and sure enough there was an infection. He performed a flu test which fortunately came back negative. They gave her a popsicle when she felt nauseated and that seemed to perk her up a bit, which was the liveliest she had been all day. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and headed off to McDonald's to get her some chicken nuggets and a Sprite, the only food she had requested all day. She never ate a bite of her nuggets before she fell asleep in the car, again.

We did survive the evening, was able to get her fever down and some medicine in her. She headed off to bed feeling much better and woke again in the morning as if nothing had happened.

This might be the first fall I've not enjoyed, well there was last fall when I was on bed rest...that stunk, too. It is my favorite time of year...and I've missed it, again. Winter better be really good to make up for this crumby couple of months.