Fishy Kisses

In other Clara news, another of her new "things," is to reach out for your face as you come at her, open her mouth really wide, and pull you in for a big kiss. Fans, it is a pretty fantastic thing. Julie loves going into school--DAYCARE!--to pick Clara up. Julie always hunkers down on the floor near the Baby Bird, and Clara crawls over all excited and then reaches her hands out for a face-pull-kiss. Julie likes to give Clara kisses, too. But Julie's kisses are just super noisy, little kisses, in rapid succession, right next to Clara's ear. Julie calls them "fishy kisses." She doesn't know why she calls them fishy kisses; she just did, and now that's what they are. In the mornings, when we're loading up the car, Ted will often have Clara's bucket popped in by the time Julie makes it to the garage with Must-Step-On-Lots-Of-Snow-On-The-Way Joe, and then will take Snow Stomper around and get him in his seat*, and this is when Julie gives Clara an Eskimo kiss, and then fishy kisses both sides. Julie always gets a double smile: Clara's, and her own.

*Special to Ted: Julie loves this, because Joe is a pretty heavy sack of potatoes, and she gets a little pocket of time for fishy kisses.