The Porch Home Opener?

But how about the end of day circus, you ask? Fans, it's been o-kay, due in no small part to the fact that Julie engaged Miss Che to come over between 5pm and 7pm for the prime time fun. Fans, she does the dishes! She also makes sure the toys are put away before Joe decamps to the bath. So after Clara and Joe have been put to bed and she has left, there's no picking up to do! Awesome.* We have had but two small breakdowns, one each day, prior to her arrival:

1. Yesterday, Joe requested his mittens upon reaching the porch steps. No doubt you remember the inaugural mitten moment which has itself been repeated, as well as undergone permutations--mitten moment riffs, if you will. The mittens were shoved inside the sleeves of Joe's coat which he was holding (as instructed) high above his head (to avoid sloshing it in the puddles). There was no easy way to get them out and on, and in any case, it's spring (finally) and has been in the fifties by day's end the past two days. Julie explained that we do not often wear mittens in the spring, and certainly not when it's in the fifties. Joe begged to differ.

2. Today, when Julie pulled out into traffic after having been stopped next to the Trader Joe's for some time. This is a tricky intersection where cars are flying by from the left, and other cars are trying to make a left across them, as cars next to the Trader Joe's trying to make a left are playing chicken with both of these streams of traffic. The watchwords here when it comes to greeting the Trader Joe's and bidding it adieu are: "Time is of the essence." Sadly, toddlers have no sense of time (of which, more later) and so it has become many a day that Joe breaks down in wails as Trader Joe's fades into the distance because he did not say goodbye to it. And lest you think, "But remind him!", we hasten to point out that one must remind him to say hello and goodbye and sometimes, he will not dane to say hello until it is time to say goodbye and it's all too fast, but it's not a moment to linger as time is also of the essence when pulling out into traffic at this particular intersection. Good times, good times.

Today, when we got home, Julie thought the good times might keep on rolling when Joe spied a helicopter up in the sky after getting out of the car and demand to see another. Julie suggested going to the porch to helicopter watch, and thankfully, Our Hero was game. So, we headed for the porch, and as you can see, the gang was all there, with the door to the house and living room open. Hooray again! Joe and Clara tore it up. (Clara was thrilled to finally crawl underneath the furniture out there.)

*Sadly, she cannot come tomorrow, so Julie is already brainstorming what fantastical thing she can dream up for Joe to do so she can nurse Clara without him bounding about in a way that is charming, but distracting. She is searching for something novel, and that seems illicit and as though it might be forbidden, but that will leave the house and its contents intact and undamaged after it is done. The goal is not to resort to giving into the impulse to allow him to continue using the Sharpie marker, even on a really, really big piece of paper, to stave off a temper tantrum as she once did when she and Joe were both home sick (and Julie was very sick indeed), when he still managed to get some on the top of the dining room table. Julie's fault, Julie's fault. The Sharpie was taken from Our Hero, who promptly pitched a fit. And so. What did we learn? There is no paper big enough for a toddler with a Sharpie marker, and one must be ever vigilant when making up the rules like "Sharpie markers are Mommy Daddy only."