The Ups, and the Downs (or, Life With the Almost-Three-Year-Old)

Fans, as you know, we here at Joe and Clara Jane are committed to bringing you reports of both the charming, and the not so charming; the ups, and the downs. For the not so charming, downer, bummer, really?! file, we can report that Sunday evening (yes, that was Father's Day), and Monday morning (that would everyone's favorite morning of the week), Our Hero was acting like a goon. We think a report of Sunday's shenanigans will be representative. Joe kicked them off by refusing to put on his diaper by saying "No!" with dramatic inflection: "NOOOOO-ahhhhh!" He then proceeded to take anything he could lay hands on and place it between his teeth and shake his head back and forth like a dog. Julie wordlessly took away anything that could have possibly hurt his teeth, which is how it came to be he was shaking his diaper in his teeth so close to her it was brushing her leg (figuring a diaper couldn't hurt his teeth, Julie decided he could shake that diaper for all he was worth as long as he wanted). But really, Fans. Difficult to know whether to laugh, or gently bang one's head against the closest wall.

In the charming, we're-so-lucky, melt-your-heart file though, in addition to Our Hero's bold striped Big Boy Underwear, we can report that last night, after helping Julie vacuum, Joe wanted to help mop, as Julie will sometimes allow him if he comes in while she is trying to do it when the house is empty of feet. The way mopping with Joe works is Julie takes her whole turn (read: mops what she really wants mopped), and then Joe takes his. When Joe takes his, he is permitted to dip the mop in the bucket himself. The, Julie helps wring it out, but Joe participates. Then Joe can mop any old where he wants. Last night, Ted actually did the mopping because Julie was putting Clara down. Joe slipped a tiny bit and stubbed his toe. We feared the good fellowship wrought by the mopping was too evaporate like water on a newly mopped floor, but no! When Julie suggested to Joe they sit on the couch and watch the water dry before Joe took his turn, he made right for the porch couch and curled up. Then he took his turn and did not, in fact, hop off to bath. Rather, he walked in, and emerged brushed and bathed and got into his diaper and pajamas with nary a snag, before books and bed.

Who can say why there are not so charming days? We suppose it is for the little people as it is for the big people--i.e. sometimes don't you wake up and think, "Today is just not going to be charming." The little people are maybe just more honest in their reaction to it.

Or, it could be that he is almost-but-not-quite-three and thus does not yet understand that we live in a society. Indeed, hopefully polite society, in which we do not make like a dog shaking things between our teeth for attention.