THREE!

Fans. Our Hero has turned three. Another year--and another party--in the bag. The party was a rager. Here's the backyard at party's end, after some picking up had occurred.

"What in the world are those things?!" you say? Oh, Readers. Dear Readers. We must go back to when we woke up, and saw that there was a 60% chance of nothing good--rain, "severe weather," hail. . .So yes, we panicked, and headed to the general merchandise mecca, Target, where we procured two, 10' x 10' "gazebos" that were on clearance. It took Ted two hours to put up the first one; an hour for the second. Julie's dad arrived somewhere toward the end of the construction of the first and so was able to lend a hand from there on out. Good thing, since the Birthday Boy was helping build the first, at first, and as you might thinking, he brought a lot of enthusiasm to the task, but not much else.

Naturally, since we prepared for rain, not a drop fell. It was, however, plenty hot, and plenty humid. Luckily, there was a breeze from time to time, and plenty of cool drinks. All the toddlers mainlined juice boxes, which is perhaps how it came to be that they closed the party down by toting--with great glee and industriousness--ice and water from the beverage tubs from the backyard to the front yard in sand molds and buckets.

Joe's cake had a whale on it this year, in honor of the whale pool. The party's funniest moment came when all were gathered round to serenade Joe, and Ted was just about to put the candle in the cake, when Joe's friend from school, Sophie, stuck her hand right in the middle of the whale. Hilarious, Fans. Hilarious! And that's right where we put the candle.

Clara kept cool and charmed in her romper. Her (and Joe's) Great Great Aunts Shirley, Muriel, and Nyla* were in attendance, and Clara made a big splash when she pulled herself up from the blanket on which she'd been playing and walked--no hands!--over to Julie who was sitting catching up with them.

There were lots of presents. Our Hero kept this fact--and the cake--top of mind. He was set to open the presents after the last of the guests had left, but by that time, Ted had dashed across the river to collect Berenice from doggie camp, and it was very nearly bath time. We are used to the presents barely being registered and so did not allot time for Our Hero to open them!** Lips may have trembled. But how proud was Julie when, in the course of negotiations, she said we just had to wait to open them until the next day because Daddy wasn't home and he would be so sad to miss the opening of the birthday presents, Joe promptly replied, "O-kay." Still, Joe was pushing to open presents when Ted got home that night, this whole "almost bath time" line of argument holding no sway whatsoever with him. In the end, Our Hero made his way to bath and into his pajamas, and we had "Present Breakfast" this morning. (Success in this endeavor was probably due, in no small measure to the coming of Emily, from across the alley, to babysit while Julie and Ted went out for a quick dinner with Julie's parents. Emily, and her older sister Sara, are celebrities to Joe. If told one or both are arriving to read stories with him and put him to bed, and in pajamas he must be, then in pajamas he will be.)

And so. Three. Three! We can hardly believe it. . .

*These are Julie's maternal grandfather's three sisters.

**Lesson learned.