We Miss You Already, Daddy!

Ted left tonight for Chicago, where he will be until Wednesday night. He left just after the bambini were bathed and pajamaed*, and was given a two-bambini hug and kisses before leaving.

The time Ted left was just before Joe's usually hang-out-with-Daddy time, and he said he still wanted "to do something." Specifically, he wanted "to cut." We nix-nayed the unsupervised use of scissors (safety scissors though they may have been), and allowed him his choice of puzzles. He picked cars. It is the most difficult of all his puzzles since the road in the picture curves around, and the colors and patterns in it repeat with more frequency. Ted set it out upstairs before he left, and as Ted walked out the door, Joe tromped up the steps, and the Birds settled in the chair. They weren't even to their last book when Julie heard Joe calling, Mommy! Mommy! I got to show you something!" Julie knew it, but didn't see it until after Clara was down: Our Hero had done it all by himself! He was very proud.

Later, Julie and Joe made up a new game. It sort of like Five Things.** Joe picks a letter, and then he and Julie think of five words that start with that letter. Tonight's letter was B: ball, bubbles, Berenice, boy, and something Julie has now forgotten.

And so, so far, so good. But, special to Chicago: We are,

Missing You In Minnesota

*Socks were donned later tonight, and only by the Sock Crazy Birdie.

**The game in which Joe had to find five things in the Richard Scarry's Best Word Book.