All By Her Birdie Self | Additional Notes

Two of the activities Birdie insists on doing all by her Birdie self demand additional notes: getting in and out of the car and her car seat, and putting on her socks and shoes.

This morning, our crack photography stringer was able to shoot this video of Clara making the ascent into the car and her car seat. Birdie Nation, please note that it takes her a little over three minutes. This is why you might think that this whole all-by-myself bit is uber frustrating because it can really slow things up. But Birdie would quickly teach you the lesson that it is better to figure out how to set her up to achieve what success she can all by herself, because if she even remotely senses that it's possible, if conditions were only just so, she will let you have it which slows up the show even more and is thus, more frustrating, to say nothing of the fact that Birdie is then wailing.

Sometimes, when the going gets rough, Julie thinks of the advice of one of her dear friends, who says that when she's faced with some parenting-related question, and she's not sure what to do, she thinks back to the values she's trying to instill in them, and sets her course by them. Before Joe was born, Julie and Ted talked about the values they most hoped to teach him. By the time Clara was born, those values hadn't changed: kindness and confidence.

So besides the fact that it is plain as day that Birdie has a mind of her own, it helps to remember that a mind of one's own is, in fact, one of the things we're after here! Which means that frustrating though it may be in some moments, to slow down, and figure out how to make things such that Birdie can do it all by her Birdie self, it's worth it in the end.

But we said there was another note, and there is. Joe and Clara have a stuffed animal friend known as Kitty. In truth, there are many kitties, but at the same time, there is only one Kitty. Kitty is purple, and is one of those doll's whose clothes have multiple fasteners with which children can practice their getting-dressed skills. Kitty sports a pair of awesome neon green, thick, terry cloth socks, and rad iridescent pink kicks. (In other words, Kitty is as fashion forward as the bambini.)

Kitty

Clara has taken a shine to Kitty's socks, and can manage to put them on her own feet most of the time (Kitty's paws are another story). Clara would desperately like to complete her look as Kitty does, with the iridescent pink sneakers, but alas, they are too small, much to Birdie's chagrin. Where there's a Birdie's will, there's a way, except when it comes to Kitty's shoes.

The Socks, (One of) the Shoes