After the Rain, Here Comes the Sun

As you know, Dear Readers, we have been endeavoring to have more "family dinners" here at Raleigh House, despite the fact that Joe and Clara's mealtime is generally smoother all the way around if they eat by themselves without an audience. There are some nights, however, where family dinner is not only civilized, but downright charming.* Tonight was not one of those nights.

It's been a while since we've had a tantrum of the two-year-old variety, rather than the three-year-old variety. Both should be ignored, of course, but somehow, it is difficult to remember that fact when one has a pre-schooler bringing the relative youth of the toddler into sharper relief than would be the case if one was faced with just the wailing toddler in isolation, and vice versa. In other words, t is easy to think of Clara, "Oh but she is so little!" and of Joe, "Argh! He should know better!" But really, though Clara is quite little, she often does know better; and Joe, though he does, in fact, often know better, is of course still learning the ways of this complicated world. All of this usual madness was compounded tonight by the fact that Clara acquired rather an awful bonk yesterday**, and has picked up a cold right on the heels of the strep.

Look at that!--!!!!! She's can't be feeling terribly wonderful. In short, it can be difficult to shift gears in the moment, and from man to man, as we try to keep up on the field of play, but tonight, we managed, in relatively short order, to ignore the squall at our feet and, in relatively short order, it passed, and the sun came out in Clara again.

*See the recent post D is for Dork, Dorks, and Dorky.

**Clara was pushing a truck in the hallway, and when it got away from her, she went splat.