Off the Rim

As you know, Brigade, Birdie has long been taken with the potty and all its associated accouterments.  It's all getting a bit ridiculous though: Birdie approaches the potty as her brother does, which is to say, she would like to pee standing up, and if she is to sit on the potty, she would prefer to sit on the rim of the bowl, rather than the seat.  It makes no difference, apparently, that Julie is a girl, and Clara is a girl, and thus, that as Julie sits on the seat to do all her potty business, Clara might as well.  No.  Instead, what appears to be determinative here is that Joe is little, and Clara is little, and therefore, as Joe does, so shall Clara.  And you know, Brigade, at home here, if Birdie wants to try and pee standing up, well wiz away! And if she wants to sit on the bowl's rim, worst case scenario is she falls in, or sit in some dried dribbles from the boys.

But on Monday, after the zoo, at Noodles, all was not well.  While Julie finished up ordering, Ted took the bambini in to the bathroom so they might wash their hands.  He took them into the men's room which doubles as a family changing room and if there is any silver lining in this story, it is that the events which unfolded, unfolded in relative privacy.  This reporter wasn't present so her account is secondhand, but she heard the screams.  Apparently, in the men's family changing room at this Noodles, there is a urinal, and a potty.  Joe used the urinal and--you see where this going, Brigade--as Joe does, so shall Clara.  Of course, as you also know, this simply will not work.  Ted knew this, and suggested the potty.  Clara found this suggestion acceptable, but not the attendant suggestion that she sit on the potty seat.  Only the rim of the bowl would do and Ted (bless him) did not condone her sitting on the bowl rim of the public toilet.  Things devolved from there, as after this grave disappointment, she would brook no assistance with the washing of her hands which was desperately needed in the wake of the visit to the zoo, and frankly, after Clara had attempted to clamber up on the toilet bowl rim and, upon being denied, pitched herself on the floor of the--it bears repeating--public restroom.

Julie heard all of this, and decided not to intervene.  As Ted later said, "Double teaming never works."  So she hastily got her hands washed and upon leaving the bathroom, found Joe in the booth where Julie had left the drinks and order number.  He announced (at typical preschooler volume--i.e. loud) that "Daddy and Clara were outside because Clara couldn't handle it."  And indeed, there she was, outside, wadded up in Ted's arms, with the construction site across the way, listening, no doubt, to a running commentary on all the trucks on the site.  She wasn't crying or screaming though.  Poor Birdie.  With a bit of a cold, a bit of a bonk, and more than a bit tired. . .and then refused a seat on the toilet bowl rim.  It was almost not to be borne, but bear up Birdie did, and so it was that noodles were had.

Swish.

A First

In other news from this weekend, we  can report that we have had our first call from a sitter while we were out.  We went out to dinner with friends Sunday night, and left the bambini with Emily, one of the celebrity demi-goddess from across the alley.  It used to be that playing with Play Doh was what was done when one of the celebrity demi-goddess came over, but now, apparently, they play hide-'n'-seek.  Clara was already under the dining room table before we left.  We'd just sat down to dinner when Emily called to say that everything was fine, but she thought we'd want to know that the bambini had pulled down a curtain rod, Clara had been hit in the head, and had a small cut.  Also, Emily had done what any responsible and probably a little freaked out tween would do and had called her mom.  Julie told Emily that it was only a matter of time before this happened, and she was sorry it had happened on Emily's watch.  As it turns out, it was curtain rod in the dining room on the east wall, the one that faces the street.  We were thinking the downed rod would almost certainly have been the one over the window behind the couch since the bambini are always at that window and tugging on those curtains, but no.  The dining room rods are capped with these fluer de lis-like spears, so Birdie does indeed have a cut---small, but fierce.  Joe informed us that they were being monkeys when this all went down (literally).  But they are fine, as we told Emily and her dad yesterday when they were headed out to buy a fan, we were painting, and Joe was hopping around the driveway and laughing so as to impress Emily.

We Also Paint

In other news from the long Memorial Day weekend, our garage painting project is coming right along.  All but about half of the south-facing wall is primed, and the eastern and northern exposures have the first coat of yellow on them.  Joe helped a bit with the eastern-facing wall, and here and there with some of the priming.  The priming work was less fun because he had to share Julie's brush, whereas he had his own when he was working with the yellow.  When Clara got up from her nap on Sunday, we naturally assumed she'd want a piece of this action, too.  Ted gave her a brush (with nothing on it), and we told her to have at it.  She looked at us, and the brush, burst into tears, and dropped the brush.  So we figure she was either thinking, "What the. . .I WANT THE PAINT!!!!!" or, "I'm too young!  Find some other lackey!  Take the boy!"

Painty McGoo and Painty McGee

Moments before tears and dropped brush.

Much more fun than painting.

To Keep From Going Zoo-y, We Go to the Zoo

But we should back up!  After all, when last we left you, we were considering whether to build an ark and wondering if we'd ever get to go to the park again.  Fans, the sun came out on Sunday.  Hooray!  We went to the zoo--the big one; the Minnesota Zoo--to which Joe and Clara's Grandparents Trump gave us a membership.  (And Fans, we're gonna get their money's worth because we went to the zoo again today!)  The Minnesota Zoo is a large, very spread out zoo, so our zoo sprawl coping strategy was to ask Joe what animal he wanted to see and then go in search of that animal, looking at others along the way.  Yesterday's animal was a snake; today's was a giraffe.  Fans, would you believe that the Minnesota Zoo has but one snake?  It is a python that is really long and looks to be a very respectable python, but it was rather something to locate him (or her, as the case might have been).  Today's animal was a giraffe.  There are no giraffes at the Minnesota Zoo.  By now you might be thinking, is this a zoo, or a fair ground?  Rest assured Fans, it is some kind of zoo.  We saw turtles (and tortoises), a lot of fish (and not just fresh water fish that are, let's be honest, not as flashy as your salt water fish that are representative of fish in all your children's books), a lynx, a bald eagle, monkeys and apes, flamingos, a tiger, a moose, caribou, prairie dogs, antelopes, otters, bears, and lots of other things that we cannot remember the names of including something that is as revered in China as a panda bear (something that is pronounced like "talkin'").  There are also camels.  You can ride some o them (the luckiest camels).  Julie was about to say, "Hey!  Do you want to ride the camels?!" when Ted--wisely--preemptively said one needed to be five to ride the camels.  Joe is looking forward to turning five.

Love ya, Turtle!

We're related?  So like where's my fancy white tail?

Roaring like tigers.  Well, like a tiger.

A moose!  It would like a muffin.  (Seriously though, the educational placard said something like, "A moose spend most of its day chewing."  Apparently, they eat a lotta lotta grass.)

Camels.  Gotta get to five.

Here Clara has simply run out of gas so naturally, she just sat down.  And there is a rock on the sole of her shoe.  Lately, she is big on keeping her feet and shoes somewhat pristine.  We trust you see the difficulty.

Wanted: Two Moons

We recently added Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me to our library.  It was one of the books Joe selected to read tonight.  In it, a girl named Monica asks her papa to get her the moon, which he does, with the help of a ladder, and a mountain, and the moon telling him to wait until it is a bit smaller.  The moon plays with the daughter until it begins waxing again (you get a science lesson in this book, too), and is too big to stay and play.  Shortly before Julie finished the book, Joe asked her if she would get him the moon when she was "more taller enough."  Julie said yes.  Joe added that she should get a moon for Clara, too.  Wanting to get this totally tacked down, he then asked when Julie would be more taller enough to get these moons.  Julie said she wasn't sure.  Joe tried a different tack: what number would she need to be?  She allowed that she would be 36 this year, but that she didn't think that would be sufficient.  Joe said "Yeah, probably 20."  Julie said that was younger than 36 and said maybe when she was 40.  So we've got roughly four years to find ourselves two moons.

That's probably the place to end the post, but this author would like to remember what happened when she took Joe into bed: Clara was still awake.  For a long time, she would bounce up all "Ah ha!" when one walked in, and then would usually pitch a small fit until all her dolls were back in their diapers, booties, and assorted garb.  One night, not so long ago, Julie decided that the dolls would be mis-en-placed, if you will, once, and after that, they were bedding down in whatever state their mistress had them.  (As you might imagine, Dearest Readers, this went over like a lead balloon with their mistress.)  So it was not without some trepidation that Julie approached Clara's crib tonight and reached a hand in to touch the Baby Bird's head and say, "I love you."  That's when Clara reached up her own hand, grabbed Julie's and brought it to her cheek.  (Clara must have been really tired.)

A Breakthrough

There is also this: for a very long time, Joe and Clara have raced from the garage, around to the front of the house, and up the front steps so that they might fling the door open and possibly, whichever one has the misfortune to be second, down those same steps.  Devoted Readers may recall that Julie lost her mind the other week ago when she caught a tumbling down Clara with one arm while Joe forged ahead oblivious to her saying his name so loud, she was sure the entire Twin Cities metro area heard her, save her son.

But!  We have had a breakthrough.  For several days now, after Joe has raced form the garage and reached the front stoop, he has STOPPED.  This makes Clara stop.  Then Julie goes up the steps, opens the door, and holds it open for Joe and Clara before following them in, and closing the door behind her.  It's so civilized!  And safe!  And amazing.  It's like Joe is reasoning.  He's catching what we're throwing.  Pickin' up we're puttin' down!

Now if we can just get Clara to understand that she cannot climb into the car and her car seat on her own when the car is parked on the street or a parking lot.  Every day we three, or four, walk out of KinderCare, hand in hand, and it's just such a picture.  And then we reach the car, and Clara is told she may not toddle herself on over to the rear driver's side door on the four-land street and hoist herself into the car and into her car seat, and she goes ballistic, and one of us picks our screaming and thrashing daughter up and wrestles her into her car seat.  The garage at home, the street, the parking garage. . .These are but fine, fine distinctions in Clara's world and you know what she says about distinctions?  Distinctions schmtinctions.

The Opter

It's not always so fraught though, Fans.  Thursday night was rather warm, and when Julie laid Clara in her crib for the night, Clara said, "I warm."  Then she said something like "Turn on opter."  Julie is pleased to say that in under 30 seconds, she deduced that Clara wanted her to turn on the helicopter--also known as the fan.

Rain, Rain GO AWAY!

Fans.  Is there anything better than a long weekend, with a toddler and a preschooler, that promises to be rainy?  As this report is filed, it is only 12:40pm, and already, we've had a very full and fraught morning here at Raleigh House.  It began at 5:20am with Our Hero, wailing "Mama!  Maaaaaamaaaaahhhhh!" from his room.  The trouble?  Did he need to use the potty?  No.  Had he bonked his head on the wall or bed rail?  No.  Had the blinds fallen down past the window sill because he was flailing about?!  No.  No, it was none of the usual trials.  When Julie appeared at the door and asked what was wrong, Joe said, "Is it time to wake up?"  It's moments like these that remind us why one of our top five parenting rules here at Raleigh House is DON'T OPEN THE DOOR TO THE BAMBINI'S ROOM UNLESS IT SOUNDS LIKE A BOMB HAS EXPLODED BEHIND IT.  This rule's corollary is: and even then, THINK TWICE.

Julie said, "No, it is not time to wake up."  Joe asked when it would be, and Julie said, "At least 40 minutes," and closed the door on Our Hero, who had drawn his blankets up over his head in a huff, and Clara, now wailing.

Because it is a holiday weekend, music classes were cancelled.  Ordinarily*, on Saturday mornings, Ted takes the bambini to Target, while Julie stays at the house and cleans it.  As we didn't have music class today, Julie decreed that everyone would help clean, before we all went to Target.  The bambini had a single job: to pick up their Legos in the living room.  They are both champion picker-uppers, but this morning, they were unable to rise to the occasion and things devolved from there.  Our reporter overheard Joe say to Clara, "CLARA!  Clean.  Up!  I'm wearing sunglasses because it's sunny out [oh we wish, Fans, oh how we wish] and I don't want my eyes to get burned!  I have to protect my eyes!"  In case you think you are missing something, Fans, rest assured, this comment has nothing to do with picking up Legos.

Let's just say that cleaning ended with Julie and the bambini holed up in the bambini's room with the door closed so that Ted could mop, and Julie asking Joe at the top of her lungs to REMOVE HIS PAJAMAS instead of cavorting like a nu-nu, while Clara cavorted like a nu-nu.  (Clara has a runny nose.  There is nothing like a touch of a cold to turn Bridie into a slightly crazed bearcat.  There is nothing like Birdie acting like a bearcat at the start of a rainy long weekend to make her parents also act slightly crazed.)

And then we were off to Target!  Whee!  The usual merriment and frustrations ensued.  While were in Target, the promised thunderstorm broke out.  What can you do?  We all got a little wet getting into the car, but we did all make it in.  Julie was hungry, and Ted loves her, so he offered to go to McDonald's and get fries for everyone.  Joe was, naturally, contrary, and announced in the drive-thru lane, that he didn't want any French fries.  Ted said," Fine.  That's fine.  I won't get you any."  That's when Joe wailed, "NO!"  Such is life these days and even though one knows that, it is still crazy-making.  This all went down at 10:32am.  McDonald's doesn't start serving fries until 11am.  Oh McDonald's.  Not lovin' it.

So we headed for home, frustrated and mildly despondent.  When we pulled into the garage, Julie turned her head and found Clara asleep.  You'll recall that she had a runny nose so all the hubbub had no doubt worn her out.  But she rallied long enough to wreak some sort of havoc with Joe before lunch.  This author isn't certain what it was, but** it involved the bathroom, and Joe bonking his nose on the doorknob.  No doubt you will all recall the manner in which Raleigh House inhabitants like to cram themselves into the bathroom, the smallest room of the house, laden with hard surfaces, and then make some sort of trouble such that someone is bound to either bonk his or herself, and someone else is bound to lose his or her mind.***

And now it is quiet time.  Ostensibly.

*Julie, to Joe, just after typing "ordinarily," and being asked to cut another piece of thread, "We are all doing things by ourselves.  I am going out of my mind and I am trying to preserve what little bit of sanity I have left.  We are doing things by ourselves."

**Julie, to Joe, after typing "but," as he pounded up the stairs for the second time in the span of five minutes: "Joe.  You need to do something upstairs.  Something quiet.  You cannot keep pounding up and down the steps.  Clara is a little sick and needs to sleep.  And I need it quiet in this house."  Joe is no standing on the bed trying to fling a blanket that is five times his size out such that it lands perfectly, perfectly smooth.  He is now informing Ted that the blanket is "all mine."

***Ted got a new air conditioner for the upstairs yesterday.  Julie just told Joe that she didn't think he should touch the pipe coming out the back, which is when Ted broke in and said, "Don't touch that!  At  all!"

Just trying to make you feel like you were here, Fans.  If you were, we could all pile into the bathroom and then all try to stand on the one stool at the same time because taking turns would be compromising and whatever you do, YOU MUST NOT COMPROMISE!!!!!  With any luck, there would be bonks all around, and then we could pass out monkey band-aids as party favors.

Yipee! Dentist!

Today was dentist day for both bambini.  Joe loves him a dentist.  Why?  Because there is a toy bin from which he can choose a toy after he is done with his cleaning, and that is worth the world to him.  So it was with great joy, hopping, and chattering that Joe greeted the news that we would go see Dr. Amey today.  The twist this year was that it would be Clara Jane's inagural trip to the dentist as well.  We secured an early 7:30am appointment, to ensure we hit their peak cooperative time.  Joe and Clara Jane had adjoining chairs and a hygenist for each of them!  Joe got right down to business, donning his shades, opening wide and letting the hygenist do her thing without any fuss.  Clara Jane took a little convincing as you might suspect, but they eventually got her to crack her mouth open enough to brush some teeth.  Good news is they both got rave reviews from Dr. Amey - great spacing, no cavities or softness, and good gums!  But what about the toy you ask?  Well. First Joe picked out a kite and we talked all about flying a kite at the park with the hygenist until Joe abruptly announced the kite wasn't very fun and returned it to the toy bin and picked out a "water snake" which is a fun toy for bath because it is slippery.  Clara Jane was quick to copy Joe and picked out an identical purple water snake for herself.  The kids were fabulous listeners and so well behaved.  Their handlers couldn't be more proud.  They were so proud that they decreed today would be a cupcake day! (Julie later amended this decree so it was not connected to their behavior at the dentist to ensure they didn't think they would get a cupcake every time they behaved well...we wouldn't want that!)

Joe loves the sunglasses he gets to wear.

Clara Jane checking out the floss from her goodie bag.

Super Fabulous Hair

The Blondies
(for now, Julie is going gray and the bambini may go brown of course!)

As longtime Fans know, one of Julie's favorite games is Beauty Shop.  The bambini don't call it Beauty Shop.  This is what Julie called it when she was younger.  The bambini just ask for Mommy's comb.  Julie usually gets them all out, as well as a few of her clamps to increase the chance that she will be able to sit a longer period of time.  Sunday afternoon found Julie at the Beauty Shop.  She told Joe that she wanted a 'do that was red-carpet ready and very glamorous.  It took both bambini to create a style that Joe said would be "super fabulous."

Birdie adds some bling

(Also super fabulous: Clara's outfit.  It's not every young lady that can rock the ivory leggings with the yellow tee.  Such are the outfits created when it's suddenly in the low 60s and raining.)

The Fabulous Bisfarook

Hello.  And don't I look darling?  Especially my hair?  C'est fabu.  Moments before this was taken, I was pitching a fit.  Oh about how my diaper and pajamas were put on of course.  I gots to keep the 'rents on their toes.

And then there's this one again.  Tonight, Birdie selected Caps For Sale as one of her before-bed books, and as we set off with its peddler selling his caps, right on cue, she began crowing, "Caps!  Caps for sale!"  Caps For Sale is an atypical selection, and has been read to Birdie perhaps less than five times, if that, so Julie was suitably impressed.  Birdie did the same thing when Julie began Inside, Outside, Upside Down: parroted the beginning right along with Julie, and as Julie reached the last page, Birdie cried out "Mama!  Mama!"  (The last page reads, "Mama!  Mama!  I went to town!  Inside, outside, upside down!")

Just yesterday at pick-up, Julie ran into one of Clara's teachers, Ms. Manisha, as Manisha was headed out and Julie was headed in.  Manisha stopped Julie to say that Clara was doing so well with letters, that Clara had been picking out the C for Clara from the alphabet assemblage, but had, that day, also picked out an A.  Julie said she was so glad to know it, because she admittedly sometimes worried that she wasn't shifting gears well between Joe and Clara, and worried that Clara was getting short shrift in the work on these basic concepts.  It's less to do with their ages, and more to do with their approach to things.  Joe has always been rather focused on, for example, whatever is being read to him at night, while Clara seems to be distracted.  But she isn't.  Like, Brigade, lately, she's been levering herself over to see if she can put her toe in her mouth (she can).  What the heck?!*  And then she up and informs you of the colors of all the crayons in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie all "Duh, Mommy."  Julie was relaying all of this (except the bit about the toe) to Ms. Manisha and Manisha said "Oh yes, they're very different!  Very different.  Joe was all focus and Clara's got to be playing with her shoe or something.  But so smart!"

So apparently, Julie can lighten up a bit when it seems like Clara is more concerned with figuring out whether she can maneuver her toe into her mouth than The Task at Hand.

*But, now then, Julie will admit here, for the first time, that this all called up a vague memory she has of trying to cram her toe into her mouth, and when she was much older, say six or seven.  Why?!?!  Why?????  It was during the summer, and she happened to be at her maternal grandparents' house.  Her grandfather saw her doing this and said, "You are bisfarooked."  This is a made up word from what Julie can tell, and means what you might expect: crazy.  See also: wackadoodle.  One can also be a bisferook; it is both an adjective, and a noun.  Julie grandfather's sisters once told Julie that their mother spoke German in their house, and Julie mentioned this bisfarook word, but they didn't recognize it as being any of the German their mother spoke.

Joe and Mouse Go Out

Today, Joe took a set of his pre-readers to school and read one of them to his class during morning group time!  Holy buckets!  It was The Big Fish from the Mouse Goes Out set of readers.  In this title, Mouse goes fishing and gets pulled in by the big fish he catches which is, naturally, quite hilarious to your almost-four-year-old way of thinking.  Joe thought he was pretty cool, which, we kind of think he is.

Boy At Rest

We mentioned that Joe took a nap on Mother's Day, but Fans!  He also took a nap Saturday!  !!!!!  Julie and Ted were busy re-edging all the garden beds in the backyard, and along about three o'clock, Joe asked if he could take a nap.  Well, of course!  But nowadays, when Joe asks to take a nap, it's liable to mean can I lay my head down for a minute--literally--and call that a nap.  So Ted asked if he'd like to curl up outside, and when Joe said yes, got the Northwestern blanket that we keep in the bike trailer in case the bambini get cold, and that Joe, in particular, loves.  Joe also requested a couple of books.  After he was all tucked in on top of a towel and under the Wildcats blanket, we heard him reading to himself, before he drifted off, and Ted took these pictures.

This picture is of Julie napping in the backyard, in 2006!  Before all bambini, and before we'd carved out the gardens that are there now.

Tree Trimming

Taking in the show.

 Ted has decided to tackle painting our garage which matches the color of our house before it was re-sided in the wake of a hail storm a few years ago.  The garage is also rather dirty.  A large apple tree grows next to our garage, so the first thing Ted did, was trim it up.  He began Mother's Day afternoon when both bambini were asleep.  (You read that last sentence right, Fans: both bambini--!!!!!  Joe napped, and at the same time as Clara--!!!!!  On Mother's Day--!!!!!)  When they woke up, Julie took them outside for their snack and they settled right in for the show.  When a big branch came down, they cheered: "Yea!!!!!"  After they were done with the snack, they both helped pile the branches up for bundling.  Good times, good times.

Birdie (in bird shirt) at work.

Helping.

Here, the right side has been trimmed up.  The branches used to be as low as those on the left!  They were as low as, and even with, at least the window box on the garage.

Getting There, One Pedal at a Time

And here's another fabulous development in Clara's development: she has learned to pedal her push-along bike.  Oh Brigade.  This is huge.  Huge!  Because previously, she would place her feet on the bike's pedals, but not rotate them, leaving the pusher to do all the work.  That would be just fine, of course, except that her feet would stray to the very inside of the pedal platform, and rest next to its spindle, where it would then stymie the rotation of the crank*, and thus the propulsion forward.  All the while, Clara would be steering--in the loosest possible sense of the word--as the pusher would be steering--in the stricter sense of the word--and in short, it was not the la-di-da frolic one saw pictured on the box in which the push-along bike came.  But now, Our Bird has got this pedaling thing down.

Now, she is also enamored of the bell.  Really Makers of the Push-Along Bike?  A bell?  The old-fashioned kind that require a firm grasp of the operation of the evolutionary wonder that is the opposable thumb, while peddling and--dare the dream--steering?

What Birdie does is stop dead to operate the bell ringer lever with two hands.  You see the problem instantly, Our Dear Readers.

One challenge down.  Many more--and many more miles--to go.

*It's true.  This author has just educated herself on bicycle parts and, more specifically, pedal parts.

Communicating

In other news, Clara will talk your ear of these days.  This week's menu has gotten a little screwy on account of the fact that Julie was sick Monday, so a tomato that was meant for tacos another night became part of a caprese salad tonight.  As soon as Julie cut into hers, Clara, next to her, began murmuring Rain Man like, "I need a nato," (translation: "I need a tomato.").  Also tonight, earlier, when Julie and Clara were on the porch doing puzzles in order to be two less bodies in the busy kitchen, Clara looked at Julie, put her hand on Julie's leg, and said, "Julie."  Julie decided not to get into the whole two-names-for-one-thing-so-Mommy-to-Clara-(and-Joe)-and-Julie-to-others bit. The other morning, Julie was upstairs getting dressed when she heard Clara, clear as bell from downstairs, say, "Mama, where are you?"  And then the other night, Clara quite clearly said "No blanket," and when Julie confirmed with "No blanket" Clara said no, and added, "I hot."  !!!!!  We're like. . .COMMUNICATING!!!!!  And it's totally awesome.

Imagination at Play

It is sometimes fun to walk past a room in Raleigh House here and see the flotsam and jetsam of whatever business in which the bambini have been engaged.  (It is also, admittedly, sometimes maddening to walk into one's home and find it looking like a tribe of wee barbarians has swept through, but such is life these days and soon enough, no doubt--no doubt--one of us will be teary-eyed because we are packing off the cupcake kitchen while the other says "there, there now.")  Above is a picture of is how the living room looked the other morning.  Because you may not be able to see all the details, Fans, we should tell you that to the right of that stack of pillows lies Captain America (you can just see his red boots), Clara's coin purse, her heart necklace, and two cupcakes.  A tea party might have been in the works, as you can see the plates laid out on Grandma Jane's blanket, but who knows?  After all, just last night, Joe dragged Grandma Jane's blanket into the kitchen and announced it was "hot lava!" and, moreover, that if we went on it, we would be "dead FOREVER!"   Oh my!  The baskets were bound for the porch where they were to become shoe baskets in Julie's seemingly never ending quest to quell the shoes that grow like mushrooms by every doorway, but they haven't made it there yet, and now perhaps never will, as they have been appropriated as who knows what.  Julie can see quite clearly now all the shoes that might be inside the alleged shoe baskets dumped in a heap and the baskets trotted off to points hither and yon throughout the house as all manner of things.  The bambini do love them a basket.  Never met a basket they didn't like to haul about or tug between them.

It doesn't take much these days to set Joe off imagining all manner of fabulous things.  Last night at dinner, Julie shared that she'd visited her doctor earlier that day.  Joe promptly--and apropos of nothing--asked if there were monsters there.  Julie said no, and asked if there were monsters at his doctor's office.  Joe allowed that there were.  Here are the particulars of these monsters:
They are white.
They are furry.
They have 15 eyes!
They do not have teeth.
They do not speak.  EVER!
They have flowers for feet.
They walk on the heels of their feet.

Obviously, we shall have to alert Dr. Harrington.

In the Bonds

We have been meaning to report on the nature of the bambini's bond these days, when on Mother's Day, we happened to film this clip that captures it just so.  That is to say that Joe looks out for Clara, and if Clara does not quite have the wherewithal to do the same, she does think Joe is the cat's pajamas.  But not so much that he can have whatever he wants.  Joe, naturally, was just "saving"* the item in question for her--so, like, chilllax, Bird--oh, but he would note (in a whine) that Clara isn't sharing.  (As though he is always inclined to do so.  Sharing is always a virtue for which we should strive when it is required of someone else who has something one wants.)

*This whole "saving" concept is apparently sweeping through his world.  You remember "saving," Fans.  Joe thinks it's a whole new concept of course.  Things with which he is playing that he is forced to leave momentarily by, say, the call of nature, he will ask to be "saved."  Mother's Day morning was the first time we've seen him use the idea as a kind of explicative, preemptive argument as to why he was playing with something that Clara had been playing with first--but then put down.  Really, this makes the bracelet fair game, since we do not save things at Raleigh House, but clearly, there is not widespread agreement on this point.

In the Middle | The Video

For those of you not familiar with the KinderCare songbook, here is a video of Clara, and Joe, singing and dancing to In The Middle yesterday evening.  You can hear Clara singing it before she notices the camera is on her.  She then fades out a bit, but usually, she will sing the whole song.  There was a time when she would request the song and it would sound like she was asking to be sung Clara in the Mango.

You Turn Around. . .

What a weekend!  Now, it's true: when one lives with a preschooler and toddler, "What a weekend!" can mean all kinds of things.  In this case, it means what a fabulous Mother's Day weekend.  We have so much to report--and we shall--all in good time.  For now, here is how this Mother's Day began.  At the end of this clip, you'll see Clara say, "Me!" meaning she would like to be the next person to whom the song is sung.  She's like the caller at a square dance when we sing songs that are sung to someone, like Happy Birthday.

The day was bookended with song.  After Julie had read books to Clara this evening, the Birds snuggled on the couch.  When Julie and Joe snuggle after books, Julie likes to ask Joe, of all the things he did in a day, which was his favorite.  Clara is too little to understand that question and so keeps her unwitting secret counsel, but she likes a good sing-along, so that's what the Birds do.  Tonight, as is usually the case, Clara's lead-off request was "ABCs."  Eventually, the Birds worked around to some little ditty they sing at KinderCare in the infant and toddler rooms that goes like this:
Clara, Clara, Clara's in the middle!
Jump in, jump in, do a little wiggle!
Turn around, and sit down!
We went back and forth; Clara, Mommy, Clara, Mommy, Clara, Mommy. . .and closed it down with that.

This is Julie's third Mother's Day and it is funny now, when we cannot imagine this life without them, to remember then, when we could not imagine this life with them.  You jump in.  You do a little wiggle.  You turn around.  And you're someone's mommy, someone's daddy.

A New Day

This one.  This one, Brigade, as you know, has been giving us fits lately by pitching fits whenever something does not go her way, or at least as she has decided it should in her little mind.  We try very hard to let her try to do the things she wants to do by herself (everything), even when we know at the outset that she will not be able to accomplish these tasks (a good portion of everything), and wait for her to ask for help.  It will not always be so difficult, we know, but it's all rather awful right now, as Birdie does not also know that it won't always be so awful and, of course, she doesn't have all the words she needs to get her points through to these numbskulls with whom she's living.  So we have scenes like the one that unfolded at dinner the night before last when Birdie wanted to sprinkle her own parmesan cheese on her pasta.  Not having quite acquired the light flicker of the hand that creates the sprinkling of cheese, Birdie's heavy-handed attempt landed a fair amount of cheese on the table as well.  That's when things went off the rails.  Birdie is big on wiping up all spills immediately.  We are big on eating our food while it is still warm.  Really, we're big on just eating, and if we cleaned up every spill right away, or honor every request for more milk/water/juice/fruit/chicken nuggets/bread/you get the idea the moment they were issued, we'd never eat more than three bites before the "I'm/I done" bells sounded.  Literally.  We do not exaggerate, Brigade.

So Birdie wailed for nearly the whole of dinner, with renewed volume and force when her napkin fell on the floor.  (She'd been trying to mop up the parmesan herself with it, and it got away from her.)  She pretty much wailed her way through bath, diaper and pajama donning, and reading.  Rough times all the way around.  (Joe said his ears hurt.)

But, we have had a breakthrough.  Though one knows that all of this havoc is normal in a house with a toddler (and preschooler), it does help to hear from someone else that it is, yes, in fact, all normal, and that moreover (more important), we are responding in the best way possible, so stay the course.  Julie had called our beloved pediatrician to say that while we thought we were responding appropriately such that one day Clara would not dissolve into tears at every turn, tensions were high, patience was in short supply, and nerves were frayed.  And our pediatrician replied, "Well, of course!"  And even just that was a comfort, which is why she is so fabulous.  So we got the this-is-normal-and-is-awful-but-keep-up-the-good-work pep talk, which allowed us to get back in the game with renewed confidence.  She also reminded us that sometimes it helps to make things a game.

So yesterday, we played "Where is Clara's foot/head/hand?" as we were getting her dressed.  In this game, one looks with great effort and comedy (naturally) for Clara's foot/head/hand in her pant leg/shirt/ sleeve.  Birdie thinks it's hilarious.

So there.  We are back!  It's a new day, and a new game.

Reading Maurice Sendak

As long time Fans know, we here at Raleigh House are huge Fans ourselves of Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen.  We like Where the Wild Things Are, too, of course*, but In the Night Kitchen holds a very special place in our hearts because as you might recall, Fans, there were the first words that Joe ever read. It's true he may have been parroting what he had memorized, but they were the first words he attempted with Julie's finger running along beneath them.  So we were sad yesterday when we learned that Maurice Sendak had passed away, and thought it only fitting that we read In the Night Kitchen and Where the Wild Things Are before bed.

Julie [as she walks up the stairs]: "Pal?  It's time for  books. . ."
Joe: "How many do we have time for?"
Julie: "Well, we could read. . ."
Ted [breaking in]: " Do you want to read the Maurice Sendak books?"
Julie: "Oh yeah!  It's a special Maurice Sendak day!  Should we read in In the Night Kitchen and Where the Wild Things Are?!"

[Joe starts down the stairs.]

Julie: "Pal?  Do you want to read the Maurice Sendak books?"
Joe: "No."

[Scene.]

So we read a set of four pre-readers, about Mouse (rather than Worm).  Or rather, Joe read them, and read them like it weren't no thing.  He stumbled less than a handful of times (still on the word another), but you should see him begin to sound something out without prompting (which is how he got another in no time at all), or look at the picture for a clue.  It's really something.  He's really, really doing it!

So it wasn't In the Night Kitchen and Where the Wild Things Are, but it all seemed a fitting Sendak tribute all the same.

*Remember when Julie once teased Joe that she would eat him up, and he replied, "I love you so"?

Of Pajama Walks and Alligators

Well, Fans, we made it out on a Pajama Walk.  It rained most of the weekend (or made like it was going to), but long about six o'clock, the sun came out and the air wrung itself out.  Julie returned from a bike ride to find Ted standing serenely beside a wailing Clara.  (It would seem Ted had guessed incorrectly how she wanted to take her medicine.  Or, she was having none of doing it his way.)  Once, when Clara and Joe were both being bearcats, Julie picked Clara up, marched her outside, and took her on a walk down the block.  So, she decided to do the same thing again, and Joe decided to come along--though, Fans, he had been weeding with Ted and was clearly worried about hurting Ted's feelings.  Joe said to Julie, "But I love Daddy."  Julie said "Well, sure, and he won't think you don't, going on a walk now with Mommy."  This seemed to settle it.

Once we were back, there was time for Julie to pretend to be an alligator and run snapping after the bambini.  The game stopped when Julie happened upon a caterpillar.  It was a well-timed piece of luck as the alligator was pretty tired, and it was time to head in and read some stories before bed.

It's all quiet now.  The bambini might actually already be asleep.

Bye!

So yes, yesterday evening was very exciting. . .the fashions, the Derby. . .and then, Ted and Julie announced that they were going out on a date which almost always means that one of Joe and Clara's idols, Sara or Emily, will be coming over.  AHHH!!!  The vibe Joe and Clara very much give off is don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out, but they can usually be counted on to watch us leave, wave and blow kisses. . or press a face up to the glass.

Ready (Or Not)

Birdie is a bit of a bearcat these days when her diaper or clothes are being changed, especially in the wake of bath time when she is tired from a full day of being Birdie.  What we've taken to doing when Birdie begins thrashing around and wailing or giggling, is to leave the room, telling her to let us know when she's ready.  This usually prompts her to get all serious for a moment and say, "I ready, I ready," before picking right back up where she'd left off.  (Clearly, we need a new strategy.)  We've not got that worked out yet, but last night, Julie told Clara that she (Julie) would let Clara know when she (again, Julie) was ready.  "So there!" Julie thought as she marched off to the kitchen to do the dishes.  A minute or two later she noticed Ted out of the corner of her eye, chuckling, and upon turning to look at him, noticed what he was laughing about: Birdie had dragged her changing pad from the bambini's room, down the hall, and into the kitchen, where she had flopped down, ready.  So there.

Birdie's Derby Duds

By the way, Clara was in this self-styled get-up for the Kentucky Derby.  (She elected not to top it with a fascinator or hat as would be traditional.)

When Grandma Connie was visiting, she and Julie went shopping for some summer clothes for the bambini and even though it seems like it has been raining here in Minnesota for forever, and will never stop, we keep the faith that the sun will reappear.  So, Julie spent some time this weekend going through Joe and Clara's clothes and getting rid of things that were for the wrong season, or too small, or stained, or stretched out of shape, or the victims of other forms of toddler and preschooler abuse, and then put away the things Grandma Connie had gotten for the bambini.  This whole process meant that for much of Sunday, there were various piles of clothes about the dining room table and the bambini's room.  Here we pause to note that both Joe and Clara are, apparently, mad for a bathing costume, if you will.  If there is a rash guard within arms reach, both of them will be whipping whatever shirt they are currently in, off, to don the rash guard.  Even better than Pajama Day at school for Joe is Beach Day.  It's only happened once, but oh boy.  What.  A.  Day.  Clara spied this set at some point and, not only was there a rash guard, there was also something that looked suspiciously like underwear!  Whee!!!!!

This Just In | Kentucky Derby

Ted has turned on the TV in the run up to the running of the Kentucky Derby.  When it went to commercial, Clara asked where the puppies go.

And then. . .

We came home and Clara pooped in the bath tub.  This is a first for us.  One hopes it is also a last, but we have no expectation in this regard.  She knew it had happened, and seemed to suspect that this was the wrong bathroom vessel for this activity, but was otherwise nonplussed.  Julie just wanted to get the bambini and their vast collection of bath toys out of the tub before a bigger mess was created (which she did).

At least the bathroom doesn't have to be cleaned now this weekend.

U Can't Touch This Chipotle

Ted was in Cleveland for the day yesterday, but it was an otherwise beautiful day.  So Julie hatched a plan to take the bambini to Chipotle for dinner, then take them home for an early bath, and, after they were in their pajamas, take them on a Pajama Bike Ride before bed.  But clouds rolled in about 3:30pm and by the time Julie and the bambini were in Chipotle, the rain was really coming down.  So we save the Pajama Bike Ride for another day.

Chipotle was hopping.  There was a table of three high school girls near us who were a source of endless fascination for Joe, as were the umbrellas on the tables on the patio.  There is nothing quite like questions from a toddler or preschooler to keep you on your toes.  Joe wanted to know why the umbrellas over the tables were being collapsed.  Julie had to explain (repeatedly) that umbrellas over tables were usually for blocking sun, not rain, and that most people do not like to eat in the rain.  Clara, meanwhile, had climbed right up into a Big Girl Seat at the booth--no high chair!

We always like to dance in our seats to the music.  Last night, we heard a remixed version of the MC Hammer classic U Can't Touch This.  You can't hear the music very well, but here you can see the bambini dancing to it.  And then they just stop.  But all they need are some Hammer pants, and they are ready to take the dance world by storm.

Baby Bird, Baby Bird, What Do You See?

In other news, Clara's daily doings report from the day before yesterday said that the class had played a sorting colors game, and that Clara is good at it.  No doubt.  She does not often like to read the same book two nights in a row, but the past few nights, she's gone for Brown Bear.  The last page has all the animals on it that the children at book's end, and the child reading the book, of course, have seen, and what Clara likes to do is put her hand over Julie's and direct Julie's hand along as it points at all the animals.  But other night, after the Birds had done that, Julie closed the book and said to Clara, "Can you find me. . .the red bird?!" before popping the book back open!  Clara laughed and did a quick point and said, "Right dere!"  Brigade, she got every single animal right: the brown bear, the red bird, the yellow duck, the blue horse, the green frog, the purple cat, the white dog, the black sheep, and the goldfish!  She did it again tonight!

(We should acknowledge that despite these feats, Birdie has been known to mix up red and green in exactly the same way Joe used to!  Green is always green, but sometimes red is labelled green.  It's very curious.  But it is very fun to hear Birdie wrap her mouth around green, and she says it with such gusto: GREEN!)

Scat the Hat

That's enough being maudlin!  Right?!  Right.  The Cat in the Hat Comes Back has been at the top of the Raleigh House bestseller list for some time now.  Its cover features the Cat in not only his hat, but some skis, and initially, in its run, Joe referred to it as "the one with the cat on skis," or something like that, to distinguish it from The Cat in the Hat.  Who knew he knew what skis were?!  Until we remembered that skis were features on the winter page in the Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever in which we used to play 10 Things.  So The Cat in the Hat Comes Back is all the rage.  So, too, is a song on the McPhail Center for Music's second children music's CD called Scat the Cat.*  Joe is besotted with Scat the Cat.  He requests it so often that even Clara, who is arguably most likely to be as besotted with it out of the other three people besides Joe in the car, is over Scat.  The moment she hears Scat she says, "Nooooo.  Not Scat, not Scat."  Whimpers usually follow as Scat begins because of course, Joe asks very politely to hear it, and the mixmaster job floats.

We have been meaning to report that worlds collided the other morning when Joe asked to listen to Scat the Hat.  Fans, it was the best.  He instantly realized his mistake and started laughing and we did, too.  It was like real humor!

*A sampling: "I'm Scat the Cat, I'm round and fat, and I can change my colors, just like that!"  It only gets better from there, Fans.

You're Gonna Miss This

Birdie Brigade, settle in for one of those ruminating and reflective posts Julie likes to do now and again.  Julie has been racing, racing, racing the past few weeks, and so she feels like there's barely been time to stop and think and feel all that's been happening, like Birdie turning two.  It is both exciting and bittersweet to see her grow up.  It was--and is--the same swirl of emotions watching Joe grow up, but when Joe was the age Clara is now, the possibility of another little nugget had just been realized with her arrival.  There is no such possibility about to materialize now which makes one a little more wistful about these days.

There is this, Julie thinks, as consolation: Clara is sweet, and earthy, by nature.  She likes to cuddle, and be cuddled, and is very direct and uncomplicated about it all.  Birdie sometimes takes Julie's hand and  clasps it to her--Birdie's--tummy, just so, or cups Julie's hand to her cheek, or around her knee.  Julie feels like Birdie could never get enough of being cradled and held.

So there all that, which stands side by side with things like a child, tucked in a half hour or more, who suddenly begin wailing because he has "no animals" in his bed, despite the obvious presence of two, which means you must go track down some others because they have escaped from the basket across the room, and upon your return with them, the other child begins wailing because if her brother is going have more animals, then by gosh, she is, too, despite the presence of the following in her crib (working clockwise round the perimeter): Cat, Gorilla, Giraffe, Pink Bear, Baby Doll 1, Baby Doll 2, Baby Doll 3, Pink Dog,  My Purple Pillow Pet, and Dog.  That's 10--10, in case you lost count, Fans.  (In addition to a cuddler, Our Clara Jane is also a bit of a hoarder.)

Anyway.  Today, in the car on the way home, Julie happened to hear the Trace Adkins song You're Gonna Miss This, and Brigade, as the country music fans among you know, there is nothing like a country song to set you to blubbering about time rushing on, even as you plod along in rush hour.

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these times hadn't gone by so fast


These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Word, Trace, word.