Fun Run

Tonight, Julie was cheered on by the bambini and Ted in her first ever race!  That's right, Fans: Julie was a finisher in the Ninth Annual St. Louis Park Geezer Chase, benefiting the St. Louis Park High School Cross Country Team.  All runners over 18 were considered geezers.  Geezers got a two minute head start on the cross country team members.  The course was two miles, with some hills, and running on paths and some on grass.  Participants got water and snacks, and a tee-shirt.  There is nothing like the promise of free clothing to encourage participation from Julie, especially free garb that will make her appear to be as sporty as she aspires to be.  For sure the 10th anniversary event tee-shirt will be awesome.  Tee-shirts aside, Julie never would have done this if her friend Molly (otherwise known to you, Dear Readers, as Eli and Emma's mom) hadn't taken up running again, committed to running some race before the end of August, and asked Julie to come along.  In other words, Molly actually trained for this.  Julie was like, "I've run two miles before. . .Well, I've run-walked two miles before.  Right?"

Ted arrived with Joe and Clara fed, bathed, and pajama-ed ust before the chase-race began at 6:30pm.  Julie and Molly probably hadn't run more than a quarter of a mile before they heard the thundering of the hounds--sorry, the cross country team--streaming by.  Naturally that just stirred their competitive spirits.  Really, they'd just been waiting for the six minute mile pace group to run by before really taking things seriously.

They finished at a respectable 23:39--a 12 minute mile.  Ted and the bambini cheered for Julie at the mile mark, and of course, at the finish line.  They're the best team a wannabe sporty spicer could ever hope for.

Mile 1

Just past the finish

Not long after, Joe asked for water because he was "tied from watching you run."

Geezers, finishers

Playing With Lions

It's a rough a tumble world out there, Fans.  You think you've got problems, and then you arrive to pick up your children from school and find an incident report waiting for you informing you that your son has been hit in the face by another child.  The incident report didn't add much more--only that an ice pack had been applied along with hugs--so we went straight to the source on the way home:

Julie: So someone hit you on the face today?
Joe: Yeah.
Julie: Was it by accident?
Joe: No, it was by mean.
Julie: What did you do?
Joe: I roared like a lion.
[beat]
Ted: Before or after you were hit in the face?
Joe: Before.
Julie: What happened after?
Joe [getting impatient]: I got an ice pack.  I told Ms. Susie and got an ice pack.
Scene.

There was a moment in the above exchange when we thought he might have roared like a lion after being hit in the face.  Can you imagine it, Fans?  Roaring like a lion the next time someone does something by mean to you?  Maybe it's an idea whose time has come.

We should add that Our Hero is no worse for the wear.  Presumably ready to rumble in the jungle again today.

Our State Fair is the Best State Fair. . .

Don't miss it, don't even be late!

Rest assured, Fans, we did not miss the Great Minnesota Get Together, and we were not even late.  Sunday morning found us at the fair not long after the gates had opened.  We were making our way to the animal barns, a route which took us past the Giant Slide.  We dismissed the Giant Slide out of hand in past years because neither Ted nor Julie had ever gone down it before, so not even nostalgia was demanding that they slide down rolling waves on a piece of burlap from 150 feet in the air.  This year, however, we stopped to consider it, and then, we did it.  It's two dollars a rider, no matter their age.  Neither Joe nor Clara was old enough to ride solo, so Ted and Joe rode down together and Julie and Clara rode down together.  Julie's tummy almost instantly jumped into her throat.  You fly pretty fast down this thing!  Clara started giggling about halfway down and the first words out of her mouth after we'd coasted to a stop at the bottom were "Let's do it again!"  After Joe emerged from his slide-induced happy stupefaction, he also wanted to go again.  But we did not.  We save it for another year.  Besides, we had animals to visit.

First up were the chickens because, you know, there's nothing like visiting the roosters at what might as well be the crack of dawn.  (In a word: loud.)  We also visited the sheep, horse, cow, and pig barns.  After the animal barns, we made our way across the fairgrounds, eating as we went, to the John Deere tent where Joe and Clara climbed all over the equipment, including a $242,000 tractor.  Joe was disappointed that all of the vehicles seemed to be missing keys.

We managed to keep Clara awake on the ride home and she took a nearly four hour nap in the afternoon.  Joe has his big boy rep to maintain so did not not nap, but fell asleep in the midst of Stuart Little (as Stuart is heading off in a boat in the Central Park pond and the air is thick with nautical fog!) and did not even rouse as he was carried in to bed.

After the Giant Slide.

That's actually a turkey.

It takes approximately 385 squirts of milk to make a gallon.

Ted visited the oink booth, too.  He just didn't get ears.

Birdie reunited with John Deere.

"How do I turn it on?"

Climb Every Playground

The other week, we arrived at the KinderCare to collect the bambini, to be told that Clara had not been a good listener.  She had, apparently, broke from the pack on the way in from outside, and torn about the big kid playground.  Here, we pause to explain the the outdoor play area is divided in two, with the little kid area featuring a play house and some push-a-long bikes, and the big kid area featuring a full out jungle gym, a play house, and tricycles.  Clara apparently was made to hold the hem of Ms. Manisha's shirt all the way inside which she did not like.  Wild horses can't be broken, Brigade.  Who's with us?

This morning found us at Wolfe Park following Joe's haircut and frankly, it's abundantly clear why Clara made a break for the big kid playground at school the other week ago: she tears it up on the playground.  See these ladder things?

She climbed both of them like it weren't no thing!  She zips around things like a little. . .something.  She's so surefooted and completely graceful.  It's really something to see.

 

A First (But Not the One We Were Expecting)

Brigade, you will no doubt recall that we were going to promote Birdie to a Big Girl Bed this weekend.  That was before Julie remembered that she had to attend an event for work Saturday evening that began at 7pm.  Julie couldn't imagine missing putting Clara to bed in her Big Girl Bed for the first time, so we have postponed the big event until next weekend.

But Julie missed a big event anyway!  Tonight, Ted read to Joe from a chapter book: Stuart Little, which we checked out from the library this (rainy) afternoon.  Ted reports that he read the first three chapters of it to Joe.  Julie takes a small measure of comfort from the fact that Stuart Little is not a book she remembers with special fondness from her own childhood, and from the fact that as tied as her parents are to her memories of reading, she recalls her first chapter book being read to her by a teacher (Miss Crawford, second grade, Beezus and Ramona).  Even so, Julie is pretty excited to pick up tomorrow night with chapter four.

It is also worth mentioning in this missive that while we were at the library this afternoon, a young girl made Joe and Clara's acquaintance.  She was perhaps seven or eight, and as such, seemed extraordinarily worldly to Joe, especially.  An older woman!  It was amusing to see her march up to the bambini in the children's play area, where there is a large toy house, ask if she could play with them, and then promptly take charge: "I know what we'll do.  Here, you take this one [a doll], and she can have this one [another doll--you get the idea], and then I'll take this one." Later, she had the dolls hide so Joe could find them which meant she had Joe turning around and closing his eyes so she could hide the dolls.  Clara was less entranced by this older siren.  Birdie danced off to find, as it turned out, little pencils of the sort that float about at golf courses and public libraries.  She was ferrying them over one at a time to Julie who was counting them as Birdie passed them over.  The Siren by this time had moved on to the Lincoln Logs at the table and muttered under her breath, "She'll probably bring you however many there are."  The Siren was quite something, and it was quite something to see her cast her spell over our young man.

More Visitors From Seattle

The girls, by nickname, from left: Birdie, Jules, and Care.

Seattle is where, apparently, plenty of the cool kids live.  Didn't you know, Fans?  Yesterday, Julie's friend Carrie, whom Julie met in law school, was in town with her husband, Paul, and their sons, Wyatt (who is four) and Gavin (who is two).  Carrie looked, impossibly, fresh as a daisy, despite the flight from Seattle to Minni-apples--with two toddlers in tow, no less--and Wyatt and Gavin were sporting super, super cool Star Wars shirts, apparently from Nordstrom.  (They do live in Seattle.)  Paul still has hair that rivals Dr. McDreamy's though does anyone watch Gray's Anatomy anymore--even in Seattle?  (Probably especially not in Seattle.)

They came to dinner.  We had "fancy" mac 'n' cheese, salad, and grapes.  We learned that Joe still does not like fancy mac 'n' cheese (Seriously?  Seriously.) and that Wyatt is not fond of an onion.  And so we here use "we" loosely above when we write that "we" had fancy mac 'n' cheese.  We learned everyone in this crowd likes a grape, though!

Not long after dinner, the kids were playing companionably in the living room which made Julie's heart smile, remembering Joe's reticence getting out of the car and heading into the house earlier in the evening.  Ted took the bus home last night so he could preheat the oven and slide the fancy mac in it, and Julie arrived home with the kids later, not long after Carrie and her gang had already arrived.  Joe was a little apprehensive about going into the house to see friends he didn't remember ever meeting after all.

It was in that moment that scenes from the filmstrip of Julie and Carrie's friendship ran and flickered through Julie's heart, that she thought--however briefly--of the people Joe and Clara would meet that would fill them up with laughter and light.  That's how she knew to reach down, grab Joe's hand and introduce him to some of the truest wisdom the Muppets ever gave us all: "There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met."

Joe and Wyatt.  (Wyatt had Legos.)

The Crib's Last Hurrah

On this same pajama walk, we were discussing Clara's impending movement to a Big Girl Bed or, rather, Joe was expounding upon the rules associated with big beds (listen here and accept our sincere apologies for the nausea-inducing camera work).  As it turns out, the lesson was presented at a good time, though recent events suggest that Clara might not have had her listening ears on this past Saturday morning.

We've read the advice about not moving one's child from his or her crib until an escape has been successful, but if this were the only time a child was moved from his or her crib, Joe would probably still be in one.  He is (clearly--to state the obvious) a rule follower.  We figured with Clara, though, that it was only a matter of time before she was breaking out.

We were right.  Turns out, last night was the night.  The volume had ratcheted up several, gleeful decibels when suddenly, it went even higher, but was decidedly not gleeful.  Clara had managed to pitch herself up and over the front rail of her crib and learned that the floor was further away than she thought.  She fell down, as she told us, and it was plain that it had scared her, bless her little Birdie heart.  Her reaction, in turn, frightened Joe, bless his little heart.  Wails abounded, but through her wails, Clara managed to sob, "I want to go back in!  I want to go back in!"  So we put her back in, covered everyone back up, and that was that.  But this is it for the crib.  It's its* last hurrah.

*Ha!--how often does that happen, Fans?!  It's its!

Grab Your Coat and Get Your Primate

St. Louis Park Style Mavens

While the Bishopps were here, but before they'd arrived one morning, we Raleigh Housers took a pajama walk to the neighborhood Starfoxes with Monkey and Gorilla.  As our longtime readers know, when in doubt of what to do, so long as the weather isn't inclement (and, frankly, sometimes, even if it is), we walk.  So it was Saturday morning.  We shot a bit of video so you can make like you were with us, Fans!  You can hash out the difference between a cocoon and an echo right along with us, and--it's true: they are both things, but only one is a sound, which is not quite what Julie said, but you do your best when you land in conversations demanding such distinctions be made before eight in the morning.

Summer Lovin', Had Me a Blast

The Bishopps have gone back to Pennsylvania.  We Raleigh Housers were all sad, but will comfort ourselves by recounting the rest of the good time here for y'all, Joe and Clara's Adoring Fans.  Uncle Scott and Ted took Joe fishing, and though the only thing caught was some warm, late summer memories, fun was had.  Fun was also had at the pool at Uncle Scott, Aunt Kate, and Cousin Nick's hotel.  It featured a choo-choo train that gushed water at periodic intervals and several little slides in addition to a really big slide.  Many parks were visited.  Edible treats of various stripes abounded.

The good times also included an overnight jaunt to Stillwater or, as Joe would say, Steel Toe Waters.  (He's mixing in the name of St. Louis Park's very own local craft brewery, Steel Toe Brewing, with the name of the picturesque town on the St. Croix River, about an hour's drive from the Twin Cities.)  Stillwater is home to the Stillwater lift bridge, which spans the St. Croix, connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a pretty fabulous burger place named Leo's, where one can also get pretty fabulous shakes and malts.

Stillwater is also home to an AmericInn and the opportunity to stay there was, for the bambini, perhaps the most exciting part of our adventure to this corner of the world.  The AmericInn featured adjoining rooms for the two branches of our troop, with two beds in each room, and a pool.  Joe and Birdie got the sleep in the same bed with Purple Pillow Pet, Doll With Funny Green Hair Buns, Duck [Pillow Pet], and Thomas [Pillow Pet].  It was, in a word, amazing.

You are perhaps wondering how everyone slept.  Well enough, Fans, well enough.  The bambini both woke up a few times because they'd come uncovered and haven't yet learned that such are the risks when you choose the bed nearest the air conditioning unit.  This meant we woke up a few times as well.  Duck also fell on the floor at one point, but otherwise, the Pillow Pet Gang and Doll Face slept great.

And so another summer vacation is history and fall is coming on.  We miss you already, Bishopps, we miss you already.

Episode IV: A New Hope

While Julie was typing those last two posts, she heard Joe pounding about downstairs (oh--in his underwear only, of course) and then pausing to say, "I'm Batman!"  This pronouncement reminded her to report that Joe had announced that he would like to be "a bad guy!" for Halloween.  Later he clarified: he would like to be Batman.  We had to clarify: Batman is a good guy.  Other things Joe learned this morning over hot chocolates and milk chocolates at Starfoxes:

Batman has a car.  It can fly!  (Right?)

He also has a motorcycle.

He parks them in the Bat cave.

He has a cape.

Batman and Superman are not related in any way to Star Wars.

Darth Vader is a bad guy.

His space ship is the Death Star.

The good guys are Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, the Wookie Chewbacca, and two robots: C3-PO and R2-D2 (R2, or "Artoo" to his friends--who are legion).

There are more good guys than bad guys and, their space ship, the Millennium Falcon, is way cooler than the Death Star.

"She's the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."

The good guys also fly X-Wing Fighters; the bad guys also fly Tie Fighters.

The bad guys also have Imperial Walkers which are, admittedly, grudgingly, pretty cool.  (Joe: "They shoot fire!")

Occasionally, Joe talks in big gushes about super heros and Star Wars.  Let's just say that in today's weekly class update from his teachers, we were not surprised to read the friendly admonition to remember that weapons of any sort, or books featuring weapons of any sort, were not appropriate choices for show 'n' share.

It is still, admittedly, a little unsettling to hear one's four-year-old speak with such zeal about bad guys--who do seem to have cooler stuff (save the Millennium Falcon of course).  But one learns that "gun play" and the like is natural, and how to talk about it with one's would-be gunslingers such that they will not, in fact, be gunslingers.

This is also true: some of Julie's fondest memories are of watching Star Wars with her mom and she will admit that she is excited to watch it with Joe and Clara for the first time.  In the meantime, no child of hers is going to wander about talking nonsense about Batman being in Star Wars and she will hold out hope that she hears Joe inform someone, in all of his four-year-old wisdom, that the Millennium Falcon is the ship that did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

Boating Outting

Rest assured, Fans, we have done more than sing and listen to the Velveeta jingle from the eighties.  This morning, we rented two canoes and a kayak and in them, explored the chain of lakes which--for our not-acquainted-with-Minnesota-Fans--includes Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake.  Cousin Nick manned the kayak, Joe rode with Aunt Kate and Uncle Scott, and Birdie navigated for Julie and Ted.  We were a yar fleet.*  Julie may have been the most excited: she was in a vessel!  Water borne!  Paddling!  The day dawned downright chilly, but by the time we were out on the water, the weather couldn't have been more perfect for our outing.  We went all about the lakes (through tunnels!--really, under bridges) and then had lunch at a restaurant next to the rentals shack, a mostly fish 'n' chips place called Tin Fish.  Joe allowed that yes, he'd had fun canoeing, but no, he did not want to go again.  But under direct questioning he further revealed that he would go again--if we did not go forever (meaning for as long a time).

*You knew that was coming, Fans.

It's true.  I look cute in everything.  I am, after all, an international style icon in the making.

Off to the boats!

Yes, they are very cool.

Cousin Nick is also super cool.  He gets his own boat.

Awesome.

Sit on my bottom?  What?  But then how would I touch the water?

They're Here! Let the 'Cationing Begin!

Fans!  When last we left you, Joe was dawdling through the days.  It may interest you to know that in one of the days following our last post, he wore two pairs of underwear to school.  Because, it would seem, he'd neglected to notice he was already wearing a pair when he donned a new pair.  We don't make this stuff up, Fans.  We do not.  Make.  This.  Stuff.  Up.

More important, since we were last with you, the Bishopps have arrived for their state visit!  The Great Va-Stay-Cation Summer 2012 has begun!  Hooray!

Cousin Nick can read!  Yippee!

Aunt Kate was thrilled to be reunited with Berenice.

No really.

Our first night together found us having a great big family dinner before heading to bed rather early.  The Bishopps had, after all, left for the airport at 4:45am and lost an hour in the deal as well.  They were able to witness the newest bit of the bedtime act: the singing of the old Velveeta cheese jingle.*  How far we've fallen from Moon River, Fans, no?  We should perhaps not be surprised that Joe wanders around repeating random phrases over and over again: his mother once had numerous commercial jingles memorized and wandered around belting them like Broadway show stoppers, and--it must be said--thats just how she serenades the bambini with it now.  (The obvious crescendo line is the one that includes "processed cheese.")

Most nights Julie performs for both bambini at once from Joe's bed.  Last night, however, she sang the Velveeta jingle to Clara a few times on the couch, and then to Joe a few times on the couch after Clara had been put down.  But, as Julie belts that baby out, she'd no more finished Joe's encore performance on the couch, when floating out from the bambini's room came Clara's cry of "Do it again!"  So Julie did it two more encores from Joe's bed.

So thrills all around for the Bishopps!  For us as well.

*There's no single cheese like Velveeta!
'Cause Velveeta is more than one single cheese!
It's colby, swiss, and cheddar!
Blended all together for a single cheese that melts with ease!
Velveeta!  Processed cheese that tastes so fine!
Velveeta's natural cheeses do the trick every time!
Velveeta really knows how to please!
You know it's great when they clean their plates!
There's no single cheese--by the pound or the slice!--like Velveeta!
[Extra thick!--if doing the added on for extra think Velveeta singles, which, Julie usually is.]

Dawdling Toward the Day

Besides repeating incessantly some scrap of words, Joe can also often be found dawdling.  At four, he is lolling through life, and loving it.  As you may know Fans, the way the mornings most often run around here, is Ted gets the bambini settled in with breakfast before taking a shower and getting ready while Julie finishes up getting ready who then takes over and shepherds the bambini through the getting dressed portion of the morning fanfare.  For Joe, this means laying out his clothes, save underwear--not because he's already wearing it.  Please.  Fans.  Toss logic out the window.  No, underwear is not laid out because Our Hero likes to select a fresh pair himself, no mater that the pair he is wearing at the time was put on following his bath and has only been slept in.  While Joe wrestles with that decision, out of his pajamas, and into his clothes for the day, Clara is on the yellow dot and helped out of her Pull-Up* and pajamas, into her underwear and clothes, and has her hair done up.

Yesterday morning, for reasons that will be lost to us forever, when Julie prompted Joe to "move with something approaching all deliberate speed" (a phrase that is right up there with "period, the end" on the Julie catch phrase popularity chart), he informed her that she had forgotten to lay out his underwear.  Julie, mistakenly going right for logic, informed him she had not; he was wearing underwear after all, and with an air of put-that-in-your-superhero-drawers!, went about her business with Clara.

When Clara was ready to run headlong into the day and tore off to do that, Julie again glanced over at Joe.  She found him buck naked (the underwear conundrum still obviously a hurdle to be surmounted), lolling about on his bed like some miniature Adonis.

This is where we have had to learn to issue the edict that we will, at some point, be departing the house and that all will be doing so in whatever state of dress they are in at that time, and then--and this is the key--walk away.  You can't get your underwear in a bunch, whether they've got superheroes on them or not.

*A note related to the Pull-Ups we've been meaning to mention: the Pull-Ups we buy for Clara have Cinderella on them.  Clara of course hasn't met Cinderella yet, and so will almost always point to Cinderella and say, "That's Clara!"

Two Little Ducks Go Quack Quack Quack

Clara and her compatriots are learning about sand right now, so beaches, deserts, sand dunes, tide pools, and the like are hot topics of conversation.  Yesterday, they learned about sand dunes.  Birdie Brigade, it is tough to ask a question about sand dunes that isn't too much a leading question, and isn't so open ended that a member of the two-year-old set can still answer it.  Members of the four-year-old set meanwhile, of course, know everything and are eager to share their knowledge with the world.  That's how we came to have this exchange:

Julie: "Clara, where do we find sand dunes?"
Clara [making motions with her hands to indicate a hill, clearly catching what is being thrown, but not quite able to toss it back--finally, in a rush]: "At the beach!"
Julie: "Yes, sand is found at the beach.  [beat] And the desert!  Are sand dunes in the desert?"
Joe [not to be contained any longer--he knows this stuff!]: "Yes, sand dunes are in the desert."
Clara: "NO!  No, Joe!  Talking to Mommy!"
Joe [blithely undeterred--he knows more about sand and deserts!]: "Grandpa Tom and Lynn live in the desert."

It is really a kick to hear Clara string together longer and longer sentences, and to pick up speech patterns and norms.  For example, this whole no-I'm-talking-to-Mommy construct is one she's heard a lot in recent months as we try to teach her exuberant brother the fine art of conversation, including the benefits of not interrupting other speakers, especially with non sequiturs.  But it is also a kick to hear out loud, in his speech, the leaps and connections Joe is making.  You can hear some of this here in what is really meant to be an audio clip until you are 1:44 in because when one turns a camera on the bambini, they will of course stop doing what it was you wanted to capture unless you are quite stealthy, and it is difficult to be stealthy when we are all in the car.  So you will get a glimpse of our route home, Fans!  But hang in there, because there are things in the clip to love more than the flashes of St. Louis Park.

For example, right off you will hear a bit of Joe singing Five Little Ducks, which is all the rage right now, and why the camera was turned on.  But the jig is up 30 seconds in, and reverse psychology fails to elicit more, from Joe anyway.  You will also get a flavor of he above sand exchange, and witness something else that continues to be all the rage: mindless repetition, Rain Man-like of words and phrases from Joe.  And at 3:00, don't miss Joe chiding Clara because he's four, you know, and knows how it all goes down.

Old Home Day

From left, Anja, Elsa, Clara, Joe, at day's end

The Knudermuths were back in town in Monday and we spent the whole day together making like at the end of it, they'd be heading home across town instead of across the country.  When they arrived, we were outside blowing bubbles with one of our approximately 56 bubble blowing tools, so right away, Elsa and Anya thought that spending the day with these people they really didn't know was maybe going to be o-kay, and it was.  We did nothing especially remarkable, but that's what made the day so easy and wonderful, just like blowing bubbles.  Just like old, good friends.

Visiting One of the Great-Greats

Later this afternoon, we went and visited Joe and Clara's Great Great Aunt Muriel and Great Great Uncle Bob, or Aunt Bob and Uncle Bob, as Joe was saying, Bob being much easier to say than Muriel, after all.  We practiced saying Muriel on the way over, and told Muriel we'd been doing so when we arrived, because her name was tough to say.  Right away she said it was, it was a tough name to say.  And Fans, there is yet another example of Joe and Clara's Great Great Aunts being an all around lovely trio of ladies because that put Joe right at ease.  Muriel had gone through the toys that linger all over their house from when they grandchildren were younger and had a whole bag of things waiting for the bambini.  She also had bubbles.  And Bugles for snacking.  (Fans: when is the last time you had Bugles?  Like forever, right?!  You should hustle right on out and get some and then find one you can put on your finger like a long fingernail, even though you really shouldn't be playing with your food, Fans.)  At dinner, Muriel and Bob had little cocktail wieners, and chips, and watermelon, and strawberries, and ice cream and cookies for dessert.  There were also baked beans (which went with the ham--not the cocktail weenies), which Muriel and Bob could not believe Joe and Clara not only liked, but loved.  Muriel and Bob live across from a pond where a bunch of geese and ducks live.  As we were leaving, Muriel said that the next time we come, Joe and Clara can feed the ducks, and when you are four and two, life doesn't get much better than bubbles, cocktail weenies, baked beans, and duck feeding.  Incidentally, when you are almost thirty-seven and thirty-six, life doesn't get much better than someone having you over for a nice meal (and Bugles!), doing the dishes, and giving your kids bubbles.

Summer Sunday Morning

Fans, if you asked Joe what we did this morning (as Julie did as the afternoon was beginning), here is what he would say: "Played at the park with Darby and had cake for breakfast."  And it's true, we did play at the park with Darby, and we did have cake, of a sort, for breakfast.  But who would have thought the morning would get framed up quite that way?  Ted played golf this morning, and since we lent Blue to Sanne and Todd (back in town before flying home to Seattle) for the weekend, and Ted took Bronzie to golf, Julie and the bambini were limited to the delights of the neighborhood.  Fortunately, they are many, especially when the weather is just perfect, as it was today.

Julie made a buckle last night or, "summer cake," as our readers with long memories may recall we call it, and, frankly, she felt like a bit of it for breakfast with a spot of cheese on the side.  She knew it would never do for her to have that and the bambini to have anything else, so it was cake and cheese all around.

By the time breakfast was wrapped up, it was just after seven which seemed a bit early to begin our adventuring, so the bambini played while Julie pattered.  At one point, the clouds parted and light streamed from heaven above and the angels sang: Julie heard Joe ask Clara if she would please share her airplane--!!!!!--AND THEN--!!!!!--Clara DID--!!!!!  AND THEN, they played together with that airplane, amicably, for what?  Like at least 15 minutes--!!!!!  (Julie was in the bathroom and it was a good thing because she almost peed her pants.)  It is true that Joe and Clara pretty much get on, but we manage our fair share of toy snatching and the like, so this whole scene was rather amazing to overhear.  Julie was sad that Ted wasn't also around to hear it--though she was also pretty excited to be in the bathroom all by herself.

After that excitement--the toddler-preschooler negotiated airplane share (though the bathroom solitude should not be discounted)--we headed out into the world: Joe on his bike, Clara on her push bike, and Julie on foot.  We motored down to the Starfoxes where we all had bananas with chocolate milk or iced tea and lemonade.

We went home via the park.  We'd not been there long when Darby rolled up with her mom.  Darby showed Joe how to pump his legs when swinging (Joe had fun reaching with his two feet to kick Julie's hand), and Joe introduced Darby--and Darby's mom--to the potty tree, which was probably more thrilling to Darby than her mom.  Before too long some super big kids came and started doing the things big kids do on playgrounds that are too small for them, so we retreated to the baseball diamond which was really lava where good natured Lava Monsters that chomp and tickle squealing little people live.  Good times.

So you see, what Joe would say we did this morning is all true, and then some.

Of Bikes Rides and Popscicles

Yesterday afternoon we went for a long, long bike ride with the bambini packed into the bike trailer, and on which the bambini--really, Joe--learned that limbs touching is as a result of natural jostling of the bike trailer is all a part of biking fun.  To be fair, Birdie seems to think that antagonizing her brother in close quarters is also a part of biking fun, but so might you if you got as dramatic a reaction as Joe was dishing out when Birdie shook her straw cup filled with water such that water flew out on Joe--at least until the cup was taken away.  (Really, Birdie.)

When we reached the end of the Stone Arch Bridge (the halfway point of our ride), we happened upon an ice cream truck and had ice cream all around.  The bambini had something called a "tongue blaster" pop, seen here in Clara's hand.

The tongue blaster pops left blasts of color in their wake, as advertised.  Joe looked like The Joker, and Birdie's dress looked like Joe's face.

So when we got home, the bambini stripped down to their underwear so their tongue blaster pop-sodden clothes could go into the washing machine.*  The bambini love tearing around in the underwear so for them, they only thing that could have made the day better, was birthday cake after dinner.

(This might be why the toy stroller's lining is tearing.)

 *For the curious, everything came clean, despite what would have been suggested by the appearance of the bambini's skin after eating these frozen delights.

USA! USA!

Ted is rather into the Olympics and so, perhaps in an effort to turn them on that much earlier each evening, watching a bit of them has been introduced as a pre-books-and-bed Quiet Activity option.  Joe has learned all kinds of new things.  In addition to the likely obvious (badminton! what swimming really looks like!  people put their faces under the water!), he has also learned about the perhaps less obvious, like instant replay.

Last night, the boys watched women's rowing. Not long after the race wrapped, Joe said, "Daddy, the USA is still going."  That was when he was introduced to the wonders of instant replay.  Tonight, while in his bath, already anticipating the Olympics (just like Daddy!), he sought to confirm that Quiet Time would include Olympic viewing:
Joe: "What is that thing on the TV?"
Ted: "The Olympics?"
Joe: "Yeah.  We'll see Bob?  I don't know his other name."
Ted: "Bob Costas?"
Joe: "Yeah.  Bob Costas."

Yeah.  (This reporter isn't yet sure if Joe has learned that Olympics rolls around but once every two years.)

Socks

Joe wanted to wear socks today.  You look as good as you feel, right?*  Naturally, Clara wanted to wear socks as well.  Socks all around!  On the back end of the day, Julie was attempting to sit at the dining room table in a little puddle of peace, and flipping through the newly-arrived Boden catalog, considering a particularly delicious pair of red heels, when Clara marched up and said--ordered?, "Hold my socks!" while thrusting the sweaty wad into Julie's face.  We have, of late, been working on the addition of please to such pronouncements.  Still, when Julie asked Clara to please put the socks in the hamper, Clara scampered right off to do so, and peace reigned again, for as long as it can in a house with 12 feet or paws on the ground.

*Here, Julie would like to send a shout out to Grandpa Charles and Grandma Connie, who might recall the red stirrup pants and oversized white sweatshirt festooned with shapes in primary colors getup she wore three out of five weekdays in fourth grade.  But Julie felt like a million bucks in that outfit.

Have To Go Poopie

And then Fans, there's Joe.  Here is the dinner conversation we had with him last night:
Joe (slightly breathless with excitement): "There was a fly in the bathroom!  Daddy caught it and flushed it down!"
Julie [worried about Mr. Miyagi's karma]: "Too bad we couldn't let it outside."
Joe: "You remember when the butterfly flew in the house when we were putting on our shoes and we let it outside?  [beat] But now we are eating dinner."

The conversation zigs and zags, flits and flies.  You gotta be quick to keep up.

It may interest you all to know that last night ended with the bambini in tears behind their closed door.  It all began when Clara began bawling and we broke our own cardinal rule, and went in.  She said, "I have to go potty."  You cannot be fooled by such statements, Brigade.  She's is playing you with such statements.  She had peed.  She had pooped.  So, too, had Joe.  It didn't stop him from cranking up the bawl on cue as it became apparent that no one was going to stop his sister's squalls and he was going to have to JUST DEAL.  In any case, the two of them had taken care of all potty business before bedding down for the night.

Which is why it was somewhat funny to retreat to the couch and hear Joe wail--WAIL--from the other side of the door: "I HAVE TO GO POOPIE!!!!!" over and over again, with Clara's descant of the same in the background.

And yet, they made it to this morning.

Got Boogers, Got Hope

That, Birdie Brigade, is what Clara just chanted on her way to bed via the bathroom to collect a "tissue."  (Birdie always calls it a "tissue."  There is now brand-name-as-noun Kleenex for her.  Just something we've noticed--especially because initially, between this reporter's use of and therefore expectation of hearing the word Kleenex, and Clara's emerging speech, this reporter really had to pay attention when Clara was asking for a tissue.)  So we got boogers here.  (Now you can rest easy tonight, Brigade.)

We've also got Clara chatting it up more and more.  About a week ago, she was in the bath tub when Julie arrived home late and crouched down next to the tub.  They had the following exchange:
Clara: "Got to be careful!"
Julie (hazarding a guess): "Or you might fall down and go boom?"
Clara (in a tone that suggests she cannot believe what she has to deal with): "No."
[beat]
Clara (trying again): "Ride bikes!"
Julie: "Oh, when you ride bikes?"
Clara: "Yeah." [Read: "Now you've got it Poindexter."]
[beat]
Clara: "I got a wash cloth!"

It can be tough to keep up, Brigade, with a girl such as this.  Nowadays, it seems like she's just showing off ay every turn.

Last night, when it was time to read books before bed, she came tearing around the corner saying, "school bus, school bus!"  By this, she meant that she wanted to read the book School Bus.  She likes to try and count the school buses, pointing at them just like Julie does.  Birdie can count all the way to 10! But, she mysteriously skips two.  If Julie tries to correct Birdie, and lifts her own finger to point at the objects she's counting, Clara allows Julie to reach about the count of two before she will shove Julie's hand away and say, "Not your turn.  Not your turn."  It can be tough to keep up with a girl such as this.

Tonight, when it was time to read books before bed, Birdie came tearing around the corner hollering, "Yea!"  (Naturally, Julie's bookish, dorky heart swelled.)  Clara tore right over to the entry hall table that we use as a side table, on which are housed books that are mostly Joe's speed.  And yet, perhaps Clara is revving up?  Clara picked Owl Moon, about a father and son who go owling.  It features much who-who-ing!  It also features a moon.  Both are things that Clara knows.

The final lines of the books read:
"When you go owling
you don't need words
or warm
or anything but hope.
That's what Pa says.
The kind of hope
that flies
on silent wings
under a shining
Owl Moon."

There are times, you know, Brigade, when you are sailing along, feeling yar as all get out, and then before you know it, you've sailed right into a squall and you're just trying to make your way out to calmer waters.  And sometimes, you know, Brigade, that Joe and Clara are the squall, and sometimes, they are the calm waters.  That's how Julie felt tonight, when she was reading the final lines of Owl Moon to Clara--like Clara as the calm waters, a lap full of hope for smooth sailing ahead.

And then Clara climbed on down and toddled off to bed calling out the news: "Got boogers."

"Mama shoes," Big Girl In