Triple Triumph

Dearest Readers, we had a triple triumph here at Raleigh House the night before last.  We'd gotten home, and were piling out of our shoes and wrappings.  Julie asked Joe to close the door, but no sooner were the words out of her mouth than Clara, presumably wanting the chance to be helpful, began crying and dived for the door.  Joe started crying because Clara's crying is really awfully loud, and because he didn't get to shut the door.

This is where Julie's impulse anyway would usually be to say to Clara, "What gives?" as she thinks "Why?  Why?  Really?  Who cares who SHUTS THE DOOR? It's done, and yet, it's not now. . ." and so on.  But then, the first triumph occurred: Joe drew himself up, looked at Clara and said, "NO THANK YOU CLARA!"  Fans!  Yes!  Right?!  This triggered the second triumph: Julie knelt down and began gushing to Joe about how great it was that he'd used his words instead of crying, and about how he'd had such attitude while he did it, and how proud she was.  And in no time, no one was crying!  The final triumph!  Joe was getting attention for being amazing, smiling and puffed up with pride; no one was yelling at Clara, confusing her for having tried to be helpful; and Julie felt like an example you read about in a parenting magazine feature called something like "Taming Those Transitions!"  It was awesome, Fans.