Just a Minute!

Birdie's favorite book of late has been The Line Up Book.  We first learned of it from Aunt Kate who some time ago sent us some of Cousin Nick's old books.  Clara will often called The Line Up Book just "Sam."  "Read Sam?"  Read Sam!"  The Line Up Book features a boy named--you guessed it, Brigade--Sam, who has dumped all his blocks on the floor when his mother calls him for lunch.  Sam wants to make a line of blocks all the way from his room to his mother.  He runs out of blocks so has to search about for things to line up.  All the while his mother calls to him, and Sam calls back, "Just a minute!"  Then tension mounts.  Will Sam get there in time?  Or will Sam's mother lose it?  (You can probably guess that, too, Brigade.)  It's a lovely little book.  For sure one of Julie's favorites as well, in part because a whole little routine has developed around reading it.

The first bit of The Line Up Book routine is to identify the color of the fly leaf paper.  (Asking Clara the color of the fly leaf is one of the ways Julie helped Clara learn colors.)  The Line Up Book's fly leaf is kind of an outlier color: navy blue.  "NAVY blue!"  As we've reported, the action starts right away in The Line Up Book.  Sam dumps his blocks out; Sam's mother calls him for lunch.  So there's lots of calling back and forth with increasing frustration of sorts from both characters.  Clara gets right in the spirit and hollers "Just a minute!" nearly every time Julie does.  By the time Sam has reached the bathroom, Birdie will point out that Sam wears his shoes in the house.  (We do not.  Julie has explained that not everyone removes their shoes inside the house and wonders sometimes if Clara will think there are houses like ours, and Sam houses.)  Birdie also likes to ask what various objects (that are not being lined up) are, like the bowl, lamp, and letters or mail sitting on a table in the living room.  The knick knacks on Sam's living room's mantle are often asked after, as well.  It's all part of the Sam reading experience.  These bits are like their own little line.  The last page of the book is a picture of Sam and his mother eating lunch.  For a long time, Clara would chirp, "That's Sam, and that's Sam's Mommy!  That's Clara, and that's my Mommy!" as she pointed to the various people.  Sometimes Clara calls Julie "Clara's mommy," and it's funny to hear Clara straddle the divide where she sometimes speaks of herself and what's hers in the correct first person, and sometimes in the wrong but sweet third person.  Before long, she'll have it all sorted out, and know all kinds of other blues, and we'll be thinking, "Just a minute!"

Birdie also likes to gather things up.  Here, she is wearing an apron and toting a backpack, a bag, a bucket, and Fluffy, while pushing a grocery cart which contains yet another bag.  Her book would be The Gather Up Book.