Getting the Garage In Order

Julie was asked recently what has been the biggest surprise about living at White House. She thought if two. First, she has not quite yet grown accustomed to its size relative to Raleigh House. Often at White House, she does not know where someone is and frets that Berenice has escaped. At Raleigh House, she always knew where everyone was and often, it was within a three-foot radius. Second, she has not yet grown accustomed to how when you have a dishwasher, you arguably need more than eight glasses, plates, and so on. But it's all rather lovely and every day, it looks less and less like we are in the midst of moving. Yesterday, a July day with September-like weather, everything in the garage was hauled out and then almost everything was put back in a new home.  But not before Joe had played with almost all of it.

Birdie's Imaginings

Birdie, in princess skirt, and Mommy's shoes

These days, Birdie spends a lot of her time pretending to be, variously, Mommy, a teacher, or a princess.  She will usually pretend to be Julie (in her role as Mommy) when she happens upon a pair of Julie's shoes.  Birdie will slide them on and then clomp and shuffle about saying, "I Mommy!  I Mommy!"  It makes perfect sense to Julie that her shoes are the hallmark of Clara pretending to be her, less because she thinks of herself as a shoe maven, and more because she recalls hearing Grandma Connie clip and clap about in her high heels when she was not much older than Clara is now.  At one point, she had a pair of the plastic high heels one can still buy in toy stores which she referred to as her "barkley shoes."  (All Julie can figure is that this was a way of saying the shoes were barking, or noisy, but the etymology could be rooted in something else altogether lost to the adult memory.)

Clara often plays teacher at the table during mealtimes, or when she's been tucked into bed before falling asleep.  At the table, she will instruct us all not to speak until she has raised her hand, put it down, and then pointed at one of us; then, that person may speak.  Often, Clara as teacher issues rather elaborate instruction sets.  When she is in bed, she "reads" to her animal friends.  Over the weekend, while Ted and Joe were out at one of the fiesta of birthday parties to which Joe was invited, Julie--all the way downstairs--heard Clara upstairs cry out "GOOD JOB, DORA!  GOOD JOB!"  accompanied by loud applause.  (One can only imagine that Dora had read the book or explored the whole of the African continent from Clara's bed.)

It's during outside time at school that Clara turns into a princess.  Daphne and Silvia are also princess, of course, as well as some other girl whose name we've not quite yet doped out.  Must study the cubbies soon!  Clara has allowed that Julie might visit Clara in her princess castle, but only if Julie wears a long dress.  No mention has been made of shoes though.  One assumes slippers.  Glass of course.

Pretty in Pink

Around the time that we moved into White House, a package arrived for Clara Jane from Grandpa Tom and Lynn.  It was a small brown paper bag containing a froth of pink fabric.  We set it aside until the house was a bit more unpacked and a bit less of collection of land mines upon which frothy pink fabric confections might catch and tear.  That time arrived this weekend and thus it was that Birdie spent most of the weekend decked out in a pink tulle and be-ribboned skirt and headdress.

Walking

We Minnesota Ekkers enjoy a walk. A certain Joe and Clara Fan who went to college with Julie will remember Julie cajoling her to walk to the White Hen our senior year. (She might maintain it was with greater frequency than it actually was; she was less fond of a walk.) In fact, the first time Julie and Ted ever went out on a date, they took a walk--along Lake Michigan. Julie remembers thinking that here was a boy after her own heart and, well, we all know how fantastically that turned out!

So the fact that we can walk to the KinderCare, Starfoxes, and Trader Joe's from White Houe in under five minutes (and several parks and the DQ in under 10) makes White House that much more perfect for us. We've also taken to walking to and from school weather permitting. The trip requires one crosswalk button to be pressed so we all get to practice our diplomacy. Here we are this past Friday morning. It was show 'n' share day so Kitty and the Lego fire truck were along.

A Fun Day

Today, Ted got up at 5am to head up to Bemidji to collect Cousin Nick from the French immersion camp he's been at the past two week's at Concordia Language Villages.*  It's a four hour trip there, and another four back obviously, and there was a program in between.  So the bambini had a long day with Julie, and vice versa.  The morning was filled with swimming lessons, the usual trip to Target, a trip to the Container Store, and a stop by the library.  They were, respectively:

• Awesome!  The bambini both love swimming class and Julie likes to sit and watch them splash around with no other obligations.  (It's especially nice if she has stopped at the Caribou down the strip mall beforehand.)  Today was an assessment day.  Joe is moving to the next class (Littles 4!) and Clara is going to stay in Littles 1 unless she can keep her face in the water for a few more seconds at a time.  She's all about putting it in there, but she likes to pop it right back out with this big grin on her face--and adjust her goggles (Accessories!  Birdie never met one she didn't love.).  She's a pretty awesome floater.  You should see her, Brigade.
• Not awesome.  If one goes to Target solo with both bambini, one has to get the unwieldy two-seater cart.  Once the fruit snacks run out--which is in about two minutes since they are inhaled--the bambini are restless and looking to do what they can to call the attention of every Target guest to them.  Heaven forbid one need to spend a moment considering, say, towels for the downstairs bathroom one now has.
• Better.  It was dicey at the outset once Joe realized that "the store to get y'all hampers at!" was really The Container Store: "AGAIN?!?!"  Julie defined "attitude" and introduced the slang, "Check it at the door."  As it turned out, selecting hampers was fun and "didn't even take 10 minutes!" (which had been Julie's original estimate for the time that would be spent inside).  Joe got green ombre; Clara, yellow ombre.
• Awesome.  Now, it's true that the library may have been awesome because Julie told the bambini that if it wasn't, she's pick them right up and walk right out without picking up The Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed if they did not act in a manner befitting being in a public place, but awesome they were in any case.  Thus, No Girls Allowed was borrowed.  It's another amazing B. Bears title.  Mama Bear is wise.  Papa is well-meant, but a bit of a doofus.  Lessons are learned.  Endings are happy.

In the afternoon, Ms. Anne came over with her boys Nathan and Andrew.  Nathan is a worldly rising second grader; Andrew is Joe's age.  (The best part about their visit is that the not-yet-filled water balloons that had been floating about the house ever since Joe's birthday party were filled and exploded and are now out of our lives and home.)

Ted and Nick were home for a bit after Ms. Anne and her boys left, but then they left for the Twins game and ballpark dinner.  So Julie and the bambini had ballpark dinner on the deck: hot dogs and chips.  Berenice helped herself to half a hot dog (which she promptly barfed up within five minutes of eating it--inside; oh of course, inside) which made Joe wail like his arm had been eaten instead and of course, he wanted another hot dog, so in frustration, Julie gave him her hot dog before stomping off to make herself another hot dog and be, generally, fatigue-induced grumpy in an entirely self-pitying way, beating herself up for not being able to summon more sympathy for Joe's response to the Great Hot Dog Steal.

And then Joe said, apropos of nothing, "Mommy, today was fun!"  And just like that, it was, and Julie remembered that you can be frustrated now and again, and still be loving, and loved.  (She feels this is one of the primary lessons of parenting--and it appears all the time--but it is, nevertheless, one she is still learning.)

*We know some Fans will be interested to know that Cousin Nick said it was "awesome."  He wants to go back, and for the four-week program, which is, apparently, for credit.  It would probably be even more fun next year because one could skip over all the "what is this going to be like?" apprehension, and awkward first day nonsense, right to the awesome.  His three most favorite things were: 1. Playing soccer, 2. The food, and 3. His cabin mates, three of whom were fluent French speakers hailing from Senegal, France, and Quebec.  Cousin Nick reports that they really did speak mostly French there except sometimes for the people who were there learning English (like the three who were native French speakers), and said that it was weird not to be hearing it all the time now.  He has a beret, Fans! We might need to start calling him Frenchie.

Watering

As we mentioned, it was hot here in the North Star State all week long.  So we had to do a bit of watering in the evenings and the mornings we could swing it in the getting-everyone-out-the-door-dressed-and-fed relay.  Julie finds watering, in the evening anyway, very relaxing.  It's useful, but not terribly taxing; it's best done alone; it's quiet.  One can just sort of lose one's self in it as the day winds down.  Watering was always one of the best parts of the summer days she spent at her grandparents' house in Texas as a child where one had to water pretty much every day.  So she was charmed by this video that Ted shot from the deck of Birdie in the backyard.  (Off to the right of Birdie you can see a part of the garden that Julie and Kate cleared when Kate was here.  Off to the left is representative of what the right looked like when we moved in, though by the time this was shot, Ted had started in on the thistles on that side so it, too, is getting there.)

Of Heaven (Again) and Chinese Food (and French Food)

On the other side of the Fourth, the day before he turned five, Joe and Julie had another exchange about heaven that she's been carting around in her phone until she had time to capture it here.  It was also about his Grandma Jane.

Those were the days when the White House seemed terribly big to Joe and he didn't like being upstairs by himself.  The days when we counted the number of rooms in the White House (10--with the kitchen "with the living room inside it!" counting as one--a twofer, if you will) compared to Raleigh House (seven--eight if you count the blue room upstairs).  These days aren't a thing of the past, but it would seem that the White House is already seeming smaller.  But then, it was still a big house--and the living room was in the kitchen, which was sort of radical.

This conversation was also memorable because Joe told Julie he loved her, and she thinks it might be the first time Joe said it to her first.  He added that he loved Daddy, and Clara, and Berenice, and Aunt Kate, and Uncle Scott, and Cousin Nick, and Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles, and Grandpa Tom and Lynn.  Julie said we couldn't forget Grandma Jane and Raleigh in heaven.  She added that she knew Joe didn't remember Grandma Jane, but that she was pretty great.  Joe asked what she was like, and they had this exchange:

Julie: Well, she liked to read.  Just like you, and me.

Joe: She didn't like China food! [He'd recently learned this bit of trivia.]

Julie: That's true!  But she did like French food.

Joe: What's French food?

Julie: You know the croissants you and Clara get at Rustica?  That's French food.

Joe: We like French food!

Scene.

White House Trend Report

Also trending high right now:
1.  Talking about farting.  It's true, we regret to say.  It's tapered off a bit, but all of a sudden, Joe's seemingly favorite thing to say was: "Who farted?"  (Apparently the gang at school hasn't yet heard "If you smelt it, you dealt it.")
2. Asking "Are we on the highway?" incessantly, while we are YES!  ON THE HIGHWAY!  And YES!  STILL ON THE HIGHWAY!  And YUP!!!  STILL.  ON.  THE.  HIGHWAY!!!--!!!!!
3.  The Kidz Country version of Alan Jackson's Little Bitty (It's alright to be little bitty; a little hometown or a big old city; might as well share, might as well smile; life goes on for a little bitty while.)  Little Bitty has no peer at the moment.
4.  Talking about heaven: Where is it?  How do you get there?  Why is it above us?  And you can't come back?  And it's way far away?

The day before the Fourth, we were riding along in the car and Joe said, "Maybe Raleigh?  We drove him to a skyscraper and then a cloud went by and he jumped on."  If there's any dog that could do that, Fans, it was our Ribby.  (And, he could fart like no other dog, except maybe Berenice.)

The Bambini's Get Their Annual Once Overs

Also in this week's news, the bambini had their well-child appointments.  Clara is well past her third birthday, but our beloved Dr. Harrington was on maternity leave at the end of April and we were told that she preferred to see her own patients where possible so Birdie got scheduled out.  Birdie weighs 35 pounds (79%) and is 39 inches (81%) tall.  She has a heart murmur!  Apparently, 50 percent of all kids do at some point.  Turns out, Ted had a heart murmur, too!  We're not to worry about it.  Dr. Harrington will keep an eye on it and mentioned mostly so we would already know about it if Birdie had to go to urgent care and it was mentioned after she was examined.  Otherwise, she showed off her counting prowess (she can count up to 14 easily, and will not only count by rote, but will count things) and her charming conversational abilities.  So fun!  No shots for Birdie so she breezed on out after the vision screen which was, apparently, also fine since we heard no more about it.  Naturally, everything was so breezy that a day later, she developed some sort of rash on her torso.  We're slathering that up with some hydrocortisone for now.  Could be heat rash since it felt like 112 degrees outside nearly all week long.

Joe weighs 46 pounds (81%) and is 44 3/4 inches (84%) tall.  He continues to be a big dude.  He looked especially big standing on the examination table, where he had climbed.  (Climbing is trending high with Joe.)  He also later helped himself to Dr. Harrington's ear-look-y-in-y thing and checked Julie's ears (no puppies--though this was the first appointment where Dr. Harrington didn't have to use the let's-check-for-puppies gambit when looking in the bambini's ears; the end of an era).  Joe was given a clean bill of health, but did have to get two shots which were sort of a big deal to him for the first time ever.  He got the first one--and didn't even feel it--when he was telling Julie he really, really, really, really, really didn't want to get shots and Julie was explaining that it would be illegal for him to go to kindergarten without having gotten them since unfortunately, he wasn't a Jehovah's Witness.  But the second one hurt.  Turns out, a Wolverine band-aid makes for a pretty awesome distraction.  He won't get any more shots until he's 10.  Can you even imagine Our Hero at 10, Fans?  Can you imagine  Birdie at five?

Joe's Fifth Birthday Bash

Fans we are behind in our reporting.  We are still very much engaged in the business of settling in and the most progress is made when the bambini are asleep which is historically when we compose blog posts that are hopefully irreverent yet heartfelt and that capture the madness and magic of years in which two preschoolers are padding about our hearts.  Once we are further along, we plan to take you on a tour of White House a la Jackie.  We save that for another day.

Tonight we bring you an overdue report on Our Hero's fifth birthday bash at Kiddywumpus where as you may recall, he and 10 of his nearest and dearest got to throw paint on the wall at the "Action Jackson" party. Fans, what an operation!  Ms. Amy and Ms. Shelia (who was working her first day ever!) were amazing.  We loitered about in the toy store that constitutes the store's entrance (Ms. Amy is shrewd owner-operator) and as parent arrived with Joe's guests, they were whisked to the "gift trolley" and asked to leave their contact information on a clipboard and before we knew it, the kids were lined up ready to head back to the art studio.  Ms. Amy had already quizzed us on who Joe's besties were, who was especially energetic, the mix of girls and boys, and so on.  She wrote each child's name on a piece of paper and then hung them on the wall in an order that made sense so each one knew just where to go.  The main event was bookended by small, table-centered art projects to allow late comers time to arrive and all paint throwers time to wind down.

Birdie was there and Fans, let's just just say that on that day, she was ROCKSTAR Birdie.  She was in the mix, but it was Joe's party for sure.  Clara was the only one who got to stand close to the wall as Ms. Amy rightly knew she was too little to throw paint very far.  So she painted, and couldn't have been more darling.

And now, as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.  (Are eight of them are worth 8,000?)

Checking out the materials. . .

Suited up in magic (washable) shirts and socks, ready to make the first throw. . .

Considering the canvas. . .

Throwing!

Dabbing.

Note paint on ear.

Genius pauses to consider whether purple would be too much.  (Never!)

Masterpieces.

Of Bedtime Blues In White House

Our Hero takes matters into his own hands.  Notice that he brought all his friends with him--and also Clara's purple walls!

Fans, we are coming to you tonight from the home computer which was hooked up tonight and which, together with the desk, live at the top of the stairs tucked into a desk-sized nook.  The bambini are tucked into their respective rooms.  You read that right, Fans.  A new era has dawned and it did so with rather little fanfare, probably because although the bambini spent their first few nights in White House* in separate rooms, they were soon enough in the same room while the floor in Clara's room was redone.**  Clara reprised her award-winning The Late Nite Bedtime Bearcat Show Staring Birdie Bearcat; tempers and patience were both short.  She moved into her room for good Wednesday last and the Bearcat has bounded off into the night.

But all is not yet quiet on the bedtime front.  White House is a bit larger than Raleigh House, and the bambini's bedrooms are not on the same floor as where the rooms in which the majority of the living is done.  It's a bit much for Our Hero.  He does not like to be upstairs by himself.  He has a (fabulous) new orange lamp, and we've found his books and put them on the shelves in his room.  The lamp stays on at night and he knows he can look at his books.  He can, of course, listen for the noises.

The first few nights, Joe kept appearing downstairs.  When asked what else he thought might help, he told us we could be louder.  He also suggested that every night be a family dinner night, but that was only because he was under the mistaken impression that the entire household would then retire upstairs at 7:30pm.  One night he told Julie that he wished he was a grown-up.  When Julie asked why, he told her so he could stay up late (read: not have to be upstairs by himself at bedtime).  Julie told him that she sometimes wished she was a little kid so she could take a nap every day.  Joe smiled a very little smile.  One night, he took matters into his own hands and got into Clara's bed.  She transferred herself to the big bed in the middle of the night and, at some point, Joe fell out of her bed onto the floor (and did not wake up).

Julie feels Our Hero on this one.  She was long afraid of The Dark and still, if Ted is not home, will sleep with numerous lights on (and when she does, she thinks, "I am a grown-up!  I can sleep with the lights on!"  She doesn't think too much about the irony.).  So she feels you have to respect the fear, but also feels that respecting it does not extend to forgoing sleep.  Our Hero cannot still be up at 10pm or we'll have a new bearcat on our hands.

But we may have hit on a winning strategy, rather by chance.  Last night, after the bambini were tucked in, Julie stayed upstairs and pattered about putting away this and that.  Early on, Joe asked if she could sing.  So she did: My Favorite Things, Moon River, Tonight, and I Feel Pretty.  Joe was asleep within half an hour.  She had grand plans tonight for a Sinatra medley, but Joe wanted Christmas songs.

All is not yet calm, nor is it bright, but we're getting there.  In the meantime, we have the orange lamp, books, and singing, and we are endeavoring to be noisier.

*We live on 39th Street; 39th House lacks a certain flow.  The house is white.  White House has a ring to it.  Yes, we're certain we've heard it somewhere before.

**Laminate covered faux wood linoleum that featured cantering evergreen colored ponies at regular intervals (very rustic chic) over Douglas fir.  We're back down to the Douglas fir.

Second to last night in Raleigh House, where Clara always piled into Joe's bed, never the other way round.

Two things

There are two things Clara Jane has been doing the past couple of days. The first is asking to watch the videos Ted took of the parade at Disneyland. She will ask to "watch California on your phone." This morning when said activity was promised she ran over to the sofa and laid back with a blanket to take in the show. 

The second thing is for Clara to get her play stethoscope or thermometer and approach people saying "I have to doctor you."  She will hunt down her patients and ensure she administers her care. 

Soccer shower

After soccer this week Joe asked if he could take a shower instead of bath. We aren't sure how this idea came about but we decided to go along with it considering Clara had already bathed for the night. When faced with the spraying water he was tentative at first, but by the end he was literally dancing in the shower. (Video is mostly appropriate, just a little glimpse of a shimmying butt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ks1sjMUdA

Five

Palo,

You turned five today. You wore your orange shorts to school because that is your most favorite color right now, and Mr. Mark made you an orange crown to wear there, at least during morning snack time. That's when your class had the birthday cake Oreos that we'd brought in for the occasion. We had a birthday cake--the traditional Ekkers birthday cake--at home after school and you opened Aunt Kate's present, and said, "Star Wars Legos! Stormtroopers!" You are old enough to know what a stormtrooper is. . .

This morning, the air was heavy and full the way it can be when it's aching to rain and I thought then about how that's a bit how the air felt the morning you were born when we were leaving to go to the hospital. (I also remember sliding my feet into my Reef flip flops--the orange ones.)

While we were eating cake, you said "Thanks for making cake." I said, "Thanks for being born." You asked what being born meant. (Of course you did.) I said "Arriving in the world," while Daddy chortled no doubt at my avoidance of a more scientific explanation. (Of course he did.)

Anyway--it's true! You arrived in the world five years ago today, and made everything about our little bit of it better.

You're amazing, Palo.

Love you always,

Mommy

What's that!?!?

Joe discovered the dishwasher today. We have been in the house for a few days already, but today when Kate was loading the dishwasher and Joe was flitting around the kitchen area he saw it and asked, "what's that!?" Kate explained it and he took it all in stride like he discovers household appliances everyday. Meanwhile his parents are rediscovering dishwasher detergent (now in those power packs!) after an 8 year hiatus from that section of the store. Amazing advances for the kitchen...don't even get us started on the disposal or the water and ice dispenser on the fridge (the kids favorite DIY activity).

Pool time

As we mentioned before, Joe is getting some water guns for his birthday, so along with it we got a new inflatable pool. The deck is big enough to set the pool on it, which is nice because the yard doesn't get ruined in the process. The kids have had a lot of fun floating and shooting their water artillery especially when cousin Nick gets in the action!

Moving Day

Fans! We come to you from the front yard of Raleigh House. The movers--John and Pete--have arrived and we are watching a bit of the show. They are being quite good natured about it all and even let Joe and Clara walk up the big ramp and stand in their truck.

It's hard to believe this day is here, Fans. As always, we'll see you on the flip.