The Bambini Visit Ms. Debbie

The bambini got haircuts yesterday.  They are always very excited to visit Ms. Debbie and Ms. Debbie never disappoints.  She gave Clara curls, a purple half pony, and a blue ribbon.  Our Birdie felt just like a princess and was so excited she could barely keep still.  Joe was allowed to sweep up and use the central vacuum system with which he has been taken ever since learning of its existence.

So excited about my curls and purple half pony and blue ribbon that I can't stop waving my hands!

Scarfing it up just like Mommy.

Ready for my close-up.

Can't look at you.  Too busy sweeping.

Just A Picture. . .

Birdie, for her part, can often be found drawing pictures, or adding to the outlines of princesses that usually Ted has drawn for her.  She has taken to hanging them about the house with the blue painters tape (that we might as well buy in bulk).  Here are a few of her recent efforts.

Practicing curly hair!

Princess in sunglasses!  (Like Mommy.)

Just A Note. . .

Joe's kindergarten class is learning how to write sentences, spelling the words phonetically if need be, and using their "spaceman stick" (finger) to ensure they leave the proper spacing between words.  This effort has paved the way for an exciting development here at White House: Joe can now write notes!  He presented the first to Julie Friday morning while she was curling her hair.  (He made a copy of it; he is also quite taken with the printer-copier-scanner's ability to copy things.)  Since then, he has written two other notes (which he hung on the door of Julie and Ted's bedroom) and, as this reporter files this dispatch, he is busy writing words for (Charlotte's) web since he and Clara are playing spiders.

We feel compelled to add a note about Joe's last note.  Julie spent a fair amount of time figuring out what it said because the very first word and the last word before "Love Joe" were difficult to make out, even when wearing the phonetic spelling hat.  She finally realized that the word preceding "Love Joe" was yelling and, crestfallen, immediately resolved to be ever more vigilant about staying calm when feeling anything but calm.  So you see, Julie assumed the note was addressed to her, not Ted.  As it turns out, it was meant for Ted.  We share this other story lest you think, Dearest Readers, that Ted is the only one ever to lose it around here.

Translation: I [heart] Mommy you make me smile

Mommy you make me smile when skies are gray you are my sunshine Love Joe

Daddy remember you need to work on your yelling Love Joe

This Bunny Is All Tied Up

Fans, we have been holding out on you. Our Hero has reached another milestone on the way to self-sufficiency: he has been wearing shoes with laces, and--now, he has learned to tie them all by himself. Turns out, when you get to be a shoe size 10, selection is vastly reduced if you don't consider shoes with laces in your mix of possibilities. So shortly before Halloween, Joe got some new pumped up kicks--with laces.

We taught the bunny-goes-around-the-tree method of tying, rather than the make-two-bunny-ears method, largely because neither of us ever used the make-two-bunny-ears method. Joe caught on to all of it pretty well until the last bit when the bunny has looped the tree and now must go through the hole.  That is tricky.  But on Friday morning, Ted texted Juie that Our Hero had done it!

That night at dinner, Joe said what he likes to do is "the penguin goes around the egg and into the snow."  He informed us that was fiction, because it wasn't real. If it was real, it would be non-fiction. Uh-huh.

Fans, what we have reported here is all non-fiction.

Our Hero Reads

In other reading news, we can report that now that the bambini are routinely bathing or showering separately (Clara usually prefers a bath and Joe, a shower), Joe usually amuses himself while he waits either for the bathroom to be available, or Julie or Ted to be available for reading, by reading in his room.  Tonight, Ted arrived home from a city council meeting about the sidewalk completion proposal here in the Vista to find Joe combining two of his favorite things: being naked, and reading.  Joe was naked--and spread-eagled--on his bed reading the first in the Mercy Watson series while the tub was filling.  We don't have the a photograph, Fans.  You have to use your imaginations.

Birdie "Reads"

Lately, after being tucked in, Clara can be seen, and heard, reading to "her friends": Tink, Ariel, Bupha, Fluffy, and Wilbur.  Wilbur is usually front and center on her lap since she (Birdie's Wilbur is a girl) is quite a bit smaller than the rest of the gang.  Sometimes, she doesn't even let herself be tucked in.  She just takes the books that were just read to her and announces, "I going to read to my friends," at which point it is clear that Julie or Ted is dismissed.  Then, she "reads."  Tonight, she read If You Give a Pig a Pancake to her pig (that's Wilbur).

Pay attention, Wilbur.

"It's true.  My lips are a little chapped.  That's what happens to the fair skinned in the winter whose Aquaphor ointment is kept up high in their cubby."

Juice

Sunday evening, Joe said the kid's camera Aunt Kate gave him a few years ago needed more "apple juice."  But not to worry, he knew where the cord was and could handle it.

See Joe Read

Saturday night, Joe read all of One Fish, Red Fish, Two Fish, Blue Fish all by himself.  The only mistake he made was saying shall instead of should.  !!!!!  Fans, it was something to see.

Play Date-A-Palooza

This weekend was a play date-a-palooza.  One or both of the bambini often have at least one play date a weekend, but this weekend, it just so happened that between the two of them, they had four.  You may be relieved to know that we will dispense with the blow-by-blow, Fans, since after five years with us, you know how a play date goes down.  But we do note in the nearly four years since we've had our little girl, we've had fewer all-girl play dates, perhaps since we already had a boy in our mix.  Having noted that, we should also note that that play dates with all girls are different from play dates with all boys, or boys and girls.  They seem to involve more shrieking and jumping up and down and hugging.  Clara hosted her friend Silvia Saturday morning after swimming lessons.  After the girls had shrieked, jumped up and down, and hugged, Clara asked if they could go to the park and frankly, we think Berenice was pretty relieved.  Berenice a girl, and can bark it up with the best of them, but she's in her golden years and she needs her rest.

Waiting for Silvia

Mystery Reader

Well, Fans, Julie's plane didn't crash on the way back from Seattle.  So, she was able to make her scheduled appearance as the Mystery Reader at Joe's class on Friday.  The Mystery Reader sits in a director's chair that Julie gather was only out when mystery readers were to make an appearance.  The bambino of the Mystery Reader gets to sit on a chair next to the Mystery Reader, while the other kids sit on a square on the group-time rug.  Joe was so excited to see Julie he could barely sit still in the chair--literally, and he kept pulling his hand up into his sleeve.  Mrs. Dvorak asked Joe to tell the class Julie's name, and what he liked to do best with her.  He stuck with his "snuggle" response.  (Julie was too busy swooning to notice if the younger ladies were doing the same.)  Julie read I Lost My Bear, a recent favorite, and The Day the Crayons Quit, which she had bought at a bookstore in Seattle.  The later is letters from each color in a box of crayons to the boy who uses them, complaining about his coloring habits--like black is upset that its only used to outline shapes, but never color them in; red is upset because he has to work even on holidays, coloring Santas and such.  The last crayon to complain is peach, which is sad because its wrapper is gone--it's naked!  No underwear!  Naked and underwear are two words that are sure to get the six and under set laughing.  Fifteen minutes later it was all over.  Mrs. Dvorak is all business, but she did take this picture of Joe and Julie which she sent home with a short note.

Moony

On the way home the other night, Clara chirped "I spy with my little eye something 'moony'!"  To which Joe and Ted both responded, "Is it the moon?"  Yes.  And then she said she wanted to read Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me at bedtime, which we did.

If only we could really give this little girl the moon.  She would love how shiny and bright it would be!

Missing Mommy in Minnesota

Julie has been in the Seattle area for the whole week and we miss her tons.  She left two big balloons for the kids to find when they got home from school on Monday. These balloons have been a source of endless fun, stories, and of course, a few tears, all week.

Julie has called each night during prep for shower* time so she would be on speaker phone while the kids danced naked around the big bedroom staring at themselves in the big mirror while answering her questions. And they would end each call by telling her "I love you!  I miss you so much! I will hug you and kiss you on Friday!"

Ted and bambini have survived well, perhaps with extra silly discussions at dinner and bed time which winds them up but avoids complaining. This morning we capped off our week with a trip to Starfox before school. Wilbur took the chair Julie would have had. (Clara kept insisting she would get a "crist", and it took Joe to finally decipher she meant a croissant. In the end she picked donut anyhow, maybe because its easier to say.)

Julie returns tonight and we all can't wait to see her!

*Before leaving on Monday, Julie bought two bath sponges for the kids and noted that Joe could start taking showers. Well, there was no waiting on this. So Monday night Ted was instructing Joe and Clara on how to manage the shower. Joe had done this before but was still sensitive to the spraying water.  Clara took to it quickly and seemed to love having the place to herself and to see water constantly cascading off her hair. 

Big Girl

Clara is desperate to be a big girl, and she is getting closer every day. Last night at dinner she said to Ted: "When I am two years more and I turn into a princess I will live in a castle. And princesses don't like furniture.  They just dance." There is a lot of talk about the amazing world that awaits in two years which is the number of years until she is a big kindergartner like Joe. We also may have been encouraging the idea that she will turn into a princess because we tell her things like "if you want to be a princess don't put your hair in your mouth."

She also continues to improve her writing and coloring skills. She can make small circles for her "a" as well as color in the lines. She was extra proud of her name this morning.

And she is often asking Ted or Julie to draw her a princess which she then gives lots of hair, a wand, and fancy shoes. 

Clara will make a wonderful princess. . .and in just two short years!

A Letter To Joe and Clara

Joe and Clara,

I'm writing this to you from the plane flying Seattle. You are in Minnesota, though who knows where you will be when you read it. I'm writing it now, instead of when I get home or even when I'm back on the ground, because whenever I travel alone, without Daddy, and the two of you, if I am not entirely convinced that I am going to die in a fiery plane crash, or bloody car crash, or that some other horrific like event isn't going to unfold, well I'm not entirely unconvinced of these eventualities either. I have taken to telling and making your father remember the password to my Hotmail account anyway. He's very good natured about it, which is to say that he makes me feel just crazy enough to dismiss my anxieties and believe I'll see you all again, but not so crazy that he isn't taking my worries seriously.  It's tricky business, but he's always up for it which is just one of the many reasons why you should know that you lucked out in the father department.

Still, the plane might go down or, if it doesn't, the car might crash, so I need to be sure I tap all the sap that tends to be running on these trips I sometimes have to take away from you right now.

This post started when I read the following sentence in the new book of essays by Anne Patchett I began on the flight out here: "Sometimes you don't realize what's lacking in life until you find it."  Your dad, again--I didn't know what I was missing until suddenly, I wasn't because he had appeared on the scene. But it's the same with the two of you, you see.

I wanted to have children, but it's fair to say that once that pitch was hurtling toward me, about the only thing I wanted to do was duck in terror. (It was no better the second time I was standing at home plate than it was the first.)  Of course you shouldn't duck, and I didn't which is how I now know, I had the children I was meant to have.

Joe, I see you. The other night--a night on which I was reading to you and Daddy to Clara--Clara padded into your room to give you a good night kiss, and you made a strangled moaning noise and shrank back from her. I was horrified!  Jesus Christ! If you aren't at least friendly with Clara, who are you going to talk to years from now about what a nut your mother was? (Like how she acted like the plane was going to go down whenever she had to travel alone. Daddy and Clara are the only people, really, who are going to get this, and Daddy will have his hands pretty full with said nut, obviously.) But when she padded off, pretty nonplussed by your rebuff, and I asked you why you didn't want Clara to kiss you, you sighed and said you just wanted to read books. And I mean I totally, totally got this. You love Clara sure (duh; she should already know this), but it was time to shut this day down down and read some books. There aren't many days (any?) I don't feel the same way. I see you and I think I feel you, that I get you. But you are your own creature, for sure, make no mistake, and you will think and feel a thousand things I could only ever guess, and only a fraction of which you will ever tell me. I'll settle for that though, and it won't even feel like settling.

Clara, I see you, too. I see you in brief, but intense flashes, flitting around in your flouncy skirts and sparkly tights, talking about something else that's going to happen "when you turn into a princess." Such a confident and flashing whirl you are, with such spirit and heart.  I will never forget the moment, in the Raleigh house garage, after I had wrestled you into your car seat in grim determined silence, when you looked at me with your face as red as the moment you were born, and screamed for all you were worth, eyes boring into me.  And then it was over. Spirit and heart. You feel everything, or seem to. I see you, and I hope so much that you feel my gaze and know how much my heart loves yours. I believe what other authors have written--that we won't ever fully know the hearts of others, even those closest to ours.  So I know there are some make corners of yours that will always be hidden from me and I think that's o-kay.  It's got a strong beat that I think I could hear anywhere, which is enough for me.

I quickly realized that when I was terrified of having children, what I was really terrified of was becoming a mother. The two things usually go hand in hand, but they are different things, somehow and, I suppose, can be mutually exclusive depending on what you consider being a mother. Someone once told me that I would be exactly the mother each of you would need. I didn't believe it when I first heard it. I wanted to, but I can't say that I did. But I do now.  It's come true, I think.  "Sometimes you don't realize what's lacking in life until you find it." The two of you have made me a mother.  Sometimes it's SO LOUD I can't figure out how I'll ever have a complete and coherent thought again, but somehow, in all the noise, there you two are, and I see you.

And I'll see you Thursday night. The plane will not go down.  The car will not crash.  Your father has told me so.

Love you both so much,
Mommy

All Day Long

On the nights Julie reads books to Clara, after those book are read, Julie lingers and snuggles with Clara.  When Julie gets up to leave, Clara always says, "Nooooo. I want you to stay with me all day long." Usually Clara will have one arm snaked tight around Julie's neck when she says this. Julie leaves tomorrow on a trip for work so Birdie's usual seemed especially poingnet tonight.

What Do You Noe?

Clara asking how to spell cat, prompted Joe to write the sentence above on the magna doodle board.  You can see the phonetic spelling he is learning about in kindergarten on display with "noe" standing in for know, and "spel" for spell.  Do, you, how, to, and the are all sight words that he knows.  Cat is missing its final letter because Our Hero got sort of excited about the sentence he'd written all by himself.

It's really something to watch him figure things out on his own, which he is more apt to do if an adult isn't there to tell him the correct way to spell a word or explain a concept that he has some familiarity with, but doesn't know inside and out.  At such times, he just powers through with what he's got.  Like this morning, Julie took Joe to buy some donuts while Ted and Birdie slept in a bit.  Joe had gotten up first, and was in his room busily filling out pages in his All About Me book, which he then wanted to take with him.  That's how Julie and Joe ended up discussing how many clocks were in the house in the Byerly's parking lot.  Julie didn't say much other than to take it room by room.  It wasn't long before Joe said that there was one for sure on "that thing up high that we cook in sometimes and goes round and round": the microwave.  We don't use it often enough to say the word very often, but he knew just how to describe it!

Coloring Cats

When Julie arrives to pick up Clara, she will often find Birdie tracing shapes with stencils and then coloring in those forms.  She's fairly good at not moving the stencil as she traces the shape, and she's even better at coloring in the lines.  This picture is from a few nights ago when Clara had just finished tracing the outline of the cat when Julie arrived, so Clara brought her paper home to color the cat in there. You can see that she tried writing cat at the top of the paper with the balloon-like lowercase A.  (The picture of the cat off to the left was given to Birdie by Joe's friend Eliot.)

Pig Crazy (Hog Wild?)

We went to see Charlotte's Web* at the Minneapolis Children's Theater not long before we went to Des Moines over Joe's (and thus Clara's) fall break.  We have the movie as well.  Although Joe is frightened by the beginning of both Finding Nemo and Ice Age, he is nonplussed by just where Papa might be going with that ax.  Thus, he and Birdie are big fans of all things Charlotte's Web and, in particular, pigs.  In Birdie's case, it is an obvious plus that pigs are pink.  She got a small plush pig when we were in Iowa whom she christened Wilbur.  She and Joe are both fond of building zoos, cages, and pens of all stripes for various of the members of their stuffed menageries.  Clara recently built Wilbur (who is a girl, by the way) a pen out of a box in which a pair of shoes Julie had ordered were delivered.

Not long after Wilbur's arrival, Clara's class began a unit about farms.  Julie usually wanders about Birdie's room at pick-up while Birdie gets into her coat and other winter gear.  Even before she flipped the picture above over to read the name on the back, Julie just knew it was Birdie's: he animal selected as a favorite was a pig, and the pig was being penned up--with grass.  You can't be too careful with pigs.

*Thank you again Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles!

Usually, Birdie does a better job of getting the letters in her name in the right order, and doesn't bother with an uppercase L when the lowercase L is, frankly, easier, but this is still a pretty classic representation of her "signature" right now: she makes her Cs in two strokes (here, three), starting with the middle and adding a curve at the top, and her lowercase As look like balloons.

Yogi Bambini

When weather, light, and internal motivation permit, Julie goes running outside.  When the weather or the light force Julie inside, she usually exercises after the bambini have gone to bed.  But today, she exercised in the morning.  She'd no more gotten downstairs than Birdie came padding down the stairs.  Not long after, Joe (and Ted) arrived. For a while, Julie was moving to a Tracy Anderson DVD, and the bambini just stared and took that all in. (Who can blame them? Even beginner Tracy is hard.) But when Julie moved on to some yoga, Joe and Clara apparently decided this was an exercise regime they could get on board with, and sidled right up to her, Joe on her left, and Clara on her right.  You can see a short clip of the yogis at work here.  After they'd wrapped the session and had breakfast, Julie was upstairs brushing her teeth, when Joe appeared at the bathroom door asking if he could take out the mat.  Julie said yes, and when's she came downstairs again, found Joe doing the whole practice again (some of which you can see here)!  Namaste, Fans.

Fall Party

This Saturday we had our first party, and it was a rager!  We hosted Eli, Emma, Austin, Avery and their respective handlers. It was a warm early evening so the kids all played in the backyard while the adults relaxed inside. It wasn't long before we looked out the window to see Joe and Austin climbing the lilac tree, which is a little unsetteling when your son has never done that before. It was soon getting dark so the kid party moved inside to the basement where toys were strewn about and Joe and Austin tried sliding down the carpeted steps head first (which Left Joe still sporting a rug burn on his chest). They somehow all managed to sit down for about five minutes to eat before continuing their basement adventures. The girls were soon upstairs pretending they were princesses and in general avoiding those crazy boys. When it was time to go we said goodnight to our friends who all live close enough to walk home which was an extra perk of the party!

Birdie, Better and Bet-er

We have been meaning to report that one day last week, when Julie arrived to pick up Clara, Julie found Birdie stretched out on the couch in the Pre-K library area, with a book propped up on her belly, looking every inch the big girl. Oh you should have seen her, Brigade.  She's really getting her letters down pat.  Julie will usually ask Birdie to name all the letters in the title of the books they read at night, and nowadays, Clara will always pull the book away so she can not only say the letters, but point to them all by herself, too.  She's more confident and quick than ever.  Birdie will also always ask when she doesn't know what a word means, which means affecting different accents for different characters is temporarily out.  A week or two ago, Clara was on a Boo Hoo Bird steak.  Boo Hoo Bird features a bird (it's true) who gets bonked on the head while playing a game of catch with an animal friend, which leads to all manner of other animal friends trying to help make his boo-boo feel better. Julie likes to give all the animals a different accent. Fox is British but is affecting an American accent right now because when Julie, as British Fox, would read, "What you need is a Band-aid. Band-aids always make my boo-boos feel better," Clara would ask what "bet-er" meant.  In any case--and in any accent--she's getting better and better at all these letters and the words they become.

Of Drawing Difficulties, and Focus

In other news, tonight, when Julie was chatting with Joe after reading books, she checked in on whether Joe focused on Mrs. Dvorak at group time.  He said he had, "most of the time." So Julie said that she was really proud of him for doing that, and for working hard at even the things he didn't necessarily love to do, like color.

That's when Joe said, "Drawing's just hard because there's skin under the clothes." Julie was mystified but then she she had it: our literal-minded Hero was puzzling aloud over how to draw the skin you can't see, as well as the clothes that you can see. Julie suggested to Joe that he I just draw what he saw--that is, the clothes and any skin they weren't covering.

This was met with silence.  As Julie said all of this, Joe was looking at the corner of the book Julie had just read to him and thumbing the pages.  So Julie said that she was petty sure he as focused on her, but she couldn't be entirely sure because he wasn't looking at her.  Then she said that she needed him too because she hard to tell him something important, even if she thought he already knew it. Joe turned to her and Julie said, "I love you."

And Joe said, "I already know that." But he was laughing when he said it.

Our Little Grand Master In the Making

Fans, Chess Club was a hit! Despite the fact that Joe noted he did not learn anything new today. (Apparently they covered how the pieces move, and as he said, he already knows how they move.)  Julie had walked to the school to pick him up, so they walked to collect Birdie from the KinderCare as well, and Joe kept up a running monologue about Chess Club the whole way there.  The very first thing he asked a if Julie would always pick him up right after Chess Club and Lego Art Club (which is on Tuesdays), before he would have to go to Kid's Place. The fact that yes, Julie will in fact pick him up right from these clubs, makes Our Hero like them even more than he already does.  Julie's heart twisted a bit because she so wishes she could pick Joe up at the end of the school day. But the hope was that these clubs would break up the after school Kid's Place monotony a bit in a way Our Hero welcomed, even if it meant tossing him into another new, mixed-age environment, and it would seem that they are in fact offering just this respite. Check and mate.

Trimming Joe's Toe Nails

Trimming touch up post-hug.

We may have failed to report that Our Hero has been, for some time now, trimming his own toe nails.  The road to self-sufficiency was rocky and paved with frustration.  Indeed, Joe reached self-sufficiency in this area after Julie, in a (very mature) fit of frustration of her own left a wailing Joe in Raleigh House to march outside and pitch the toe nail clippers out into the yard.  Trimming toe nails was never a big deal, until it suddenly was, and every time the nail clippers would even appear, Joe would begin wailing that it hurt.  It hurt--despite the fact that nothing would be happening, even when the anticipation was over and the moment was upon him.  Thrashing and twisting abounded.  Tears!  Red-faced wailing!  Screaming!  Circumstances were only moderately improved by Ted manning the clippers.

The Evening the Clippers Flew was the night Julie said she was finished with trimming toe nails.  She told Joe as much and told Ted that by default, he had to be in charge of toe nail trimming.  Well the months passed and while no one was tossing nail clippers about, it is fair to say that toe nail trimming was a task dreaded and sometimes avoided until it could be avoided no more.  Eventually, Ted decided to have Joe trim his own toe nails.  Joe began with one toe a night until they were all trimmed.  Time would pass, and the process would repeat itself.  Julie stayed out of it, but asked Ted to please check Joe's work.

Tonight, Ted happened to be telling Julie that even though he knew she was a little annoyed by this one-toe-a-night routine, he did think it was one of the best ideas he ever had (true), and it was at this precise moment that Joe happened to pad up to Julie to announce that he had trimmed all of his toe nails all by himself.

Fans, it is impossible to say who was more proud: Joe, Julie, or Ted.  Julie lifted Joe up and hugged him, then Joe reached out to hug Ted, and then Joe pulled both Julie and Ted in for the group hug.

All trimmed up.  (That abrasion on Our Hero's chest was acquired by repeatedly sliding head-first down the basement steps which, obviously, is way better than trimming toe nails.)

Joe Goes On A (Play) Date

Avid Fans will recall that a few weeks back, we mentioned meeting Joe's special friend, Nora, and her mother, Laura, at Family Fun Night, and which Julie and Laura exchanged phone numbers so that they could arrange a play date for the special friends.  Julie and Laura did, and today.  Was.  The.  Day.  !!!!!  The date (if you will, Fans) was a drop-off play date at Nora's house, including lunch.  Julie dropped Joe off and said, "Please remember to be polite."  Joe looked at her and said, "Bye."  It was polite!  Julie and Laura chatted for a few minutes during which time Joe and Nora appeared once only to disappear again.  Now when Julie picked Joe up, he said two things to Nora: 1) "Thank you for having me over, Nora," (unprompted!) and 2) to Nora, "I'm not IN LOVE!!!!!"  That may be, Fans, that may be, but he did have a good time, although he can't remember a single thing they did--dazzled by Nora's brilliance?--save that they ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch, and drank lemonade.

One of Nora's picture-notes that came home in Joe's take-home folder.

Use Your (Kind) Words. Period. The end.

Now, Fans, we have to admit to you that Mrs. Dvorak also noted that Joe does not always use his kinds words and actions.  (These glimpses into his Walter Mitty life can be fascinating--and cringe-inducing.)  She hastened to add that on most days, he did and when he did not, he accepted responsibility for what he said or did.  So she was not overly concerned about his occasional lapses.  But it is true that of late, he's been rocking the big kid attitude and what all, especially with Birdie.  Last week, Julie was busy driving when all hell broke loose in the backseat because, as she discovered, Joe had covered his ears so he wouldn't have to listen to Clara "repeat herself over AND OVER!!!!!"  Julie noted--once she'd ordered Joe to take his hands off his ears "BECAUSE THIS WAS HIS MOTHER SPEAKING TO HIM"--that Clara might be repeating herself because he was not responding which makes it difficult for others to understand if he's heard them and that, in any case, what he was doing was rude so he wasn't to do it, period.  The end.*  Then there was the moment, also last week, when Joe told Clara she was being a brat.  (Clara, for the record, retorted: "I not a brat!  I a GIRL!")  The parenting lesson we have learned here is that it's no longer enough, right, to say "Use your words."  No, now words needs a modifier: "Use your kind words."  It feels like a given, right, Fans?  But it's not.  Turns out, you never have to stop using your kind words.

*As a sidebar, Joe has, by now, picked up on a number of our expressions and mannerisms, and chief among them are saying "Period.  The end."  We whip it out on him, and Clara, and he whips it out on poor Clara who is getting it from three people and probably wants to tell us all to insert a comma, and take a breath.

Also On Friday

Due to conferences, Joe didn't have school on Friday.  Julie took the day off to spend with him.  They had a coffeehouse morning after they dropped Clara off at the KinderCare for her day.  They tok No Stress Chess and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with them to the Starfoxes and settled themselves into a pair of chairs over a table with their hot chocolates.  In the end, they saved Charlie for another day because they played three fierce games of No Stress Chess which drew a number of questions from other customers.  Julie bested Joe all three times, but as is the case with No Stress Chess, much of the winning is in the luck of the draw.  (Now tomorrow, Joe will begin going to chess club and then all bet's might be off.  We will keep you posted, Fans; we will keep you posted.)

After that, it was off to home for a bit of pattering about before heading out for lunch and to go to "the pillow store" (Crate & Barrel).  The new furniture for the back room was arriving on Saturday and Julie wanted to get some throw pillows for it.  Joe said he would go to the pillow store "even though stores are not my favorite thing."  (It was so noted.)  But Friday was November 1, which meant the holiday decorations and wares were out, and Joe does enjoy the holiday trimmings.  It wasn't long before he'd glommed on to a small, plush polar bear ornament.  He carted it all about the store, hanging it here and there while Julie considered and decided on some pillows.  Poler Bear has no name, but he did come home with one very happy boy who agreed that perhaps the pillow store wasn't so bad after all.  It might even have been fun.

Our First Real-Deal Conference

In other news, we went to our first non-preschool parent-teacher conference.  Parents were instructed to bring their kindergartners, so at three o'clock on Friday, we set off with Our Hero to meet with Mrs. Dvorak.  Joe likes Mrs. Dvorak so much that he could barely speak because he was smiling so much.  So we confirmed that he likes Mrs. Dvorak, he likes kindergarten, and he has some buddies.  These are not insubstantial things in that before Joe began kindergarten, we were asked to write a hope or dream we had for Joe in kindergarten, and we somewhat clumsily perhaps packed all of ours into "We just hope he likes school."  We figure life's a little easier if you can like he thing the law requires you to do for 13 years at least.  So check: he likes his teacher, the other kids, and school.

We also learned that Mrs. Dvorak has Our Hero pegged: really bright, knows a lot of things, but not always able to focus on what she would like him to focus.  Mrs. Dvorak walked us through where Joe was at with respect to the kindergarten outcomes and how she is challenging him in the areas where he has reached the outcome.  For example, instead of writing just one sentence, he'll be asked to try to make up and write two.  So there's no moss on him, but sometimes he's terrible busy thinking about the moss--or whatever--and can't be bothered to think about what the class is doing.  Mrs. Dvorak told us that often, at group time, Joe will often be looking around the room, and that she can tell it's because he's reading all the words he sees--which is great--and that he's usually tracking what she's saying, but that he's not showing her that by focusing on her.  That all sounded very, very familiar.  Additionally, Mrs. Dvorak said, "Now, I know he doesn't like to color [No!  Again--she's got his number.], but we do need to learn to focus to be a 'three-star' colorer*."  So we have to focus on focusing!  (And perhaps coloring.)

*A three-star colorer stays in the lines, colors an area completely, and does something else that we can't remember.

Keen-eyed observers will note that the figure in Joe's self-portrait has no arms.  Must be somewhere with the focus.

Hola Amigo

Joe doesn't reveal too much about his school activities, but sometimes a certain lesson catches his attention such as this little song in Spanish. He either doesn't know or won't tell us what it means as his parents don't habla espanol!

Halloween in the Vista

Joe, looking more like a knight than a ninja due to the ninja mask being pulled down, and Birdie, bedazzled.

Ready to trick and treat it up!

Well, Fans, Halloween is a bit more of a to-do in the Vista than it was on the Hill.* Kids swarmed the sidewalks to block after block of pretty tricked out houses (pun intended; oh pun intended). We met up with Joe and Clara's friends Eli (Batman) and Emma (Rapunzel). Joe was a white ninja known as Storm Shadow; Birdie was Tiana, one of the many Disney fairies though Princess to Birdie. She added extra sticker bling sent by her Grandparents Trump to her costume, as well as glowing bangles.

We headed out a little after six and trick-or-treated until about 7:30, beating the rain that rolled in a little while later. Fans, Our Hero is all big kid now. He wanted Julie to go with him to the door at the first house but after that, he was intent on candy acquisition and had to be reminded to do things like speak. You know, to say "Trick or treat!" and "Thank you."

And Fans, you should have seen our Bird. So polite. So confident. She and Julie moved a little slower because Clara chatted it up on nearly every front stoop. Among her queries:

"Do you have a brother and sister?"--?!?!

"What you brother's name?"--?!?! (Bill, as it turns out)

"Why you got balloons?" (Charming this neighbor out of a balloon)

" What color is you chair?"

See? Charming! Hilarious, but impossible not to find such self-possession--in a three-year-old dressed up as a fairy--completely appealing. And always departing with a "Thank you! Happy Halloween!"  (It is also worth noting that she has a greater than larger proportion of Nerds and Good 'N' Plenty in her pumpkin--pink and purple boxes, you see.)

Once we were home, the bambini tasked themselves with out handing out candy.  Joe manned the door and the bowl, and Clara would open up her musical Halloween card, also from the Grandparents Trump.  This one played Purple (!) People Eater.  Joe kept staring out the window willing people to come to our house.  The rain conspired against him.  In his heart, it might be Halloween forever.  Thank goodness for Christmas.

*New neighborhoods: Minnekahda a Vista. Old neighborhood: Fern Hill.

Birdie with balloon.

Back home, waiting for the Purple People Eater cue in her usual cutting edge fashion.

Waiting. . .