Walking in a Winter Wonderland

As a part of our occasional series, It's Hard To Be Three we can report that it is still hard to be three.  Not only does Our Hero love to sled, he also loves to ski.  So this morning, Ted took Joe to the secondhand sport store to get him his very own skis and ski boots.  With any luck, the weather will be such that they can hit the slopes this upcoming Friday on "report card marking day" on which Joe will not have school.

Julie had planned to take Clara to the open art studio at Kiddywumpus while the boys were off getting skis, but it was not to be.  Julie had laid some clothes out for Clara, including socks, and well, Clara WAS ALREADY WEARING SOCKS and thus the socks that Julie had laid out were, of course, cause for a fit.    So, too, was the fact that Julie did not leave the kitchen to come to the stairs to better hear the (loudly stated) proclamation that Clara was ALREADY WEARING SOCKS.  ("MommyMommyMommyMommyMommyMommyMOM-MMMYYY!!!  I TALKING TO YOU!!!")  So, too, was Julie's matter of fact statement that although she was unaware that Clara was wearing socks, now that she was, she thought that was lovely, and would thus encourage Clara to put the second pair of socks away and go about getting dressed.  Such nerve!  The very idea that Clara might put away the second pair of socks and continue getting dressed!  Julie set the timer and told Clara that if she wasn't dressed by the time it sent off, they just wouldn't be able to go.  Naturally, Clara continued to wail and thrash her way along, but dashed upstairs the moment the timer went off, appearing minutes later, dressed and nonplussed.

By then, it was too late to make it worthwhile to go to Kiddywumpus, but as Julie and Ted have learned the wisdom of revealing all in the fullness of time, Julie was able to make like a walk in the snow was the plan all along.  It didn't seem worth it to press the point that Clara doesn't get to call all the shots by denying all adventuring, the point having been made by Julie's refusal to pitch a fit herself before the timer went off.

So the Birds set off with Clara navigating.  Their walk took them by the neighborhood fairy garden to see if the fairies were still there, and to Joe's school to see the mosaic animals on its side.  It was the very picture of walking in a winter wonderland.  Birdie Brigade, you could almost hear the sleigh bells.

That how it is these days: moments in which you see the most trying aspects of Clara's age, while you struggle to see Clara herself, broken by moments in which you see so clearly Clara's appealing self-possession, confidence, and absolute content with the simplest of things like a walk in the snow with her mother to look for the fairies.