When This You C Remember Me

Julie dropped Birdie off at school this morning.  While she was hugging Birdie, Birdie said, "I wish you didn't have to go."  Julie said, "I wish I didn't have to go either."  Julie was wearing a necklace of charms given to her by Grandma Connie.  One of the charms is a crescent moon, but Clara thinks of it as a C.  After Julie said added, "I miss you during the day when we aren't together," Clara caught up the C between her fingers and said, "If you miss me, look for the C." Then, she took Julie's hand, walked her to the door, let go, and dashed off to color while Julie trudged down the hall with tears in her eyes, the C charm hooked around one of her fingers, thinking about what a tender heart beat inside our Birdie.

Fall Fun

 

Ted raked up some of the fallen leaves in the front yard yesterday evening so the bambini could play in them.  Here you can see Joe pretending to be a dog digging in them and then a walrus diving in them (both per his commentary upon seeing the video tonight).  Before long, Clara was in on the fun as well, and they were both busy covering themselves and each other with leaves, tossing them up in the air, and chasing each other around and around the pile.

Get Your Brave on For Bedtime

In other Birdie news, we can report that of late, not long after being tucked in, she  will get up and pad downstairs to see what delights are unfolding and being kept secret from her. She's got a cover story: she's scared. Of course! An oldie but a goodie. It's often delivered through an impish grin so we're not buying it.  Still, as we walk back upstairs, we remind Clara of all the things to consider doing to keep the frightening things of the world when you are four and it's bed time at bay: turn on the light in your room, turn on the light in the bathroom, turn on the light in the hallway, listen for the noises Mommy and Daddy are making. Turning on music can also be an option. (Christmas music is the standby, but in the wake of learning about red tailed hawks this summer, Alabama's Greatest Hits including Dixieland Delight had a good run.)

The other night, Birdie padded downstairs and stated that she had turned on the light in her room, and the bathroom, and the hallway, and she had listened for the noises, and still, she was scared.  Julie told her that there was just one thing left to do: "Be brave."

We're thinking of adding some Sarah Barellis to the bedtime music rotation.

Of Colds and Mists

Birdie has been under the weather as the weather has turned from summer to fall here in Minnesota. It's not yet quite winter, but the misery still prompted Birdie to lament: "Why do I have to have stuff in my nose for the winter?" Poor Birdie. She kicked one cold only to come right down with another, and in the brief window between them, she got her flu vaccine.

The bambini got the mist instead of the shot this year. They did last year as well, but neither remembered the experience so the car ride between Joe's school and Dr. Harrington's office earlier this fall was marked by MUCH discussion about mist. What is mist? What is smaller than mist? Can we see such things? Could we buy a microscope? To see atoms? That are smaller than mist?  Why not? Why not?  There was also a lot of self-affirming self-talk: "It won't hurt. Yeah.  It won't hurt. It'll just feel like a little tickle.  Yeah.  Like a little tickle." (After being misted, there was a lot of self-congratulating self-talk: "It didn't hurt. Yeah. It didn't hurt. It was just like a little tickle! Yeah. Like a little tickle!"

Fall Break 2014

Fans, we are back from the fall break taken in October by schools across Minnesota.  We all used the potty before we left!  The evidence remained when we returned.  At least the lid was down which kept the same on the smell.

We spent the break in Illinois with our old friends Jean and Brian and their four-year-old daughter, Evelyn. As we pulled into their neighborhood, Clara excitedly announced that she was going to get up early. Joe said, "Well that's not helpful!"  Indeed.  And yet, they both woke up early every day of the fall break.

Evelyn's house is near a pumpkin patch, though "patch" doesn't really describe a place that houses two giraffes and a camel (among other things) accurately.  In any case, we visited it and all fed the giraffes, save Clara.  While we were there, we also played in a "corn box"--a large sandbox filled with corn instead of sand--and saw a pumpkin-eating dinosaur live up to his name (three times).

Our trip coincided with Northwestern's homecoming weekend so we also took Joe and Clara to their first tailgate and game at Ryan Field where the bambini had fun roaring like wild cats.

And we saw Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles for brunch on our way out of town--just back from a trip to Italy! They didn't get to feed giraffes while they were there, but it sounds like they still had a good time all the same.

We played a good amount of I Spy in the car.  At some point, in a round on the trip down, one of the bambini--Birdie?--had guessed whether the thing spied was a skunk.  It made no sense, and that fact is probably what made the guess so funny to her and Joe.  By return trip's end, we were all fairly loopy. Joe had spied something yellow.  He offered two hints: it was in front of the car, and began with the letter H.  It was not a higgitywopple or any of the other nonsense words we all guessed.  When Clara asked, with a good amount of seriousness, "Is it a skunk?". . .well, Julie thought she might loose it.

(It was a headlight.  Ted guessed it.)

And a Day For Indulgance

Clara and Julie spent Monday afternoon indulging in a series of small treats. They began with a ladies lunch at Chipotle.  Birdie had a whole burrito! Carnitas, peppers and onions, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce for the curious.  Then, they went to the book store where they each got a book as well as one for Joe. That was followed by a smoothie from Starfoxes.

The entire afternoon was marked by intermittent conversation about laws and whether various things were against the law. The conversation began when Clara rolled down her window and pitched out a rock. Oh, you don't gather rocks wherever you go, Fans? The bambini do. It is not uncommon to lift up one of their jackets and discover it weighted down by a pocketful of rocks.  Neither have yet to meet a rock they didn't want to pick up and squirrel away somewhere, except perhaps the one Clara up and decided to pitch out the window, just before a car passed in the opposite direction.  We can only assume that rock was a troublemaker.

Little Leave Takings

Julie has been thinking lately about the little leave takings that mark the days when one has kids and works outside the home. There are other leave takings to come, everything from sleep-away camp to college, that for now remain bridges to cross on other days.  But as she was working outside the home before Joe and Clara were born and didn't stop once they were, a bridge she's crossed many times is the one that ends with her leaving Joe and Clara in someone else's care while she's at that other work.  She's never felt conflicted about her choice to work outside the home after she became a mother the way she knows some parents--mothers, really--are.  She has learned though that her comfort with the choice doesn't mean that some days it isn't still hard to let go of Joe and Clara's little bodies and walk out of their respective schools, to leave them. 

Clara, especially, still has a hard time parting on weekdays, at least when Julie drops her off.  But, quite by accident, Julie has discovered something that makes the leaving a little less hard for  her, and perhaps for Clara.  Many days, Clara will cry, "I want to stay home with you."  On one such day, Julie replied, "Me, too," and there she was in a moment in which she still felt sad, but a little less so, because she was in it with Clara. There was something about acknowledging that she wanted to stay home with Clara and would miss her, something about acknowledging the leaving and allowing the moment to be, that made it less hard to part.

For Care, new to leaving for other work.

A Day for Exploration

Clara Jane was the only one in the family with Columbus Day off, and her handlers thought she could use some supervision. In honor of Columbus, Clara and Ted headed to the zoo for the morning to discover new lands (artificially recreated for us in Apple Valley, MN). We saw otters munching on ice cubes, a tiger asleep next to a gnawed-at pumpkin, a bear asleep on a rock as well as one awake and snorting, wrestling monkey babies, a herd of camels piled up like a litter of puppies, a pair of moose kissing, and a very stoic leopard.

It's always something new at the zoo!

Pumpin' and Cookin'

Julie spent the summer after her first year of law school working at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services where her colleague in the cube next door once said to her, "Now you're cookin' with gas."  She'd never heard that before, thought it was hilarious, immediately adopted it, and has been saying it ever since.  The other week, she was reading in the front room while Joe was working on something at the dining room table, when he said--apropos of nothing it would seem--"Now you're pumping with gas!"  The gas at the gas station being the only gas he knows, his verb choice made perfect sense.  A very loud laugh burst out of Julie who said, "Cookin' with gas!"  Without missing a beat, Our Hero, delighted to have made his mother laugh, immediately followed up with, "Now you're cookin' stew!"

Yar-ing Up the Joint

Keen-eyed observers of certain pictures in the last post--especially those who have been at White House recently--will have noticed that we have finally hung something permanent-looking over the mantel.  For well over a year, what had been hanging there was an enormous sign reading, "We love you Mommy!" that the bambini had made on butcher block paper with Ted's help when Julie was away on a day trip last spring.  We'd hung a good number of pictures not long after we moved in and painted all the walls, but had been struggling with the big space over the mantle, the first wall you see upon entering through the front door.  But recently, some art that had been hanging in Southold arrived, and a cocktail party was in the offing, so we decided to revisit the artwork--old and new--that remained unhung.  A eureka moment resulted in the four black frames going over the mantel with boating pictures in them after we'd hung a metal sailboat sculpture across the way.  (Longtime readers will no doubt recall Julie's affection for all language nautical and the idea, at least, of sailing.  And of course, Ted can sail and she adores him.) Our Fans who knew Southold might also be interested to see the harbor scene painted by one of Grandpa Tom's patients, now reframed and cleaned, and hanging in the pass between the kitchen and dining room here at White House.

Pile It On

Not everyone can rock this look.

Our Birdie is, of course, as our longtime Fans know, a fashion fan.  These days, some days, she sports an on-trend, minimalist, plum moto jacket (that she picked out herself thank you very much).  She also has a pair of pink cowboys boots which Julie thought were pretty kicky.  But on days when Biride is left to her own devices, there is nothing minimalist about her look.

Moto Birdie.

She really likes those pearls. 

They really compliment Joe's soccer and Little Gym medals.

At least three tutus are on Birdie here.

Which is better for swirling. 

And pretending to be a ballerina.

Obviously.

Tumbling Birdie

As late summer has given way to fall, Birdie has begun going to a gymnastic class called Funny Bugs at the Little Gym late in the afternoon on Sundays.  Fashion opportunity alert!  Gymnastics fashions are more garish than your ballet fashions, but the Birds have embraced them, the younger of the two with unabashed zeal.  Although it is true that Birdie would have loved the soft pink of a ballet leotard and the attendant floaty skirt, her affection for the bright and sparkly drama of the gymnastic leotard is undiminished.  She loves her hot pink, purple, and aqua shimmery leotard and matching aqua tap pants.  (Those tap pants often ride up a bit over the course of the class, revealing a bit too much cheek, and making them, we regret to say, less tap pants than hot pants.)  You should see her though, Brigade.  She's always been sure-footed and confident of how her body moves and it really shows.  She is all ears when she is in the gym, and tries--and does--it all.

Take Us Out to the Ballgame

Our last Twins game of the summer was a night game.  Ted planned to take Joe, but bought the Birds tickets, too, when we were offered four that failed to materialize with excitement already running high.  We scored stocking hats with pom-poms on them, which were just the thing for the late summer evening as the sun went down.  The bambini had cotton candy for the very first time.  Clara was delighted by its pinkness; they were both taken with it in all other respects.  There was a marriage proposal that night!  Joe really likes the "love cam" (as he calls the kiss cam), and actually cried when he returned from the bathroom and learned he had missed it, and a marriage proposal.  That was the first sign that we weren't much long past the seventh inning stretch, which is when we packed it in for the season.  The kid's cam never caught the bambini's dance moves and projected them on the jumbo-tron, but there's always next year.

Our Book Worms

What?  You don't don your pearls to read?

Fans.  We're back.  The last few weeks have been lost to birthdays and the attendant birthday cakes, the last Twins game of the summer for us, visitors (form of: Bishopps!), a cocktail party, the last gasp of summer itself, the start of fall, and--frankly, a deluge of books that have come in at the library, for which there is a waiting list for many, putting pressure on one to read them straight away instead of issuing reports from the front here in the North Star State.

Now that we are back, we can report that we are all of us absorbed in our respective books.  Longtime Fans may recall that the school year at Susan Lindgren Elementary kicks off straight away with the annual read-a-thon fundraiser.  Last year's theme was Read to the X-treme, with that x-treme X.  We regret to tell you that this year's theme is something so tame and forgettable that we have in fact forgotten it.  But we are pleased to tell you that if you are so inclined, you may make a donation on behalf of Our Hero here by October 10.  He aims to read an average of 30 minutes a day over the course of the two-week read-a-thon.  So far, so good.  That's 420 minutes total in case you are a Fan making a what-you-would-have-pledged-per-minute-based donation.  Might be wise to keep your pledge per minute small.  The school-wide goal is 118,000 minutes.  If it's reached, then the Minnesota Science Museum will come and dazzle everyone with the delights of science.

It is also Reading Month at KinderCare (even if nationally, it is--at least according to the interwebs--March) so Birdie we have been logging the books that she is reading (or, more accurately, are being read to her) as well.  We are not counting the books that she reads every night after being tucked in since at this point, we think she is more "reading" them as best she can from memory.  By week's end, most of the books from her shelves are strewn about the floor and her bed, teetering in a stack on the nightstand.

Not infrequently, Joe will read to Clara.  You can see a clip of one such instance here. (Keep your eyes on their legs.)  They are both still huge fans of the Berenstain Bears and Fancy Nancy, but in recent months also met Henry and his enormous dog Mudge both of whom are now also beloved.  Turns out, Henry has a cousin!  Annie.  Annie has a bunny named Snowball.  These relations were just discovered this past week.  A whole new world has opened, which is of course, the joy of books.

Joe's Mudge.  Joe often sleeps on top of Mudge.  Probably because when he doesn't, there is barely room for both of them in his bed.

When Joe got Mudge, Clara got an equally enormous Pink Bear.