A Heart's Sky

The day after Christmas we all caravaned downtown to see various sights, including the Neopolitan crèche and the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute.  Once in the museum, our route to the crèche took us past Georgia O'Keefe's Sky Above Clouds IV.  Seeing this painting was an unexpected delight as one of our favorite books is a somewhat impressionistic biography of Georgia O'Keefe for children.  Birdie considered the painting for a bit and Julie's heart caught at the sight, thinking of Our Birdie always at her drawing and coloring.

For Christmas, Clara asked Santa Claws (as she charmingly addressed her letter) for a radio-CD-case of her own.  She now has a small boom box of her very own--and the Kidz Bop 30 CD.  She has already been seen rocking out on top of a bed in front of a mirror clad in only her underwear and the chocolate brown faux fur vest that Grandma Connie got her for Christmas.  It made the heart, if not catch, smile.

Chances are Our Birdie will not have her art hanging in a museum one day or sell out arenas with her act.  Time will reveal her talents and that at which she likes to work, and what skies her heart will seek.  But with any luck, she'll see and be seen, listen and be heard, and she'll keep pausing to look up, to draw and color, and to sing and dance.

Good Thing

Fans.  Hello.  We are back after our longest hiatus since this chronicle began.  We have missed the chronicling, and you.

As is our usual practice after we have gone radio silent, we just plunge back in to what is unfolding at the moment.  We come to you from Wisconsin through which we are traveling by car, having spent Christmas in Illinois with Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles, and Aunt Kate, Uncle Scott, and Cousin Nick who flew in from Pennsylvania.

Birdie is in her Santa hat tucked up against her Ariel-shaped pillow.  She has been softly singing to herself (this much remains unchanged), but she's all sung out--for the moment.

Joe is snuggled up against his Thomas the Tank pillow pet, reading Code of the Clans, a companion volume to the Warriors series.

Here, we pause to tell you that the warriors of the Warriors series are likely not what sprang to mind when you read that sentence, Fans.  Rather, these warriors are feral cats, arrayed in clans--not tribes.  (Julie recently asked Joe what was happening with Lighteningheart's--Fierceheart's?--tribe and he said, "Umm, clan?  Tribe!" and then proceeded to giggle himself silly for several minutes.)  There are no fewer than six subseries about these cats.  That means there are six Warriors book with a number one on the spine.  You have to do some research on the interwebs to know where to begin if, say, you are requesting the first few from the library.

The bambini have one more week of winter break.  For the first time, they will be spending the bulk of it at home, with Julie, who recently resigned her position at the law school at which she worked.  Last night Joe commented, "Good thing Mommy switched jobs."  (At the moment, she has a part-time--temporary--job reading applications for a college which she does from home.)  Joe's comment was really nothing more to him than an offhand, understandably self-centered--or, more accurately, child-centric--statement of fact.  But Julie was struck by it.

Her decision to resign was, of course, complex, and, in many ways, difficult, even if she feels certain it was also right. It can be easy to lose sight of the good, and the good still yet to be realized, when one is getting comfortable with Uncertainty and its sometimes companion Anxiety, ushered in by such a change.  What Joe said reminded Julie of the importance of keeping Perspective close, and its boon companion Resiliency.  (Could resiliency be any other kind of companion?)  They can be there, too, helping Change reframe the scene to make more room for Good.  So it is that Julie will spend this next week with the bambini.  Good thing.

Office worker

Our sweet girl has a wonderful imagination and commits to her inventions.  A recent activity is to work on her computer she makes out of paper. A folded sheet of paper makes a nice little laptop. She has made several of these computers in the past few months and she is able to whip one up pretty quick. This model has a mouse which is a folded up piece of paper taped shut. In this picture she is typing on the keyboard, intensely focused on her composition.

Similarly, she also enjoys writing in her journal or making shopping lists.  Her writing consists of scribbled lines, but she always dutifully fills the page with her lines of prose.

Birdie Goes to Kindergarten

Brigade. Brigade! Birdie went to kindergarten today. She said it was "great, great, great!!!" She punctuated this exclamation by throwing both her arms up over her head with each great.  She played some disco alphabet. She listened to The Kissing Hand. She visited the library. She colored. (Joe has already said that he thinks Clara might be a better artist. There might be no might about that, Fans.)

There is no might about it that the day was made easier by the presence of two of Clara's KinderCare classmates in her room. One of them also walked to school today so Clara had a familiar face next to her while lined up against the brick wall by the school's enterence waiting for Mrs. Dvorak to come up with her students who'd taken the bus. It's at that point that the walkers join the stream toward Mrs. Dvorak's room. The buses were running a little late on this first day of kindergarten, so there was plenty of time to stare at Clara and hold back tears. She was there for such a long time--until suddenly, she wasn't. She was off! She was off. Julie was the only one who cried. No doubt no one is surprised by this.

You will all recall that Clara said she was not scared to meet new people! She just loved us so much. So there.  As it turns out, it might be a little hard to talk to friends we haven't met yet. Clara allowed as much just after she'd been tucked in tonight. She talked only to the two people she already knew. But plans have been laid! Longtime readers will recall that Joe had a plan on his second day: to ask someone to do something specific, such that if he or she said no, Joe could be all check you later as he dashed off to do it. Clara has the same plan. The alternative but not mutually exclusive strategy is to tell a friend-we've-not-met-yet that she likes her dress/skirt/shoes/hair/whatever, and see where it goes. Julie reminded Clara to be sure to say yes if someone asked her to play. Clara looked at Julie and said very matter of factly, "It's not hard when someone asks me to play."  Point taken, Brigade, point taken.  Birdie. She'll tell you how it is. No might about it.  That's our girl.  Our kindergartener!

Madonna imitation.

Birdie Gets Ready For Kindergarten

Our Birdie, meanwhile, will go to her first day of kindergarten on Thursday. This afternoon, we had a conference with her teacher, Mrs. Dvorak, who our longtime readers will no doubt recognize as Joe's kindergarten teacher as well.

We were so proud of our kindergartner-to-be! She answered all of Mrs. Dvorak's questions about what she liked to do, and what we like to do as a family, and what else she wanted Mrs. Dvorak to know about her. When Mrs. Dvorak asked us if there was anything we wanted her to know about Clara, Julie said that Clara was a little apprehensive--which she un-fancied to scared for Clara--to meet new people, at which point Birdie broke in and said--with an eye roll!--"I'm not scared! [eye roll] I just love you so much." Oh. Oh! Mrs. Dvorak allowed us a moment to collect ourselves after that announcement. It was so heart-stoppingly Birdie: tender, but independent--with a little bit of attitude.

After we left Mrs. Dvorak's room, Clara said she wanted to see the gym. So we headed down a floor to the gym where we met one of the gym teachers, Mrs. S. Clara asked if the gym was just the floor, or if there were toys--"equipment," she then quickly corrected herself--!!! Mrs. Dvorak has a Fancy Nanacy fancy words poster in her room now, waiting to be filled. We think Birdie is going to love (adore, harbor deep affection for, hold dear, be over the moon for) this poster.

She is off her feed a bit, as Grandpa Charles would say--cranky and emotional. Who can blame her? Thursday will be a big (huge, tremendous, momentous, epic) day. We will keep you posted.

Birdie tries out her assigned hook.

Our Hero Goes to Second Grade

Fans, Our Hero is a second grader. Today was his first day of the new school year. He was a pretty cool customer but not long before we all left the house to walk him over, did say, "This is the hardest part." For Julie, it came later, when she realized that the long leave-taking that is being a parent doesn't seem like it's really going to ever get any easier.

Joe's teacher's name is Mrs. Gamble. Her room is right next to Joe's first grade teacher's room. He was in Chicago with his Grandparents Trump on the day of the ill-timed meet the teacher event, so "right next to Mrs. Stolusky' room" and his new teacher's name were the two pieces of information we gave him to get him from the school's front door to Mrs. Gamble's room. He was game. But when it was upon him--after he'd walked in the building and s nearly to the stairs--he turned back, panic in his eyes, and said, "Wait. What's my teacher's name again?"

Julie admonished herself to let him be a risk taker--to force it!--but after she replied, "Mrs. Gamble," she asked one of the staff at the entrance if she could accompany him to his room. At the door to the hallway his classroom was off of, she tried again to let him go, pointing down the hall to Joe's room. But when Joe said, "Can you just come with me for, like, three seconds?" she caved again! We save risk taking for another day.

It was only moments later that he saw his friend Kathleen and introduced himself to Mrs. Gamble. The three second were up. Julie made her way back out to the sidewalk where Ted and Clara were waiting and tried to hold back her tears.

Five and a half hours later, he came out the same doors and said, "The first day was awesome." If you are wondering why, Fans, here is what Our Hero had to say: "One, no homework. Two, the work was easy and boring. Three, recess." Mr. Easy Peasy did not manage to bring home his take-home folder though. Perhaps he mistook it for the non-existent leave-at-school folder. So he may have some things as yet to learn. But how to meet the world with a happy heart, he seems to have down. Can we get a folder for that?

Shortly before leaving for school.  In case you cannot tell what Our Hero is doing, we will tell you that he is dragging the wagon along on a jump rope teether attached to his scooter.  Miraculously, it did not end in tears.

Not even when Clara hopped in wanting to be hauled around.

State Fair for Three

It has been two years since we were last at the State Fair.  Knowing Julie is not a big fan of it, Ted decided to take the kids himself to get their Fair fix. The weekend was terribly hot and humid, but on this, the last day of the Fair, the weather was perfect.  This time they took the express bus to the fair which was a very nice way to do it and avoid figuring out parking, plus it was like a Fair ride!

Upon arriving the trio headed for the animal barns which is our only must do activity.  Joe wanted to pet anything with four legs, while Clara mostly followed after with a quick pet.  If Ted didn't keep an eye on him Joe would have climbed into the hay and snuggled up with a 1,000 pound cow.  A new activity was to duck into the show arena which happened to have a barrel racing competition going on.  We watched for about 30 minutes and all were fascinated the entire time, the longest they have jointly paid attention to something for that long!

We kept the "try new things" game going with a trip on the water raft ride which got us pretty well soaked but again everyone had fun with it.

From there we walked around and got our requisite pronto pup, mini donuts and lemonade interspersed with some tractor sitting.  The line was ridiculous for cheese curds, so we missed out on that favorite.  But we got to take the gondola ride across the park and get our milk shake from the Moo Booth before heading for the bus. And that was our trip to the Fair!

For the Birds!

Ever since Joe was enrolled in A Bird's Eye View camp at the Bell Museum last summer, he's been pretty into birds. As many of his Fans know, he is into animals generally, but birds are of particular interest. So last summer, we got a bird feeder and hung it from a tree. In retrospect, we realize we probably fed as many squirrels as birds. This summer, we acquired another feeder for a different type of seed. The birds wanted nothing to do with it. Humph. Then one day, while The Birds were out and about, they stumbled into a store called Wild Birds Unlimited where they asked why no finches were coming to dine on their nyjer seed and were set straight: it gets stale easily and gets compacted when wet. They were given new seed and bought some silica. One evening and replinished seed later, we awoke to two pairs of finches darting about the backyard.

It's been an education, Fans.

But the squirrels continued to get the better of us. All of us have run them off looking like deranged maniacs. We spent one morning thinking we'd bested them, watching them slide down the shepherd's hook pole slicked with olive oil, but a few hours later, they'd figured a way to best us. Joe informed us that squirrels can jump five to six feet up in the air. So there you go.

All of this is why we are now the proud owners of a bird feeding "system," including a "baffle"--that black cylindrical object on the pool in the picture--which apparently baffles the squirrels. And baffled they have been!

Now that we've run off the squirrels, we've seen all manner of birds: cardinals, finches, chickadees, a downy woodpecker, and a bunch of gray birds and brown birds we've not yet identified. Together, they clear out the entire feeder on the left in the picture above--!!!!!

Which is why we had to find a bird feeder filler while we head off up North, as they say here, on summer vacation.

Catch you on the flip, Fans.

Birdie's Pre-K Graduation

Fans, our Birdie will not flit off to kindergarten until the Thursday following Labor Day, but her Pre-K class had its commencement ceremony the Thursday before last. We gathered for what will be the last time for a while at the St. Louis Park Junior High. The graduates appeared on the stage of the cafeteria in shiny red robes. Our Birdie was looking for us. When she finally spied us, she raised her hand in the briefest of acknowledgments and then went back to the busy of looking like a mature pre-K graduate. We wouldn't distract her! But, her new shoes would.  They were magenta pave if you will with black pave hearts. And underneath that shiny red robe was a new long dress so Birdie was feeling pret-tee fine. You only go around once. Might as well do it in sparkley shoes.

Mr. Mark said a bit about each student as he or she crossed the stage to Ms. Elyse to receive his or her diploma. Each child's classroom nickname was noted. Here is what he said about "Claire-bear":
"Another one of our classroom ambassadors, Clara is the first to befriend any new student, to help show them the ropes--and never the last to remind someone of the rules. A rule follower herself, Clara has been a delight to have in Pre-K all year, as she sets a shining example of positivity and kindness that will truly be missed. She'll be attending Susan Lindgren this fall."

Isn't that so lovely, Birdie Brigade?

Kindergarten. Here she comes! But not quite yet, thank goodness.

Groundskeeper Clara

Not to be outdone by her brother, Clara took a hand at the lawnmower today.  She has even less leverage than him so didn't get far, but A for effort. Meanwhile Joe was photographing the baby bunnies born in the flower pot on the deck.  Cute, but we would prefer the bunnies to destroy plants at someone else's house.

Groundskeeper Joe

On Friday night the boys went to the Twins game which was highly anticipated by Joe because Friday in the summer they do fireworks after the game. Knowing it would be a late outing Ted wasn't concerned about getting there for the anthem like usual, so when they arrived in the second inning the entrance wasn't crowded which allowed Ted to get his season ticket scanned at the kiosk where you find out if you won a prize. Better than a prize was that they told us they still needed one more kid to be part of the 5th inning grounds crew to switch the bases!  So there was Joe, after the 5th, running around the field with TC Bear!  They got a picture with TC, a shirt, a signed TC card and a piece of bubble gum.  Joe did a great job.  And from there we stopped to sing the 7th inning stretch with Sue, and got back to our seats for the end of the game and fireworks.  And as if that wasn't enough we saw a great full (and blue) moon between the downtown buildings!

Birdie Gets Bangs

Keen-eyed observers will have noted in the last post that Birdie has bangs! Fans, you will recall when Birdie recently took her do into her own scissors if you will and hacked off several clumps here and there. One such hank was in the middle of her forehead. We have now reached the point in The Great Grow Out that tide-over bangs are needed.

Birdie is keen to have longer hair. She would like hair like Julie's--"sort of long, sort of short." Medium, in other words.

The deal is hair is only trimmed when it is not put in mouths, not cut by Clara, and brushed each morning.  Pinkie promise.

Night Birdie

Julie ate dinner out tonight with a friend and so said her good nights to the bambini early, before leaving. But she arrived home around nine-fifteen to find Birdie awake, sitting up with head bowed, quietly looking at books. In response to Julie's hushed, "Birdie," Clara said, "I just love books." She said, "One more." Julie agreed and offered her hand to shake. Clara have her a sideways high five instead and then held out her pinky. After Julie had hooked her pinkie around Clara's, Clara said knowingly, "It's called a pinkie swear."

It's also called darling.

The Love Goes In the Suitcase

But what of Our Birdie? Oh Fans. Such sweetness she holds. Sometimes, while Julie lays next to her on Birdie's bed after reading books to her at night, Clara will fling her arm across Julie and say, "Mommy, you're the best." She says it with such passion and conviction it's impossible for Julie not to be moved to tears. (Though we all know Julie's propensity for tears.)

The bambini have spent two weeks--one in June and one in July--with their Grandparents Trump. Upon their return one Sunday evening, we met up with Grandma Connie's cousin, Judy, and husband, Bob, at a fancy restaurant. So Birdie was decked out in one of her long dresses, accessoried with the charm bracelet given to her by Aunt Kate. One of the charms is a heart-shaped locket. Clara calls it "a suitcase" and will brook no correction. But it's a charming notion anyway, to pack your loved ones into your suitcase and dangle it from your swinging arm.

Here is the picture Birdie wanted to pack in her suitcase, then when we arrived home from dinner. In the first, the people are suitcase-sized. The second is there so you can see the Birds a little better.

Joe's Seventh Birthday Party

Birthday Boy

Our Hero celebrated his seventh with roughly 20 of his nearest and dearest at a local park. One of the neatest things about Joe is how he seems to get one with just about everyone and carries his friends from one part of his life into the next. So his guests were a mix of kids he first played with--or next to!--as a baby, kids he met along the way at KinderCare, friends from kindergarten and then first grade, and kids he met because they too go to Kid's Place. And one of the nicest things about seven-ish-year-olds is that they are all still content to play in bug, shifting but still all encompassing packs. So the rain held off, the parents who stayed chatted they way grown-ups do, and the kids tore around the way kids do in between eating handfuls of chips and guzzling Gatorade.

Joe's cake featured, after much thoughtful consideration and debate, a peregrine falcon and a cheetah. (In case the connective tissue is not obvious, that would be the fastest animal, period, and the fastest land animal.) When Julie placed the order, the bakery folks made like it would be no problem to find a peregrine falcon and cheetah in their image database. A few days before the party, they were stumped. They requested pictures, but cautioned against using another's image. Well sure. We have so many--of each!--on hand.

Our legal counsel considered all this for about two milliseconds before placing a call to Ted. There are laws and there are laws.

Somewhere out there are two photographers whose pictures--courtesy of YouTube and Ted--were on a cake for less than 12 hours, before it was cut up into at least 20 pieces and ingested, but not before it made one newly minted seven-year-old really happy.

Making a wish. 

Holiday card preview. No. Birthday photo bomb.

The Knudermuths Come To Town

The company.

By now, they have come, and gone. Some two weeks ago now, our friends Sanne and Todd rolled into town on their way to Todd's family's annual get-together in Wisconsin. We usually see them only once a year, but the four kids get on like gangbusters all the same, which is so much fun to see even if it makes us miss them and their parents all the more. Most of our adult-friends-with-kids have two boys which creates a dynamic that is a little harder for Clara to move in. Joe rolls as easily with the gals though as he does the guys. This visit included a long trip to the pool following the performances of two ballets, pictures of which you see here.

Friends. They're the best.

Female ensemble.

Taking five.

Joe's Seven-Year Well-Child Exam

Fans. We know! You'd have given us up for dead had many of you not seen smoke signals.  Here we are. Our silence has been due in part to technical difficulties flowing from the acquisition of a new computer (and indeed, we are still restricted to pictures taken with the iPhones) and in part to just the trials and vagaries of Life.

We will plunge in to the here and now and loop back in the coming days. Our Hero is SEVEN--!!!!!!! That's a seven exclamation mark sentence. He had his seven-year well-child appointment late Friday afternoon. He fell asleep between his pick-up at camp and Dr. H's office, not that you would know it once he was there. Fans, he was in fine from, chatting up Dr. H about this, that, and the next thing--sharks at the zoo, why Dr. H uses a computer with a mouse that's a red dot. . .you name it. When asked what he liked to eat, he said not macaroni and cheese (which he would mainline were it possible), but--wait for it: carrots. And strawberries. This last, at least, we believe. He was lolling on the exam table like he was at home on the couch watching Wildkratts. That was how we saw he hadn't remembered to take off his pajama shorts. They were peaking out underneath his other shorts. He was on. Fire.

He continues to be a big dude: weighing in at 56 pounds (72%) and measuring 49 1/2 inches (71%). He continues to have some common, benign but irritating skin virus that produces little flesh-colored bumps on the affected area. It's been about one exasperating year now and the virus has not "run its course," so we're to taking him to the dermatologist. Apparently, she will apply beetle juice (for real) and that will evaporate them. Otherwise, Our Hero is the picture of a well child.

Moe Mows

Two weeks ago when the lawn mower battery finally died, Ted debated whether to replace the battery on the 5 year old mower or upgrade to a new generation of battery powered mower.  Ultimately he decided to upgrade, and he is very happy he did.  The new mower is more the weight and noise of a vacuum cleaner and has better power than the old one. Ted has been happily mowing the past two weeks, but his mowing bliss may be coming to an end because today Joe discovered the wonders of mowing.  He can't get it started on his own due to how the buttons are located, but once started he can do it all by himself.  You can see he doesn't have great leverage or line of sight, so his rows are a little uneven - but not bad for a 6-yr old (almost 7!) rookie.  Now the trick is to keep him enthralled for the next 11 years!

A Horse of a Different Color

Fans, we have been remiss in not telling you about the springtime performance staged by Clara and her fellow pre-Kers.  It was a barnyard tale in which Clara and her classmates basically ran about to a narrated tale in which rascaly barnyard animals ordered pizza and lit a birthday cake on fire. (The fire was not real.)

Clara was a horse. We became aware of this circumstance when Clara's teachers sent an e-mail reminding parents to help their children make their costumes. . .according to the design that been sent home. Julie checked with Ted who mostly--rightly--fulminated about the apparent necessity of making a horse costume, but didn't know what this "design" was. So Julie check with Mr. Mark who said that a design had been done and gone home with Clara. Huh.

As this design was nowhere to be found, Julie asked Clara to describe her vision. Clara said she wanted green dots, surround by a field of blue, with an aqua tail, with flowers in it. And white legs. With flowers on them. Huh.

Julie learned at Grandma Connie's knee, so she knows: a lot can be made from an obliging pillowcase. She took herself off to Target where she found a white pillowcase with green triangles, white socks, and fabric flowers in the new tricked out kids' crafting aisle. But when she showed Clara the pillowcase, her enthusiasm as matched in equal measure by Clara's despondency. Green triangles in a field of white are not even close to green dots in a field of blue. Duh.

Conveniently, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles were in town for Clara's fifth birthday*. So Julie roped Grandma Connie into this project. Much hilarity was had in the aisles of Michael's after a blue pillow case was procured at Bed, Bath & Beyond. The green dots were painted on to it--with "cutie marks" like the tricked out My Little Ponies of today, thank you very much. The tails were masterpieces. And oh, you read that right because Julie was also right: Joe was going to want one of these get-ups, too.

A few days ago--roughly a month following this performance, mind you, Clara said to Julie--as though they were mid-conversation, "But Mommy, I wanted blue dots surrounded by green" (emphasis added here for dramatic effect). Huh.

Julie said that she was so sorry to hear that since that (horse) race had been run. And anyway, she was pretty sure Clara had said she wanted green dots surrounded by blue, which is just what she got. (And what the hell ever happened to a nice brown bay horse? A classic! Never out of fashion.)

And then just a day or two after that, Julie pulled down all the artwork hanging from the artwork clothes lines in the kitchen. And she found the design. The design! And, well Fans, you can see it as plain as she did: blue dots. Blue dots.  Surrounded by green.

A horse of a different color. Literally.

And is that a coral tail???

*Another thing on which we've yet to report, it's true. Hang in there, Joans.