Happy Monday

Here is the gang on their way to school. Julie in a new dress from her Mom, Joe with his water and Owl ("No owl at school, stay in car"), and Clara Jane in her "rainbow" onesie.

JTMWO

Joe likes his ABCs. He has a little phonics toy on the fridge that sings the alphabet song as well as a little rhyme or lesson for each individual letter you put in it. Ted came up with a new game, in which he asks Joe to tell him a letter, Ted draws it on a piece of paper, then Joe finds that letter on the fridge and places it in the phonics player and we sing along. Then Ted tells him words that begin with that letter. It's great fun! Joe's go-to letters are J (duh), T, M, W, and O but he will go for others too. Ted took this picture when he took up the game on his own, getting the player off the fridge and mimicking the drawing of the letter ( M and W seen in picture is from an earlier game that day).

I-You

Lately, Joe can be heard saying things like "I-you up big boy bed?" We quickly figured out that he is splitting the difference on the pronouns. He seems to have doped out that when referring to himself, one says "I" which has increasingly replaced his older construction in which he would say, for example, "Joe Joe up big on bed?", but he hears us referring to him as you ("You're up on the big boy bed."). So it seems he's splitting the difference until he's got those tricky pronouns sorted out: it's "I-you" for now.

Slide

Sunday morning, the boys were off on a bike ride to the grocery store that has Fat Free Fig Newtons and oyster crackers (neither are stocked at the Super Target; boo). The girls, meanwhile, were at home and while Julie prepped the lasagna we had for dinner, Baby Bird hung out on the floor. She got after both of the toys that are in front of her here, and being pulled across the floor on the blanket. (Julie had the radio on and the Goo Goo Dolls' Slide came on which gave her this brilliant idea.) When the boys got home, we learned that they had seen a choo-choo train and rode alongside it for a bit. Joe was so excited he could barely get the words out. Julie would not, in fact, have guessed what he was trying to say if Ted hadn't sent a text while they were stopped and watching it chug by.

Party Hat

Joe and Clara both have hooded bath towels with coordinating wash cloths, both of which have their names embroidered on them. It is perhaps because the wash cloths are just the right size for little hands that Joe is fond of carting them about. Whatever the reason, sometimes, they are worn on the head, and when they are, they are referred to as "party hats." (We understand party hats were featured at at least one of the birthday parties in the rash of spring birthdays at KinderCare. We trust those party hats were not terry cloth.)** Here, Saturday, Julie was making cookies when Joe appeared and instructed her to don a party hat. (Raleigh was denied this honor.)

**Co-editor's note: "Party hat" was first noted by Joe when he saw himself in the mirror after bath one day and noticed the hood on the towel was in a little point on top of his head. He dreamed up the idea of using the coordinating (and within reach) wash cloths for party hats all on his own.