Can you bring Clara a toy?

While I was preparing lunch Clara was alone in the living room on her mat (checked on regularly). I asked Joe to go and bring Clara a toy to play with. This was his execution - all the toys he could find. From the kitchen I kept hearing jingle bells, crinkle paper, rattles and other baby toy noises. I walked in to Joe emptying his big red bucket of balls on top of the pile. Clara loved it though, lots of things for her to explore!

What the boy eats

This is Joe's breakfast every day except Sundays when we make pancakes. He has Honey nut Cheerios and Chocolate (aka "Brown") Cheerios in seperate bowls (the same bowls every day). He now often requests water, milk, and juice - in various types of cups. He needs at least a spoon and a fork, here he has an additional spoon. This then keeps him occupied for about 15 minutes while I shower. Upon my return from the shower he will often exclaim, "I eat it all up!"

Delivering a letter

I can report that the rest of the day with Joe at home also went very well. Amazing what antibiotics and Motrin coursing through a little one's body can do for his spirits. Joe helped Daddy make banana bread, this time stirring the batter all by himself. We washed dishes together, and then read some books. When the bread was done, in went the pizza! I turned the light on for him to gaze into the oven and watch his pizza cook. After lunch of pizza (barely a bite) and banana bread (polished off) Joe was off to nap. While he was alseep I got the mail and noticed we had a letter that belonged to a neighbor. So upon Joe's awakening, we had this exchange:

Ted: Joe, do you want to go for a wagon ride?

Joe: Yeah

Ted: Good, I have to bring a letter to a neighbor's house, so we can take the wagon.

Joe: We bring a A?

Ted: Sure Joe, we can bring an A.

Joe: Not a W.

Ted: OK, Joe. Not a W.

You can see him at the fridge getting his A. Fortunately he forgot about this when we actually got to the neighbor's house and I left the mail for them. After our wagon ride, we quickly raked most of the yard because we are due for a couple inches of snow tomorrow... sigh.

The Latest News From the Front

Pneumonia Siege, Raleigh House, Day 90: so Fans, here we are. Still. When we woke up, Birdie was still on the up and up. But Our Hero had a temperature of 103. Ted had a meeting this morning, so headed out with Bird, via KinderCare for drop off, and Julie and Joe have had all kinds of adventures. And it's only 8:12am! We have taken out half of the books from one shelf and read them all, transferring them from one pile to another. Then, we played a new game called "Sleep." In Sleep, Mommy flops down and makes like she's going to sleep and then pops up with a scream! AHHHHH!!!!! Today, Julie thinks Sleep would be the best game ever if it didn't include the pop up and scream part. We played Sleep on the couch, and then we played Sleep on the Big Boy Bed. Then, we headed upstairs where we read the books on the Big Bed leftover from when Julie read to Clara this morning. Joe then requested Jamberries (Jamberry) and we read that before Joe started eating all the berries in it (oddly, we did not play Sleep on the Big Bed). Julie told Joe that when he was older, and we had Sick Days, maybe we would both read our books to ourselves in the Big Bed. Not that this isn't the toppy top! She hastened to add. But won't that be sort of the best? Except for the being sick part? In any case Fans, one can tell that despite the high fever, Our Hero is on the mend as he has had not one tantrum this morning. The second picture you see here is what Julie allowed Joe to do so she could send this report in from the front--namely, take out the contents of her bag. Now THAT is the toppy top. (He just found all the pens.)

Bird on the Wing

Miss Melissa reported at pick up that Clara was back to her usual self today. By usual self, Miss Melissa meant Clara trying valiantly, constantly, to get herself under the table in her room. Here you can see that her ready ray-of-sunshine smile is back, just there, underneath the plastic keys. One Bird on the wing, one Hero to go.