The Purple Lady Bug Bandit Strikes Again!

Birdie's top, front, her-left, outer tooth has been coming in, and she has, to add insult to injury, had some awful diaper rash. So it was perhaps not surprising today that at pick-up today, we found her with her favorite, trusty purple ladybug teether (which longtime readers will no doubt remember Birdie absconded with once before*), which she could not be persuaded to abandon. Miss Steph said Birdie could take it home with her.

*http://joeandclara.blogspot.com/2011/05/purple-lady-bug-bandit-gets-tooth.html

An Underwear and Potty Update

Fans, we have been meaning to update you on the underwear and potty front. We are pleased to report that Joe has been accident free--during the day, and at night!--for some time now. We had no hopes, let alone expectations, with respect to the night, and then had two nights in a row after which Joe woke up dry. So we asked him if he'd like to wear underwear to bed, and he said yes. So underwear it was. He had accidents the first two nights. Thereafter, he went through this spurt where, in addition to stripping off his pajamas, he also stripped off his underwear. Some nights we saw some really debauched rock 'n' roller nocturnal poses! Other nights, we would find he'd made a trip to the diaper drawer to cart a few diapers back to his bed. Then, he stopped stripping off his underwear, and stopped making trips to the diaper drawer, and he's been dry in the mornings for at least a week now.

During the day, he's totally self-sufficient when it comes to this potty business. He may announce that he has to go, or he may not. Either way, off he goes when he has to go. He sits to poop and stands to pee. When he stands to pee, he pitches himself forward and grasps the flipped up seat with both hands. Then he pushes off and climbs on down.

When he's out and about, if a low urinal is available, he will avail himself of it. Ted informs this author that Joe has informed Ted that he "pees on the pink thing." Indeed. This author has not seen such sights, but has heard tell of them, and can tell you that is particularly thrilling to hear tell of such sights from her three year old because of all it represents--i.e. increased independence and advanced hygiene. These days, we are known to discuss with the parents of other little people, the relative merits of public bathrooms (Whole Foods, good; Yum!, surprisingly not child-friendly--no stool, an industrial kitchen cart that's meant to be a changing table--we think? really, Yum!?), and, in the case of our fellow parents-of-the-recently-potty-trained-that-are-boys, where the urinals for little people are to be found. We can also report that Joe knows when to hold it. When at Lake Calhoun recently, Joe reported he had to use the potty, Ted took him off to the port-a-potty. Joe took one look at the delights inside, and said no.

The only hiccups are that he sometimes puts his underwear back on backwards, and he's not always through when wiping after pooping. At home at least, he knows to call for someone to help. We have also had a clogged toilet twice as our newest potty user learns the appropriate amount of toilet paper to use. We'll take it.

THREE!

Fans. Our Hero has turned three. Another year--and another party--in the bag. The party was a rager. Here's the backyard at party's end, after some picking up had occurred.

"What in the world are those things?!" you say? Oh, Readers. Dear Readers. We must go back to when we woke up, and saw that there was a 60% chance of nothing good--rain, "severe weather," hail. . .So yes, we panicked, and headed to the general merchandise mecca, Target, where we procured two, 10' x 10' "gazebos" that were on clearance. It took Ted two hours to put up the first one; an hour for the second. Julie's dad arrived somewhere toward the end of the construction of the first and so was able to lend a hand from there on out. Good thing, since the Birthday Boy was helping build the first, at first, and as you might thinking, he brought a lot of enthusiasm to the task, but not much else.

Naturally, since we prepared for rain, not a drop fell. It was, however, plenty hot, and plenty humid. Luckily, there was a breeze from time to time, and plenty of cool drinks. All the toddlers mainlined juice boxes, which is perhaps how it came to be that they closed the party down by toting--with great glee and industriousness--ice and water from the beverage tubs from the backyard to the front yard in sand molds and buckets.

Joe's cake had a whale on it this year, in honor of the whale pool. The party's funniest moment came when all were gathered round to serenade Joe, and Ted was just about to put the candle in the cake, when Joe's friend from school, Sophie, stuck her hand right in the middle of the whale. Hilarious, Fans. Hilarious! And that's right where we put the candle.

Clara kept cool and charmed in her romper. Her (and Joe's) Great Great Aunts Shirley, Muriel, and Nyla* were in attendance, and Clara made a big splash when she pulled herself up from the blanket on which she'd been playing and walked--no hands!--over to Julie who was sitting catching up with them.

There were lots of presents. Our Hero kept this fact--and the cake--top of mind. He was set to open the presents after the last of the guests had left, but by that time, Ted had dashed across the river to collect Berenice from doggie camp, and it was very nearly bath time. We are used to the presents barely being registered and so did not allot time for Our Hero to open them!** Lips may have trembled. But how proud was Julie when, in the course of negotiations, she said we just had to wait to open them until the next day because Daddy wasn't home and he would be so sad to miss the opening of the birthday presents, Joe promptly replied, "O-kay." Still, Joe was pushing to open presents when Ted got home that night, this whole "almost bath time" line of argument holding no sway whatsoever with him. In the end, Our Hero made his way to bath and into his pajamas, and we had "Present Breakfast" this morning. (Success in this endeavor was probably due, in no small measure to the coming of Emily, from across the alley, to babysit while Julie and Ted went out for a quick dinner with Julie's parents. Emily, and her older sister Sara, are celebrities to Joe. If told one or both are arriving to read stories with him and put him to bed, and in pajamas he must be, then in pajamas he will be.)

And so. Three. Three! We can hardly believe it. . .

*These are Julie's maternal grandfather's three sisters.

**Lesson learned.

A Fourth of July (and Clara's First!) Wagon Ride

And then we were off for a wagon ride about the neighborhood, proudly flying Old Glory. Two Old Glories. Julie had picked up some flags at Target, thinking of that parade. Ted stuck them in the pots out front where they lasted about two minutes before being plucked out by Our Hero who thereafter was never long separated from his newest treasures.

This wagon ride was, actually, Clara's first! Naturally, she made like she'd been doing it all her little fourteen months. She's a huge fan of sipping a drink as you go, and she navigated the cup holders like it wasn't no thing. Up, down, yup, thanks, got it!

Hey Daddy You're So Fine!

We'd planned to go a Fourth of July parade in Hopkins, a town over from St. Louis Park, but Joe woke up late from his nap. Clara did, too, since she stayed up yammering to Pink Dog, and so fell asleep late. So by the time everyone was up and snacked, we decided we'd tool around the neighborhood in the wagon tricked out with flags and kick around the yard and the whale pool. But first, we did a little project that was in need of doing. After all, nothing says three day weekend like a little home improvement project.

For some time now, Julie has been wanting to hang some more pictures of the bambini in the bambini's room. The week before last, she finally ordered the pictures, and gathered up the frames she'd need to make the groupings she had planned. Ted is a real American hero because he hung seven pictures while everyone, except Berenice*, was crammed into the bambini's room, "helping." He really was awfully good humored about it all. The real high points were probably when Joe climbed up on to the changing table using his stool and put "sun screen" (read: lotion) on at a rate of one pump per limb, plus one pump for each foot, and also when Joe asked Julie if she could sing the Neaky song. Julie said she didn't know the Neaky song, but then busted out "Hey, Neaky, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Neaky! Hey, Neaky!" to the tune of Hey Mickey. To get the full flavor of this moment, Fans, you have to know that Julie was dancing around in her bathing suit, Clara was standing in hers flapping her arms away, Ted was banging the hammer at the clap moment in the song, and Joe was, by this point, parading around in Clara's pajama bottoms (which he donned while reciting a good portion of Pajama Time from memory!).

Yes, we do the Fourth up right, here at Raleigh House.

Longtime readers will perhaps remember that Our Hero was, for a long time, fond of kicking the wall by his bed at night. It's been a while since he's given the wall what for. But we should mention that, nevertheless, he has been sternly admonished that he cannot kick the wall now that it has pictures hung on it. Or touch the pictures. He did that once, with the picture over his bed. It moved on him and wails ensued so he didn't do that again. Kicks McGee must have been pretty tuckered out tonight though because he fell asleep pretty quickly.

*Amazing, we know. Usually, we like to cram ourselves into the same four square feet of space. (We're still waiting to find whatever she was into while this was all going down.)