The Party Rages On

Fans! We are back. Aunt Kate, Uncle Scott, and Cousin Nick were slated to leave Saturday to make the long drive back to Paoli, and with rain, thunderstorms, and the possibility of hail predicted for the whole day, we decided to head for home, too. We no sooner pulled out from the gas station, than the sky cracked open. It rained all the way to the Wisconsin-Minnesota border.

We are getting pictures from our trip to the lake house (and Clara's first trip outside of Minnesota!) together with color commentary to post soon. In the meantime, we can tell you that the party never stops at Raleigh House--literally. Here is Joe yesterday, pre-his-bath, and while Clara was bathing, hosting a party. (The underwear and diapers are presents. Duh.) The party was relocated to the living room, where we learned that Sheepie was turning five! At first, Teddy couldn't come because he kept falling over, but Julie fixed that and Teddy celebrated with cake* together with Sheepie, Neaky, the birdies, Mortimer the Moose, Pierre Le Peacock, and Octavius the Octopus. Joe informed us that there would be Skittles** all day long. He told us this several times.

*The cake was the blocks from the push-along lawn mower.

**Long-time readers will recall that Skittles was the reward of choice at KinderCare for success on the potty front.

To the Lake House!

Fans, today, we are headed across the border to Wisconsin, where we will spend a week with Aunt Kate, Uncle Scott, and Cousin Nick in a lake house we rented way, way back in September. When he woke up this morning, Joe asked if it was pajama day, and Julie said, "No, it's LAKE HOUSE DAY!" Joe, with mounting excitement in his voice, informed her that we would need to bring the Aquadoodle, and Quick Is Like a Cricket [sic]. Indeed, Fans, indeed. He refers to the small travel-sized Aquadoodle which he spied in the basement some moons ago, and has been patiently waiting to play with ever since, as well as Quick As a Cricket, which he had wanted to read before bed last night until Julie told him she'd packed it for the lake house.

A veritable flotilla of gear and sundries will be accompanying the travel-sized Aquadoodle, Quick Is Like a Cricket, and us, on this journey. (We are going to try to bring Birdie's sporty red roadster with us, but truthfully, we may have to tow it and see how the plastic tires handle the interstate.) Julie has also been cleaning so that we return home to a clean house.* Last night, she decided to quickly bang out the upstairs so as to not have to worry about it today. Joe was given a vacuum for his birthday by his Grandparents Trump so he helped out. What this thing makes up for in quality engineering (if it is banged too hard--and toddlers are not ones to bang their toys, oh no--the batteries dislodge and a parent must get a phillips head screw driver, remove the top of the battery compartment, and re-secure the batteries; it's fun for the whole family!), it makes up for in style as Joe has ceased to be quite so enamored of Mommy's vacuum. (It does actually pick up dirt. It is funneled into a compartment above that containing red and white beads that whir about when the vacuum is on.)

And so, Fans! We will see you on the flip! (As the saying goes here at Raleigh House.)

*This is perhaps important only to her.

Princess Mommy

And just when we swear we have been flat out driven up a flat out wall by our fabulous and fabulously maddening three-year-old son, Julie comes downstairs in the maxi dress she grabbed on a whim off the rack when we'd run to Target after nap, to ask Ted what he thought, and Joe turns around from his dinner and says, "You look goooood!"

And then: "Mommy, why are you a princess?"

Joe's Three-Year Well-Child Exam*

Joe paid a visit to his beloved Dr. Harrington Thursday for his three-year well-child exam. Now that he's three, he's a lot more clued into everything. So when Julie arrived to pick him up to go see Dr. Harrington, he promptly informed her he wasn't sick. After Julie had set him straight, he set Ms. Tyree and his friend Teddy straight: "I going to see Dr. Harrington. But I not sick! I be right back."

Joe's well-child exam revealed that Joe is well. He weighed in at 38 pounds (94%) and measured 38 1/2" (76%). His ear tubes have fallen out. They begin testing vision at three, and we are told Joe has 20/30 vision, and that this is within the normal range for this age. (This vision test was pretty hilarious. Instead of letters, the kid is asked to identify shapes--stars, hearts, circles, squares. Julie thinks Joe started saying "I don't know," when Nurse Amber asked him what a shape was when he got tired of this "game." He did, after all, have the lollipop and sticker that were to come at the end fixed firmly in his mind. Yes, much more clued into how this all works now.)

Joe has continued to express a preference for Ted to do certain things: climb on his bed in the morning for the morning snuggle-in, pour his two bowls of cereal, pour his juice, push in his chair to the table, and buckle and unbuckle his car seat. His objection to Julie doing them seems to be rooted in his expectation that Ted will do them, and that Julie will do other things (it is, according to Joe, Julie's job to lift Clara from her crib in the morning). If Ted is about, and Julie tries, tears are shed, wails are wailed, bodies are occasionally flung upon the ground and feet kicked. She continues on, but both Julie and Joe are heartbroken, albeit for different reasons. We have been careful to mix up who does what for whom, and to carve out one-on-one time with each of us for both Joe and Clara, so we were at a bit of a loss.

Dr. Harrington told Julie this was all normal, and that we were doing just right. When Julie managed to choke out that Joe once replied to Ted that "No, he did not love Mommy," Dr. Harrington laughed reassuringly and said, "Oh of course he did!" But confirmed that of course, he really has no idea what that means, beyond knowing it would probably get some kind of reaction.

And so we continue on, doing our best to get the snuggling done, the cereal and the juice poured, the chairs pushed in, the car seat buckled and unbuckled, poker faced, with sometimes teary eyes and exasperated spirits, but full hearts.

*We thought you, Dear Readers, might like to know that following the doctor's visit, when Julie took Joe for a cupcake at Yum!, Joe put pepper on his cupcake, and his lollipop. This one loves a pepper mill.

Yesterday

The day before yesterday, Joe used the word "yesterday" correctly for the first time. Prior to the day before yesterday, Joe cast everything in terms of last week, last summer, next week, or next summer--e.g. we would be going to the lake house last summer. But the day before yesterday, as he was sidling up to the breakfast table, he said that he would like apple cinnamon [Cheerios] and chocolate [again, Cheerios], "same as yesterday." Who knows what tomorrow will bring!