When Clara Works a Puzzle

We have been meaning to report that as with shape sorting, Clara is pretty good at puzzle. By pretty good, we mean she treats it like a de facto matching game: after Ted or Julie has removed all of the pieces, she'll grab one and slap it down over where it goes and then look at whomever is "playing" with her all, "My work here is done." There is no fitting of the pieces into their homes as of yet.* "Details," Birdie would say.

*Clara may have had an assist from Julie for the pieces that have been slid home in this picture.

Cupcake Day!

As we head out of KinderCare each night, Joe will often ask if it's a cupcake day. The inaugural Cupcake Day was the first day he peed on the potty at KinderCare; the second was when he pooped on the potty there. Naturally Joe feels that if he has peed or pooped on the potty, it is a cupcake day, and you really must admit, there is a fine logic at work there. Nevertheless, we have tried to explain (in vain it would seem) that cupcakes do not immediately flow from peeing and pooping on the potty, and nevertheless, Our Hero persists.

Certain of our Fans will know that Julie is herself a fan--an absolute staunch supporter of, firm believer in, and avid advocate of--the pick-me-up treat. And so today, since she was all in a snarl after the commute back across the river, she decided that yes, yes it was in fact a cupcake day. So she took Joe and Birdie to Yum! where Joe selected a cupcake for himself and for Clara. Though Clara is given only about a fourth of these monsters, she gets her own so Joe does not even have to contemplate sharing, as that is anathema to the whole spirit of a Cupcake Day and a pick-me-up treat. (Having said this, Julie will acknowledge that if Ted would like to share the slice of coconut cake she got, she will acquiesce. But she will not offer it up.)

In the Big Girl Room | The Transition Begins

Bird Brigade, just look at Our Birdie motor along. Look at her motor!* Though she is not the Big bird, she is a big Bird. Not surprisingly, she took the big girl room by storm today. We are told that she went over to the toddler room with nary a tear. She sat right down for group time, and when the group broke to line up to go outside, she just followed the crowd and lined on up. She apparently LOVED being outside with the big kids. After outside time, she went right back to her familiar infant room for the rest of the day all smiles. We have such a clear picture of this. Our Birdie. . .she just enjoys the ride.

*Keen-eyed observers will note Joe in the background getting busy with the scissors.

In the Driver's Seat

Fans, as you know, Our Hero likes to sit in the driver's seat, both metaphorically (he is, after all, three, and literally. Most night, when we arrive home, Joe will pipe up for the backseat: "Can I drive?" Tonight, while Julie was making sure Clara didn't take a header down the steps midway up the front walkway, Joe got into the glove compartment. There, he found the scissors Julie stashes for emergencies, and trips to the post office (handier when the roll of packaging tape she usually also keeps there hasn't been confiscated by the other adult in the house who probably wondered why his wackadoodle wife was keeping packing tape in the car--and just why does she send so many packages anyways?????), as well as some KinderCare forms verifying that he and Birdie had been vaccinated in accordance with state laws that had yet to be delivered. He also got into the CDs. In this clip, you can see that we have been trying to teach him where he lives. It's tricky because of our practice of naming our dogs after the streets on which we live. So he's just now getting that we live on Raleigh Avenue, and that Raleigh-is-in-dog-heaven is a separate and only tangentially related concept. But, he's headed to Minnesota Fans, and ain't nobody gonna stop him.

Birdie O

Here is a word that our Birdie definitely, definitely knows: sunglasses. When she is in her car seat (still rear facing), but hears the click of the arms of Julie's sunglasses hitting the rims of the lenses, she cranes her head around, tosses her hand up, and grunts for all she's worth until the sunglasses are relinquished to her. She will wail if necessary. If she turns to look at Julie and sees the sunglasses perched on top of Julie's head, same thing. If she is picked up and Julie is wearing sunglasses, they will be plucked from her head immediately. Tonight, while Julie was outside with Joe and Clara while Ted made the bambini's dinner, and Julie asked Clara if she would like to wear sunglasses, Clara immediately looked up from the sidewalk she'd been tromping up and down, and pointed to Julie's head. Da (read: duh). The sunglasses you see here were long Julie's favorite as they had a sort of Jackie O big bug flair. But they have become Clara's after she was toting them up and down the walk one night and, while climbing the stairs, had to catch herself and ground the lens into the pavement. So a Little Birdie O is born! (Big Birdie O is currently actively searching for replacement Big Birdie O shades.)