Ballerina Bird?

After the post-State Fair nap, the boys headed off to Whole Foods while the Birds stayed home and folded the week's laundry. Birdie was initially sashaying about in her skirt sans top (which had gotten covered in catsup at the fair) looking, Julie thought, every bit the dancer. It was largely to do with the skirt, but still, Birdie will sometimes place her leg out in such a way that she looks like she's doing a kind of barre work. She is, moreover, as we have written here, very, very confident with respect to what her body is capable of; moves with lots of assurance; and seldom falls.

After the Julie had folded some of the laundry, and Birdie had gotten tired of watching that and dragging her blankets on the floor, the Birds headed inside where Birdie wanted to read some books on the couch. As we have recorded here, Birdie likes to pick out the books read to her, so she was sliding down off the couch to gather a new tome as Julie finished each previous book. Birdie does not turn and back off a piece of furniture, reaching for the floor with her feet. Instead, she makes to get off just as an adult would, reaching for the floor a bit with her feet as she goes, but clearly only to compensate for her height. Julie kept reaching out to help Clara, and Clara kept looking at Julie sort of bemused as if to say, "Mom. No worries. I got this."

So often Julie looks at Clara, and at Joe, and thinks already, we can see so much of who they are, and she always wonders what they will do in life, what they will be.

Clara and John Deere | A Story in Pictures

The keys are in the ignition, right?

"She left the suds in the bucket and the clothes hangin' out on the line."

sissy cab

Could Not Be More Darling, fig. 1

Signature Pose

Our State Fair is the Best State Fair

Saturday we headed across the river to the fairgrounds, "Where Minnesota Gets Together!" We kicked off State Fair 2011 with a mocha on a stick and, thus fortified, we headed for the animal barns via the DNR Fish of Minnesota pond. (That's the Department of Natural Resources fish pond to you non-natives. When you live in a state like Minnesota, where the local public radio station has like, three weather people on staff; a special weather report on Fridays; and boating, fishing, and hunting news is often reported in the top half of the hour during these seasons, you get to know your DNR acronym.)


First up was the pig barn because really, you can't walk about the fair without some funny animal headgear. (Cabela's--all things sporting and hunting emporium--was giving away headgear with big fish on either side.) Pig ears procured, we motored on.

Now Fans, if you want to wake yourself up, what you need to do is make sure you visit the chicken barn before 8am. In a word: LOUD. Cock-a-doodle DO! We made the rounds of all the barns except the horse barn, in which Our Hero expressed no interest.

Maybe we should have pressed it because he also initially expressed no interest in stopping to check out the John Deere equipment before getting into the spirit of it all. Birdie, on the other hand, was all, "Who is this John Deere, and am I old enough to date? Because JD has some pretty sweet rides." We spent a pretty long time checking out the tractors, front loaders, back hoe loaders, and lawn mowers. (While Clara was busy kicking the tires on a tractor with an enclosed cab, Julie overheard one man tell his lady companion that was the sort of tractor he wanted, "But without the sissy cab." His lady friend pointed out that the enclosed cab would allow him to work in air conditioned comfort. Apparently being smart and cool is the new sissy.)




From there, we made our way to a children's farm. We'd like to tell you what this all entailed, but so far as we could tell, it entailed a whole lot of waiting in line to walk through, for example, a silo. So even though Joe was all decked out in an apron, grasping his silver bucket, we made like the donning of the apron and gathering of the bucket was the attraction there and split for the food building where we had lunch before heading home.

Of Ear Infections, Sprinklers, and Running

Friday found us back at Dr. Harrington's office, as we had been thinking that Clara was still not acting her usual self after her course of Amoxicillin for the ear infection in her right ear. As before, Dr. Harrington had no more put the ear-look-y-in-y-scope in Clara's right ear, than Birdie wailed for all she was worth. Dr. Harrington pronounced Clara's ear "red and pussy;" in other words, still infected. So Bird is on the broader spectrum Augmenten, with which we are (and longtime Fans will be) familiar from Our Hero's ear infections travails. Augmenten is chalky tasting, and has the added bonus feature of increasing the likelihood of messy diapers.

When we got home, Ted had the sprinkler going, which provided a welcome and mesmerizing diversion for Julie and the bambini while Ted made the bambini's dinner. First though, we watched two UPS trucks scamper through the neighborhood making deliveries. (In this still shot, we should tell you that Joe is saying "Cheese delivery truck!")

Both Joe and Clara scampered in and out of the furthest reaches of the sprinkler, and so it was all very charming early evening and late summer fun when our neighbor across the street called hello and then dashed off. (Some of our fans will know that our neighbor is always "dashing." There is simply no other word for it. We have never actually seen her walking. She is always dashing. Often, she is flat out running.) This prompted Joe to say--towards the end of the video clip--"Why does she run?" This unprompted, but hugely observant question caused Julie and Ted to laugh silently, but uproariously.

Babar

While Clara was getting a bath, Julie and Joe were in the basement switching the laundry. Upon their return, Joe was carrying Babar who had previously been sitting on a basement shelf. Babar then got a tour of the upstairs where he wrestled on the bed with Ted and Joe, then he watched Joe do a puzzle with Julie before being carried into the bathroom to watch as Joe brushed his teeth and took a bath. To get the full experience, Joe decided Babar needed to put on underwear (stripey in the front!) and pj's. So here is our Hero with a Babar all ready for bed. Eventually Joe took back his underwear and pjs and the two went off to bed to join the rest of the zoo.