Feet!

Clara's daily doings report from today said, "Today I. . .had fun exploring my feet! Clara got to take her shoes off and feel the cold floor. Then we painted her feet with brown paint to make foot prints. She crunched up her nose and her toes because it tickled so much. :)" Then, tonight, after Julie had put Clara down for the night and was reaching for the door to the bambini's room to close it behind her, she heard, "Feet?!" And there was Birdie, just as Julie captured here a moment later, grinning like all get out, holding her feet.

Birdie! Boom!

Brigade, Our Birdie is, more and more, every day, her own little creature. Traffic was just crawling this evening, so it took Julie seemingly forever and a day to reach Ted, let alone the KinderCare. We arrived at six, and found Clara in her teacher Ms. Lisa's lap (in the signature pose--was there ever a doubt, Birdie Brigade?), looking--there is really only one word for it--morose. She fades fast at the end of the day, and she is HUNGRY! She leaped up when we appeared in the door and made a beeline for. . .her coat! She was bouncing on her little knees, grunting, hanging on the coat, all "I am Audi folks. My ride's here. Check ya."

Once we had Joe, and were all loaded back into the car, we headed for home. Joe learned the word "traffic" when he asked if we could drive faster. Later, he requested a book. As you know, Dear and Loyal Readers, it is our fervent hope to raise Joe and Clara up as dorks. Lovable dorks. But dorks nonetheless. As this is our hope, and we ourselves are fine dork stock (if we do say so ourselves), we do always have a book or two in the car. So we broke out "First Words" which opens of a pictures of a Girl ("Like Clara and Mommy!") and a Boy ("Like Joe and Daddy!"), and Brigade, wouldn't you know, Our Birdie, upon hearing and seeing "Girl," was all boom! with her finger, pointed right to herself, and then to her pants, and then to her socks and shoes, in turn. This morning, we exclaimed over a yellow pick-up truck and a big rig we passed on our way to school, and there, too, Birdie was "boom!" with the finger. Picture a very sharp and precise extension of the arm with one little finger most deliberately extended and you've got the "boom!" Birdie point.

In short, she is totally catching on to just everything--this includes, we have been wanting to mention, catsup, into which she will dip her chicken nuggets and the like, just like Our Hero. Who knew?!

Speaking of Itching. . .

Today was Joe's first day in his new pre-school room, Pre-A, as it's know at the KinderCare. (Longtime readers will perhaps recall that confusingly, Pre-A, follows Pre-C.) Joe's teacher is Ms. Kristin, who told us that Joe spent the day reviewing some class rules with his friends, and that he and his friends learned about each other in accordance with their two-week theme, "All About Me!" They practiced using full sentences as they got to know new things about each other. They also marched around the room singing The Ants Go Marching. And you think you've had a busy day!

When we arrived to pick Joe and Clara up, we learned that there had been one reported case of everyone's favorite--absolutely favorite!--childhood and school days pest: lice. So besides collecting Joe, we also collected his blanket and jacket which are currently being washed in hot water.

Signs of Fall

Fans, you will no doubt notice two things about these pictures:

1. Birdie is sporting a bird hat that is too cute for words. This hat comes to Clara courtesy of Kendra who happened upon it while in the Pittsburgh airport recently. What you cannot see is that inside, it is lined with a bird be-decked fabric. (As if the green pom-poms weren't enough!) Birdie is fond of taking the hat off her head, but she knows that a hat goes on a head. We know because she will point to her head whenever a hat comes up. Generally, she's got all the heading-out-the-door accoutrements down. You know more begin to say shoes than she is on it! She collects her shoes, she gathers her coat, she grabs the hat. Once outside, she will man the steps in the middle of the walkway herself, thanks. She plops right down and scoots on down, one, two, three. She is a model of efficiency in the morning.

2. Birdie and Joe are in fleeces and Joe is sporting long pants. It's true. Fall is upon us here in the Great White North. This makes for some of our loveliest weather--chilly-get-yourself-a-warm-beverage mornings, cool-sleep-with-the-windows-open evenings, and temperate-walk-to-lunch afternoon. Joe is also sporting his fall kicks. (Mainly this is because his sandals possess a horrific stench. They remain in our home in case we still have a warm day or two, but Julie is itching--itching!--to throw them away.)

You're a Bagel, Poopyhead!

Sometimes, after Julie reads Joe books, she chit chats with Joe. Sometimes, it's because she has something specific she wants to talk to him about. Such was the case tonight, when she wanted to rediscuss why we do not call anyone, especially our sister, a poopyhead. It was bound to happen, given the currency of poopyhead right now at the KinderCare, and the fact that Our Hero is, after all, three.* When we went into their room after nap, Joe was gleefully calling Clara a bagel. Yes, Fans. You read that right: a bagel. The bagel label was reprised at dinnertime and followed by a quiet, sort of experimental poopyhead. It was so soft that Julie almost didn't hear it and so when she said, "What did you say?" she half meant it literally. Ted was at the table though and between his response and Joe's immediate shrinking into himself, Julie deduced that he had in fact called Clara a poopyhead.

So we reviewed why we do not call others poopyheads, especially our sister, which we are very lucky to have. Joe admitted that he did not want anyone to call him a poopyhead. Julie said if that happened, he should ignore it, figuring it is never too soon to teach the "be a bigger man" lesson. But it is, admittedly, a tough lesson when one's little man is so little.

After the Poopyhead Summit though, Julie asked Joe what his favorite color was, and his favorite animal, and his favorite thing to eat. The answers were blue and purple, a giraffe (because it's big), and chicken nuggets (revised to chicken nuggets a birthday cake after we called up to Ted to ask him what his favorite food was, and he said cookies, to which Julie said her favorite food--if we were going in that vein--was birthday cake). He delivered these answers while bouncing around the sofa, periodically saying, "Who do you think you are?! Queen of the Trampoline?!" (from Olivia), and "Are you kidding me?!", this last, also apparently, all the rage at the KinderCare.

We are not kidding you, Dear Bagels, about any of this.

*"As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs

an sauntered off the beaches into forests

working up some irregular verbs for their

first conversation, so three-year-old children

enter the phase of name calling."

From Child Development by Billy Collins. The same port who brought you the snippet from the August 15 post, Late Summer, Early Evening.