Moon to Moon

And in other late, late breaking news from this past weekend, we can report that Joe is pretty into the moon again, perhaps because Aunt Kate and Cousin Nick brought with them Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off To the Moon (which we have read every night since they arrived, and left). It could also be because Ms. Kristin has formally introduced the letter C to Joe and his Pre A cohort, and it has been noted that the letter C looks like a crescent (and, fittingly--in case this is lost on you Fans--crescent begins with a C!).

Anyway. One night, as stories before bed were wrapping up, Joe was about to dissolve into tears over something, leaving Julie frantically casting about for a suitable distraction, when she saw a perfect crescent moon outside the side window of the living room. She quickly pointed it out to Our Hero, who just as quickly had to find The Going to Bed Book (by Sandra Boynton), which features a crescent moon, so he could make the match, holding the book aloft toward the window, "moon to moon!"

J-O-E!

In other letter news, we can report that someone named Joe (with whom we happen to be friendly), is running for St. Louis Park School Board. This is Minnesota, a state in whose inhabitants, generally speaking, have deep affection for a yard sign and political bumper sticker.* So it is that there are signs sprinkled about the neighborhood, and indeed, one in our own front yard, with J-O-E on them. Our Hero was so excited at his first sighting of one of these jobbers that he could barely spit out J-O-E.

*The next time you are a visitor to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, take note, for example, of how many Wellstone! stickers you see as you drive about. It's a lot.

C-U-T-E-S-T | T-S-E-T-U-C

We could not let this week close without reporting on a moment from this past weekend. Before Saturday's music class, we again stopped by the Mill City Farmer's Market down the street from MacPahil . We were settled in at a table on the Gutherie's patio that was across and underneath the Gold Medal Flour sign on what is presumably one of its old mills, and Fans, if there is a letter about to identify, Our Hero is on it. He started pointing at the letters and reading them backwards in reverse sneaky-snake fashion--i.e. R-U-O-L-F-M-E-D-A-L-D-O-G, and then back again the other way such that working from the top down, gold and flour would be identifiable in isolation; and medal would be recognizable working from the bottom up. It is in this way that you can see that he's got the letters, but hasn't quite yet made the leap to words, unless it is one of which he has memorized the whole shape, like Joe. But the world is full of letters, and he really does have it by a string when he's doing up the letters.

This story, though, is also about Our Birdie. As we have reported here before, Birdie modus operandi is keep up with the big kids. So it wasn't long before she had her little arm and pointed finger extended up toward the Gold Medal Flour sign, bouncing it along in time to nondescript noises, that were clearly intended to be letters in 17-month-old-ese. Brigade, it was the C-U-T-E-S-T (and T-S-E-T-U-C).

Coloring With the Big Dogs

Fans, those of you who have been with us when we were Adventures With Joe will perhaps recall Joe's beloved Ms. Nicholle (who really did spell her name that way). Ms. Nicholle was one of the teachers in Joe's toddler room with whom he had the greatest of love affairs, and who wrote daily doings reports with a daily immediacy and heart that has yet to be equalled.

The reports of Birdie's daily doings, for example, are usually written in a kind of "just-the-facts-ma'am" format, with much made of what the class as a whole did, and little mention of how Clara figured in the milieu.

So it was exciting to read today's report about Birdie's day:

"Today I. . .had a very good day! Clara was so happy to be outside today. Her [sic] and her friend Lucas had fun going down the slide together and crawling under it too! At group time we learned about Earth. We read 'I Love My Earth.' We also used our number chart to count from 1 to 10. Then Clara colored a picture of Earth using a blue and green crayon. She loves to color!"

See?! So many revealing details! As to this last, we can report to you via our stringer in the field on Monday (a really great guy named Ted), that Clara does indeed love to color. Ted reported that when he arrived at school that evening with Clara to collect Joe, Clara was sort of hanging out by the door for a bit. Some of Joe's classmates ("the big kids") were coloring at a table. It wasn't long before Clara made her move. Ted said she walked over and sat herself down all, "I know what to do here, thanks." (He also reported that naturally all the big kids had to sort of sniff around and mark her paper. Big kids? Big dogs?)

Reunited!

Fans. Gorilla is BACK! We went to Whole Foods after nap, went to the service desk and explained our dilemma, and they riffled through a big crate of stuff, and at the bottom was a little gorilla! Clara grasped gorilla and we were outta there! With our spirits raised, and the temperature around 80 (shorts in October!), we headed for Wolfe Park to eat some animal crackers (sent to us in a box of presents from Grandpa Tom and Lynn!) and drink an icy drink from Starfox. After snack and playground time, we marched up the hill to collect Joe from school. Upon our arrival Joe was working on a puzzle*...and we all know how he loves his puzzles, so we waited until he was finished. Meanwhile, Clara saw the big kids sitting at a table coloring, so she sat herself down, grabbed a marker and piece of paper and colored away. The big kids weren't quite sure what to make of the rookie, but after a few very close inpsections and marking her page like a pack of dogs, they left her alone to color. After Joe was finished, we all headed home to have dinner and wait for mommy so we could tell her congratulations on her first day in her new (but temporary) role at work...and then to eat the promised cupcake to celebrate that very occasion! We thank Infant Motrin for this wonderful afternoon.

* The puzzle was "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh, and it looked pretty tricky!