Can You Wipe My Butt?????

As we have reported here before, Joe is pretty self-sufficient when it comes to getting his potty business done. But, he is only three after all, and your three-year-old arm is not really long enough to ensure that an adequate job will be done in the wiping department after pooping. So Joe has learned to give it a go himself and since this usually means taking a wad of toilet paper (usually too small) and half-heartedly swiping it in the generally vicinity of his bottom, he has also learned to ask for assistance. This means that at various times, one can hear, "Daddy [or Mommy], can you wipe my butt?" ring out.

Fans, it's hard not to laugh.

Tonight though, it was especially hard not to laugh when, just as Julie had settled into the chair with Clara to read stories, she heard Joe cry out, "Daddy, can you wipe my butt?" to Ted, who was in the basement. Clearly, he was in the midst of something, and while it didn't take him long to get upstairs, it was clear that Joe didn't quite hear Ted who kept calling that he was on his way, and so kept saying, "Daddy, can you wipe my butt?" with increasing urgency, frequency, and volume.

India Food!

This morning, Julie had a mango yogurt. Joe saw the picture of the mango on the front and commented that it looked like a waffle. Julie explained that it was a mango, and that it was common for mangos to be sliced in half, the flesh scored, and then sort of flipped out of the skin. Sensing this was perhaps a bit more than Joe had bargained for, she tried a different conversational gambit:

Julie: "You know where they eat a lot of mangos?"

Joe looks at her solemnly.

Julie: "In India! Where Ms. Manisha is from!"

Joe (with mounting excitement): "You know what they have in India?"

Julie looks at him solemnly.

Joe: "FOOD!"

Joe: "Called India food!"

The Secret Life of Birdie

We had our first "parent-teacher conference" with Clara's toddler room teachers yesterday, too. Well, Julie had it with Ms. Lisa. Ted stayed home to make sure the bambini didn't burn the place down, and we suppose it was Ms. Lisa's turn to do the conferences. In any case, Julie learned that three months in, Clara is now comfortable with the room's routines. Birdie reportedly loves washing her hands. They cannot quote get her out of the sink end quote. She is also, reportedly, very neat. If she drops food on the floor when she's eating, Our Clara stops everything, gets out of her chair, and picks it up. Apparently, she likes to play with the kitchen items (the dishes especially; the yellow cup is her favorite), the books, and the baby dolls. She is also quite the dancer, as we knew.

So Clara, too, now really has her own little world that she navigates without our help. We remember when we realized that Joe was enacting a veritable Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Joe Ekkers?!) every day at KinderCare. Amazing! It shouldn't be, but somehow, it is. So it is with some relish that Julie settled into one of the little chairs last night and asked her two questions: "What is Clara's favorite thing to play with?" and the more open ended "What does she do all day?"

Birdie's First Sentence

As you know, Brigade, Birdie has been spouting new words right and left, and saying old words with increasing frequency (tonight, she proudly pointed to all the boats on the boat page in Things That Go: "Boat!" "Boat!" "Boat!". . .), but yesterday was a red letter day. Yesterday, Birdie strung two words together. In other words, Birdie spoke her first sentence! We were making our way out the door, and it seemed like Julie wasn't going because she was still gathering up her hat and arm warmers (when you live in Minnesota, your winter wear knows no bounds), so from the bottom of the stoop, Birdie looked back and said, "Bye-bye, Mommy!"

Paging Dr. Ekkers

Joe's mind was blown the other day when he said he was a doctor and Ted replied "Did you know Grandpa Tom is a doctor?" He stared at Ted and then walked away. So when we saw a doctor's halloween costume on 75% clearance we snatched it up. Tonight Joe discovered it in his dress up clothes bucket in the new basement play area, so here we have Joe as the next Dr. Ekkers in the family.