Where Is Birdie's Belly Button?

Fans, Our Birdie is a hoot. She will select what books she would like to read before bed, thank you very much, and will dispense with suggestions to which she is not amenable with a a rapid succession of "no, no, no, no"-s which we will endeavor to catch on video for full effect and posterity. She punctuates them with head shaking and hand waving. For now, you'll have to use your imagination. Tonight, the books she selected were Peekaboo Baby (first appearance in months); Toes, Ears, and Nose!, and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. During this last, she beat her little hand against her leg in time to the dum-ditty-dums, and also made the fiddling motion on the "Hands play fiddles zum, zum, zum!" line, just like Julie. Birdie generally likes anything with a beat. (Rejected this evening: Bright Baby's First 100 Words, Goodnight Moon, The Rain Train.)

Toes, Ears, Nose! is a sort of a companion volume to the modern day baby and toddler classic Where Is Baby's Belly Button?, by the same author. TEN! features more body parts than WIBB? and Clara has been all about the body part identification lately. Tonight, cheeks were introduced. Sounds a lot like teeth, apparently, to Birdie. Here she is this past weekend, showing off her skills.

I Wanna Be Just Like You

We have mentioned here, surely, that Joe is the absolute apple of Birdie's eye. Reportedly, on picture day, when Joe was escorted to Clara's room to collect the Bird, she was over to him like a rocket. The next day, when Joe passed by her room and pressed his face against the glass before moving along, Birdie burst into torrents of tears because she couldn't go with her big bro. At home, Birdie is fond of trying to get her big brother's attention by snatching whatever he is playing with and tearing off so he will chase her (100% success rate; 50% success rate with real tears from Joe; 50% success rate with fake tears from Joe). If Joe is doing it, Birdie must be doing it and if Birdie is doing it, well, she'd really like Joe to do it, too. (See if you can guess what this week's craze in the morning is.)

This last results in rather a lot of mealtime shenanigans: utensil banging, table top banging (with hands), utensils in and out of the cup, one-handed cup pick-up with hand stretched across the top attempts, placement of yogurt cups in the drinking cup, plate banging, weird noise making, weird face making, and more (with banging, if possible). With respect to the shenanigans, typically one warning is issued, and then one of three things happens:

1. Joe stops, and Clara sallies forth again hoping to engage Joe again and Clara's food, drink, utensils, or all three things are removed, as appropriate and tears ensue. (On such occasions, Joe will sometimes tell Clara something she has been doing is "inappropriate." Oh if only the kettle could tell the pot a thing or two, right?!)

2. Clara stops, and Joe begins again hoping to goad Clara into the fun and Joe's food, drink, utensils, or all three things are removed, as appropriate and wails ensue.

3. They both stop, and then either both begin again or at any rate, a cacophony ensues because both are doing something "inappropriate," and the Powers That Be issue a Royal Edict that Mealtime Is Over, and wails ensue in stereo.

The upside, of course, is that these antics are surely the foundation for the time when Joe and Clara will gang up on us, and though we do not wish to be at their mercy forever, we suspect we may be. In any case, it will not be altogether bad that they are a gang. After all, we do rather hope that they have each others' backs as they get on, and if one day, one of them again needs a spoon to bang, the other will be there with it.

SANTA!

Well, it's December, and after more warm-for-fall days than we have any right to expect up here in the Great White North, we have a coating of snow on the ground and temperatures befitting December. We also have holiday lights up about the neighborhood. We like to point out all the holiday lights we pass in the neighborhood on the way to Raleigh House. On Monday night, shortly before we reached home, Joe drew in a huge breath and burst out with, "SANTA!" (Our neighbor on the corner has one of those inflatable, nylon Santa's that's lit form the inside.) We explained that the Santa lived at the North Pole, but that he looked just like this decorative Santa, and Our Christmas-Loving Hero seemed to take that in stride.

We Don't Fly In The House

Words to live by, Fans. Words to live by. We have been dispensing with flies right and left--fruit flies, stowaways in a bag of late season apples. By the time we figured it out, 50 of them had probably had 50 babies. Last night, as Julie and Joe were hanging up Joe's towel after his bath, one buzzed into the bathroom. Julie quickly shuffled Joe into the bathroom, closed the door, and set to stalking the pest with a Kleenex box. On the inside, she was wondering what Joe's little developing, wondering mind was making of this scene. He didn't leave her wondering long. After Julie had whacked the fly when it landed on the mirror, she said, "A ha!" Joe giggled and said, "We don't fly in the house. We got to walk." Indeed., Fans, indeed.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Julie has learned that The Lion King CD with which Joe has become acquainted is strictly a musical CD, that Ms. Kristin plays during lunch. Ms. Kristin reports that Joe and his cohorts are intensely interested in good lions and naughty lions. She reports also that each week, she checks out a book or two from the library on CD, in addition to those she checks out in (can it be?!) "old school" paper style.

This past weekend, Julie and the bambini were at the library picking up a book that Julie had requested from another branch, when Joe spied a turn style of books on CD in the children's section. "MOMMY! MOMMY" After Julie reminded Joe to use his inside (and inside Minnesota; no doubt he could have been heard in at least Wisconsin) voice, she allowed that he could select one book on CD. Joe selected The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Upon arriving at home, he sat with the book facing out, teacher-style. (It was as precious as the picture you have in your minds, Fans.) Julie told him since it was just the two of them (and sometimes Clara) looking at the pages, he could hold the book in his lap. When one is meant to turn the page, one is cued by a billy goat "MAAAAA!!!!!" Our Hero listened with rapt attention for the "MAAAAA!!!!!" Ms. Kristin reports that all the kids in her room do the same and are quick to pounce when she does not turn the page. We have a vivid mental image of this as well. After all, three year-olds are on it, like white on rice, when they want to be.

Joe has brought The Three Billy Goats Gruff to school the past two days to share with his friends. MAAAAA!!!!!