I Told You So

In still other Birdie news, she is all about letting us know when she needs a new diaper, especially when she has pooped, but also sometimes when she has peed. She will point to her nether regions (usually her little bum) and say either "Poop? Poop?" or "I-per? I-per?" The other night, she said, "Poop? Poop?" just before Ted took her diaper off, and then he did, there was nothing there--until a few moments later when she pooped! She was probably thinking, "I told you so."

Birdie Sings!

As we have written here before, Our Birdie is rather musical. If you listen to her sing, you can often pick out what she's singing in her own way. She can "sing" bits of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as well as scraps of Take Me Out to the Ball Game and a song Julie learned at camp whose chorus is "Ba um ba um ba bubblegum!" Birdie's latest is Old MacDonald: sometimes she will sing "e-i-o" over and over. It's not quite right, but it's quite charming.

Juice For Birdie

We have been meaning to report that Birdie has begun to drink juice with her breakfast in the morning. Wednesday morning last week, she just up and asked for "jew." It was sometime when Joe was in his toddler room at KinderCare that he was introduced to the wonder that is juice, and we suspect that Clara was accorded the same introduction in her toddler room. Although she is about to move from her toddler room to her "twos" room, her request nevertheless caught us off guard. Thus, we did not have the apple juice with 40% less sugar (making it taste less like juice and more like cardboard water--whatever that is, but you get the idea) on hand. So it was that Clara's crossed the Rubicon from the land of milk and water, to the land of milk, water, and juice with watered down cranberry juice.

The Night Before Last at Raleigh House

The night before last, Julie picked the bambini up at the KinderCare and, as last night, Joe walked out in tears, and for just the same reason. As we drove off, Clara was also in tears, Julie thinks because she did not pretend that Clara had done her car seat buckle all by herself to the extent that the illusion was complete for Birdie. Thus, in Birdie's mind, she'd not done the buckle all by herself.

Instead of hanging her head against the steering wheel, Julie cranked the radio up and began flipping around for something to sing along with, loudly. She happened upon Buffalo Springfield's Somethings Happening Here and she thought, "How apropos! A good old sixties fight-the-man! song is just what we need here!" (Less apparent was just whom The Man was: young people were speakin' their minds, but it is also fair to say that Julie was getting resistance from behind in the backseat.) There's even some solid clapping in that song, as some of our Loyal Readers may be aware, and we Raleigh Housers love us a good clappy or snappy song. Sound effects, motions, and dance moves are strongly encouraged. Joe whimpered nearly all the way home, but Julie happened to glance in the rearview mirror as she and the bambini waited at the long light, which is how she was able to see the top of Clara's head. Brigade, she may as well have been head banging. Julie's whole heart smiled at the sight, and at imagining the days when Clara might dance in the car with her mother (you know, the days that will precede those when Julie's car dancing and singing will no doubt make Birdie roll her eyes and slink down in her seat).

Later that night, Julie and Joe were reading books: Where the Wild Things Are, How Rocket Learned to Read, and Madeline (board book form). First, Fans, Julie opened WTWTA to the title page, put her finger on "where," and moved it across the words, and Joe read them. Now, maybe he's got it memorized, but it was still pretty cool, and he was still pretty proud. He also read the author's name. He continued reading along until we got to the pages with more than a few words on them.

By the time Julie and Joe had finished the book, Joe was laying next to Julie, on his belly, half on top of her, so Julie pulled him all the way up and after a few moments said, "You're always in my heart, Pal-o." That's when Joe picked his head up and said, "You're always in my heart." Oh, Fans.

So it's true that the train sometimes runs off the track quick as you can blink, but there are other moments when you think, "How--how--is it possible that Birdie is big enough to rock her little heart out, and Joe, to tell Julie she's always in his, and mean it?" You blink, and it's here, and gone.

[Picture taken later that same night. Joe and Neaky, nose to nose.]

Tonight at Raleigh House

Fans, as we have reported here before, there are days when the train clickety-clacks along the track, and then there are days when the train runs off the tracks. Today, or tonight anyway, was one of those days when the train ran off the track.

Ted had a work-related dinner to attend tonight, so Julie picked the bambini up. Since we've been back, Joe has been reticent at drop-off in the mornings, and ornery at pick-up in the evenings. Today was no exception. So it was that he walked out of KinderCare in tears because Julie would not zip up his coat for him, put on his hat or mittens for him, or stand next to him exactly where he indicated while he did these things. Still, Julie took the bambini to Yum for dinner, where we found Elise and Charlotte, and their mom, about to have dinner as well!

Things chugged along in an unremarkable fashion until bath time, when Clara insisted on standing up in the tub, which left Julie to insist that bath time was over. A few tears ensued but only a few as Joe and Clara evidently felt it was time for a round of screaming and running about naked like mad banshees. And why not?! It had been some time since they had pulled this stunt. During this time, Clara also attempted--unsuccessfully--to eat Berenice's dog food.

Dearest Readers, near and far, your eye may have skipped over the word "naked" above, but it is a critical word as it will indicate to you that Clara was not wearing a diaper. So it was that Clara pooped on the floor (whilst whipping up some cupcakes in the cupcake kitchen). Joe kindly alerted Julie to the circumstances.

Julie scooped Clara up and deposited Birdie in her crib to keep her from inadvertently prancing through the poop. Birdie, of course, did not understand this reasoning, and screamed like she'd been tossed into a vat of hot oil.

This was when Berenice was busy eating Clara's poop.

This was the real low point. (This probably goes without saying. And here you thought the low point was probably when Clara tried to eat dog food.)

Although Julie knows that eating poop is just something dogs do, she still screamed, "No, Berenice, no!" Julie also knows that Joe, in particular, will imitate just about everything his mother or father does, and so he also screamed, "No, Berenice, no!" at Boo, who was probably mystified. After all, the poop was gone!

Julie didn't yell at Our Hero, but she did say, "Joseph Trump," rather sharply, which caused Joseph Trump to break out into tears, too, and little wonder as he'd just done what Julie had done.

So everyone felt awful. We are all in our pajamas now, two of us are asleep, another is soon to be, and we will try again tomorrow to get the trains back on schedule.

Full steam ahead.