Wolf Park

Today was another beautiful day in the Great white North which is looking these days more like the Great Brown North. Almost all of the snow that fell a little over a week ago has melted away. So this morning found us at Wolf Park, which has three playgrounds for different age groups, including one with lots of rope webs on which to climb and things like weeble wobble discs bridging an expanse. Time was, Our Hero wanted nothing to do with this webby, webbling and wobbling playground.

Fans, today, he tore it up! He climbed like a spider, he stepped from disc to disc, and tried to climb through a kind of tunnel punctuated with gaps. Sadly, he did take a tumble from the gap-tunnel that brought him up short, and that was the end of all that. Still, it was so much fun for us to see him dive right into this whole mix of equipment and handle himself with such confidence! Graham and Connor were there, too, and Joe even hung around this part of the playground even after Graham had followed Connor back to the slides and swings. Julie was pretty surprised knowing how Joe much Joe likes hanging out with Graham. Clara did her best to tag along after Joe. She was too little for most all of it, but it didn't stop her from trying!

Craziness

Brigade, Birdie appears to have shook whatever was shaking up her insides. After she woke up from her nap, she played with her school bus, dancing around to The Wheels on the Bus, and helping Julie fold the laundry. She did not want snack.

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish. . .

By the time the boys were home from the zoo, she was ready to get outside. (Also by then, she'd jazzed up her pajamas with some socks with hearts on them, a skirt, her fleece, and her sunglasses.)

The ensemble

She and Joe dashed about picking up sticks in the yard and then tucked into dinner. Birdie had:three bananas, applesauce, macaroni and cheese, and water. It all remained inside her.

But there's more. BRIGADE! BIRDIE POOPED ON THE POTTY!--!!!!! It's true that she probably didn't realize she was doing it, but it occurs to us that this is the presumed goal of putting one's bambini on the potty at regular intervals? Clara smelled like a zoo when she woke up from her nap, so Julie carried her into the potty straight away and got her situated on there though it was clear she'd already done some business in the diaper. That business smelled so Julie left Clara there and went to put the diaper Birdie had been wearing in the garbage that was headed outside soon. And when Julie came back, Clara said she was done, and as she got down, Julie saw that Clara had pooped in the bowl! Julie immediately began acting like a slightly crazy person, crowing about poop and how amazing it is when it's in the potty and this magnificent creature before here who had put it there. But since Clara is always a little groggy and a touch disgruntled when she wakes up, Julie toned it down a touch since Clara was looking at Julie like she was a crazy person for real.

Crazy, right, Brigade?!

Incognito Super Pooper Trooper

Barfing Birdie*

Alas, all this excitement caught up to us today. Shortly before we left for our usual round of errands in advance of music class, Clara lost her cookies (pancakes, really) all over Joe's bed. "Well," we thought, "such is what comes of tearing about like banshees after breakfast and flinging one's self up onto one's brother's bed like a rag doll." But then we'd no more piled into the car and set off than Birdie threw up again. So we turned for home and the Birds stayed home while the Boys went off to run errands, go to music class, and, as it turns out, go for a hot dog lunch followed by an outing to the zoo. This worked out rather well since it left the house quieter and calmer than it would have otherwise been, which made it easier to keep Birdie quiet and calm.

The Birds each changed clothes three times. It's a pajama day! They did lots of laundry (Berenice didn't help at all; humph).

They also read a lot of books--right on the floor at the threshold of the house because it's in the 60s today! (Ted took their picture when he came home to drop off the groceries before heading to music class.)

Birdie has now managed to keep down some crackers and a few sips of water. Julie poured them that way so Birdie wouldn't chug it, and it was really rather sad to see poor, obviously thirsty Birdie chirping for more "Wah-wa."

Obviously this is not the weekend we will be seeing if Birdie wants to rock the underwear that came home with the groceries. Poor Birdie.

*It had nice alliteration.

First Full Day in Twos

Thursday was a big day in other ways, too: Birdie was dropped off in her new room at school--and that was where she stayed all day. That's right, Birdie Brigade. Our Birdie has now officially graduated fro the "twos" room. Here what went down that day:

"Today I. . .discussed 'the sun.' It is a star made up of gas. Sun is closest star to the Earth and shares light with the moon. Dice game was great. Clara rolled the dice. Whichever color was on top, she had to find a toy of that color. Clara had no trouble with this activity. Read 'Sun, Stars, and Airport.'"

No wonder she was ravenous and completely zonked, right?!

Friday was Birdie's second full day in her new room. Fridays are show-'n'-share days in the twos, preschool, and pre-K rooms, so Birdie joined Big Brother Joe in taking an item to show and share. Birdie took the Little Peoples school bus. (Joe took a stuffed dog on a leash, also known as a length of ribbon.) It is worth noting that Clara also requested a do of some sort for the first time on Friday, so she sported a bow, which you can see here as she made the computer play music while Julie got dressed. (Oh she was hot stuff, all the way around.)

Birdie Takes Her Rightful Place at the Table

Keen-eyed observers may have noticed something odd (beyond the diaper over the pants) in the last picture. Keen-eyed observers will have been aided in assessing the photo for oddities beyond the obvious if they are familiar with the Raleigh Houser's usual places at the table (and also perhaps if they were once avid Encyclopedia Brown or Nancy Drew fans). Thursday night, not only did Clara want to sport a diaper over her pants, she also wanted to sit in a booster seat at the end of the table opposite Our Hero. She sat there for the whole meal, for which she was ravenous (minestrone soup followed the bread seen here)--and hasn't sat there for a meal since. You try and figure it out, Brigade.

Where did Ted and Julie sit? Well. Not at the heads of the table. Clearly, we run not one thing around here. We are but the help to the Lord and Lady of the manor.