All Together Now

Here's another thing that happened while we were on hiatus: Clara began going to bed at the Big Girl time of 7:30pm. This later bedtime prompted us to attempt to make more formal the practice of Joe and Clara being read to together. A part of Julie has been looking forward to reading to the bambini together, so that they can have shared reading memories, too, but another part of her is sad to say goodbye to the days of snuggling in with each of them and their still somewhat respective books.

But, Clara has always had a preference for a story over a picture or concept book, and Joe would often hang out by (and, literally, hang on to) the chair while Julie was reading to Clara anyway. Sometimes, he likes to tuck in along the side. It would be cozy, if two of the three of us--and one in particular--didn't wiggle and shift about so much.

So, rather than Julie be driven slowly bonkers by Joe attempting to clamber up the side of the chair only to flop back down on to the floor in a completely distracting fashion, or jiggle one or more of any of his appendages while snuggled in the chair, Julie decided to decamp to the couch. She also asked Joe if he thought he might like to read books with Clara and Mommy before bed. Our Hero was on board.

The first night on which Joe joined the Birds for books, however, revealed that Julie had made a critical error in that she did not elucidate that reading books with Clara and Mommy would be instead of Mommy reading books with just Clara, and--most important to Our Hero--just Joe. Julie had to admit to herself that she understood, and so, now, she reads books to Joe and Clara, and then after Clara goes to bed about 7:20pm, Julie and Joe read usually two more books.

All's well that ends well.

The first night, after it had gone down. Exhausting.

Brought To You By the Letters J and C

In Joe's room at school, the kids have to sign in each day on sheets by the door. In this way, all the kids in that room get to practice writing their names every day. Joe graduated from dotted letters to follow to making them on his own, but we noticed that the capital J was often hooked to the right in stead of the left, and the lowercase e was sort of a crumple. (The lowercase o was lookin' good though. It's true, it's a circle, but we hasten to add that there is some proportion work going on, and Our Hero was doing well in that department.) So last week, we had a chat about the capital J and which direction is hooks. We also talked about how the lowercase e a straight line across with a C around it. Now, Joe is rockin' the sign-in sheet.* Tonight at dinner, Joe announced that he had made a good J today and, indeed, he had.**

In other letter-related news, last week, in Clara's room, letters were a focus:

"'Letters' our focus today. We spread out 52 letters [!!!!!] on the carpet. Each child had to come forward and pick out the matching letter that starts with their name.

Clara was very confident when she picked 2 'C' out of the carpet.

I had made a sheet that had mostly 'B' and a few C on the paper. Clara was able to locate all the 'C.'"

Go, Birdie! The next day, they worked on the first letter of each child's last name: "In Clara's case, it was not easy with this activity. . . .Hard to say her last name." Of course, there is also the confusion of the Birdie nickname with which to contend. It's a different name, and not exactly a first name, definitely not a last name, and begins with another letter altogether. But, she is piecing it altogether. The other morning, Julie was pattering (cleaning, probably) downstairs, while Clara was in the kitchen pattering (making a mess, probably), when Julie heard Clara sing--clear as a bell! clear as a bell!--the ABCs up to H. (After that, the letters were less recognizable.) W-O-W.

*Special to Aunt Kate: When you get your birthday card, check out the Joe! He did that all by himself!

**Our stringer photographer has fallen down on the job for several days now. She keeps forgetting to bring her phone in to take a picture of a sheet. We don't know what to do with her. Might be time for a chat.

Ponies

Also while we were on hiatus, Clara began rocking the double pony. She was sporting them when Julie picked Birdie up on Friday which was, incidentally, the day Julie had managed to stop by the Target and find the hair elastics for the tot set. Not a moment too soon as Birdie has requested "ponies"* every day now save this morning when we were behind schedule and so Julie pretty much didn't even allow for ponies to be mentioned. (Guiding Birdie's wisps into respectable ponies while she turns this way and that way takes a few minutes.)

*What she says sounds like "my my ponies," which, translated, might be "I want ponies."

Star of the Month | I Wanna Be Just Like You

While we were on hiatus, Joe was selected as the Star of the Month in his classroom. Being Star of the Month means that pictures of him are arrayed outside of the room along with his answers to questions like "What is you favorite color?" (For the record, Our Hero said orange. We strongly suspect this is because it is a well-known fact that his good buddy Marco's favorite color is orange.) We were mystified by his answer to "What is your favorite book?" (Star Wars--?????) for two reasons: one, we have no Star Wars book (save the Star Wars Spaceships board book he's not seen in about a year), and two, his was in the midst of a long stretch of nightly readings at In the Night Kitchen because "it's my favorite."

Another question asked of Star of the Month selectees is what they would like to be when they grow up. Fans, Our Hero's future career: dad. He's got a pretty great one, so it only stands to reason that to his way of thinking, this is what cool big boys do with themselves when they are done with their formal education and ready to strike out on their own. This idea has clearly been percolating for a while in Our Hero's mind because the one evening, some weeks ago, on the way home from school, as well as one morning, also some weeks ago, on the way to school, Joe asked Julie when he would be a dad. (Julie told him when he was much older.)

Musical Easter Cards

The bambini received Easter cards last night from their Grandparents Trump. They played music when opened. Whoa. Holy buckets. For a bit, Clara was inadvertently restarting the little ditty her card played, but she got the hang of it soon enough. Joe caught on straight off. For a while though, the Easter card cacophony was in seeming surround sound. You can hear them in this clip, but the really good stuff comes at about 45 seconds. It is at this point that Joe plays his card, and you can hear Clara saying "No song!" which is what she says when she is rejecting whatever you have dialed up to sing to her. She will often wave her hand, as she is doing here, but if she is not amenable to your selection, and can reach your face, she will put her hand in front of your mouth. (Clearly she is under the impression that she lives with a pack of dolts.) After Joe's song has played, Clara is ready to put her card in the envelope on the table (which actually belonged to Aunt Kate's birthday card), and you can hear Joe try to help a sister out. Then, Birdie gets it, and breaks it down a bit before leaving off to color.