Birdie's Nest

After Birdie is put into her crib at night, she takes all her stuffed animal friends, one by one, and puts them (sometimes flings them) into a big pile. Which end is inconsistent. Usually it's the opposite end from where the majority of them are resting when she arrives on the scene. She piles them all up, and then tried to wrap her arms around all of them at once, and ends up ensconced in the middle of them.

Rockin' 'N' Rollin'

On Saturday afternoon, Julie and Clara went to go to Paint Your Plate to make another plate* and a vase for Grandma Connie for Mother's Day to compliment the one Joe made not so long ago. They'd no sooner left than Joe apparently decided to take a nap. He was in the midst of some fit when they left and so frankly, no one was surprised that he felt like he needed a breather because they were all thinking the same thing. Our Hero's hair is a little long right now, and he was in one of those faux-retro tee-shirts, and between those things, and the tousled bedding sprinkled with assorted stuffed animal friends, he was having a decidedly partied-too-hard rock-'n'-roller moment. And then, he woke up, and a groupie was there, and the paparazzi. . .

*Longtime Fans may recall that we have been making plates with the bambini's handprints on them. Birdie's handprints are turned into birds. Joe has also now painted two all by himself. One is predominately brown, an effect created by layering of multiple paint colors. The other features a dinosaur, eating a tree, under a sun, in the sky.

Easter 2012

Fans. The Easter Bunny came to Raleigh House! We didn't see him, because he has to hop super, super fast to get to all the houses where the families celebrate Easter, but he came. Cleverly, he placed the eggs and baskets inside since Easter morning was rather chilly. He also quite cleverly placed placed many of the eggs in plain view and at heights that both bambini could reach so the thrill of the hunt was less in the discovery and more in the gathering. Clara likely did not remember last year's Easter egg hunt, but she caught on quickly enough. Joe filled up his basket and then happily announced he was done, and the innocence of his pronouncement was quite charming. The bambini had the most fun opening the eggs rather than hunting them down. This year, the Easter Bunny brought eggs filled again with Band-Aids, stickers, and fruit snacks, but there were also some eggs filled with beaded necklaces, chocolate eggs, and little chickadees. The Easter Bunny could probably have filled every egg and the baskets with fruit snacks and call it an Easter, though over time, the necklaces have proved a popular trinket. And so. Another Easter is in the basket.

Joe, Tonight

On the porch, at dusk.

PARTY!

One of Clara's favorite books right now is Go, Dog. Go! In the weeks just before Clara was born, Joe requested this book nearly every night.* Julie likes to imagine that Clara heard it from the inside, and when she first heard it on the outside thought, "Finally!"

The last few pages of Go, Dog. Go! find the dogs, having motored caravan-style in their cars to the big tree, climbing a tall ladder to its top. The text reads: "Up the tree! Up the tree! Up they go to the top of the tree. Why? Will they work there? Will they play there? What is up there on top of that tree?" Reader, it's "A dog party! A big dog party!" You learn this when you turn the page. (Oh, P.D. Eastman knows how to build suspense, make no mistake.) The best thing about reading Go, Dog. Go! with Clara right now, is that Clara crows out "PARTY!" when the page is turned. There isn't anything about this that isn't completely fabulous.

Julie hopes every night that Clara will pick Go, Dog. Go!

*In this picture, it's on the shelf, bottom, second book in from the left. Apparently, the night this picture was taken (in April, perhaps two weeks before Clara was born), it was a Green Eggs and Ham night.