This Morning

Good morning, Fans!  We write at this early hour to bring you breaking news.  Something else Julie makes sure to do when Ted is traveling is to get herself up early, so that she can get herself together before the bambini wake up.  This morning, she wandered downstairs at bit before 5:15am, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard panting in the living room.  It was Our Hero, who had woken up even earlier, made his way in to the living room, turned on the lights on the Christmas tree and was enjoying some early morning solitude, pretending to be an excited puppy.  After snuggling for a bit, Julie went about her business, and Joe, his.  (Joe's business in the later half of the top half of the five o'clock hour was making a copy on the printer, which he recently learned how to do and is now all the rage.)  At 5:36am, Julie was getting dressed, and Clara appeared beside her.  She got herself busy with some office supplies, too, namely, the scissors.  She is not yet so handy with the scissors, so she had them pointed toward her face.  Julie tried to tell Clara that scissors cannot ever, ever be pointed toward one's face, but you know, you can't tell Birdie how it is.  So Julie took the scissors away and the morning's first fit began.  But Julie felt she was on solid ground so she went about her business which, conveniently, was getting the bambini's clothes out--downstairs.

Joe followed her, but when he saw his clothes being taken out of his cupboard, he said in a tremulous voice, "But I want it to be a pajama day."  Julie explained that today was picture day and so Ms. Leah hadn't told us that today was a pajama day.  The morning's second--and simultaneous!--fit began.  Good times, Fans.  Good.  Times.  It was not yet even six o'clock.

Eventually, everyone calmed down.  Clara tried the scissors again, yogurt was eaten, Berenice was let out, and both kids are dressed for picture day.  Joe asked they could have their picture in front of the Christmas tree.  It's sort of a toss up for the best of the bunch.  So many contenders.  We're calling it a two-way tie for first place.

Never Would Forget

We also, as we've written here, like to dance in the car.  Of late, Taylor Swift's new album has been on a pretty much continuous loop.  On the way home from My Burger tonight, the penultimate song of the album, Starlight, was on, and Julie was swinging her head along, when she glanced into the review mirror, and saw Clara's little head, in her winter hat, bopping along, too.  Of course it was, Brigade, because Clara's whole air--her vibe--is like driving on a summer day, warm enough to roll the windows down, and one of your favorite songs comes on the radio, and you crank it up as you think "Yes!"

Oh my, what a marvelous tune
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved
The whole place was dressed to the nines, and we were dancing, dancing
Like we're made of starlight, starlight

Taylor Swift
from Starlight

Shout Out to Daddy

Ted left on a business trip tonight, and when Ted is out of town, Julie likes to take the bambini out for dinner.  That way, she doesn't have to cook dinner while someone asks if she can draw Lightening McQueen, or someone else stands in front of the refrigerator rearranging the magnets, or Berenice paces around waiting for something magical to happen like the backdoor and the gate being left open.  Also, there are no dishes.  Julie has revealed this strategy to some other parents who think she is sort of crazy--a four-year-old and a two-year-old?  In a restaurant?  No other adult reinforcements?  But Joe and Clara are better behaved in a restaurant than they are the bathtub, and taking them out to dinner means one is better prepared to face them in the bath which can often end in one bellowing, "SHAPE UP!" and frankly, sometimes it's Joe or Clara imitating Julie or Ted and then laughing uproariously.  Clearly, the bambini are winning on the bath front.

So we headed to My Burger (or, Your Burger, as Clara calls it) for dinner.  It was touch a go for a moment as Julie was placing their order.  She'd left the bambini at a table wriggling out of their coats.  Clara got out of her chair for help, and by the time she got back, Joe had moved into her chair.  Julie asked Joe to get out of Clara's chair, which he informed Julie wasn't fair.  Julie ignored him which led him to mutter that "it wasn't fair" over and over.  That's when she said that Joe had two choices: we could leave and he could keep grumbling about "it" not being fair in the car on the way home and while Julie made eggs for dinner or, he could pack it up and eat a cheeseburger.  He decided to eat a cheeseburger.  Thank goodness because besides the aforementioned strategy, Julie has been all about onion rings lately and she was really looking forward to them.

When we eat out, there's often music playing and sometimes, we dance in our seats to it.  That's what we were doing tonight when Julie began shooting this video, but it was right about then that the bambini again noticed the almost full moon so instead of dancing, you get some interesting color commentary from the Professor on the moon, as well as some whining, and french fry eating.  It's a slice of life feature!  See if you can discern where we are going to dinner tomorrow night!

Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and Cheetahs, and Rabbits, and Ducks, and Snake Charmers. . .

Fans, those of you who have been with us a long time (at least a year anyway), know that if the Christmas tree is up, then the creche is not long behind.  The creche (or "crate," as Joe was calling it for a while) was reassembled today with now usual areas recreated: angel choir, the jungle, the desert, the meadow, the farm, and the woodland area, this last again replete with a blue construction paper lake.  (The tee pee remains on its shores; the Snake Charmer is naturally to be found in the desert.)  Bethlehem is somewhere in the middle.  All of these areas are necessary because we--clearly--have a more expansive definition of creche here at Raleigh House, and we welcome two new members to the gang each season.  One is selected by Our Hero, and the other by Our Birdie.  Putting up the creche of course offers an opportunity to talk about The True Meaning of Christmas, so Ted asked Joe a few questions about the creche, and Christmas.  When Joe came up empty, Ted reminded him that the creche was to do with someone's birthday and asked if Joe remembered whose.  Joe's response: "Uncle Scott."

Fans, we will not keep you in suspense.  This holiday season we welcome with wonder to the creche the cheetah selected by Joe, and the rabbit, chosen by Clara.  The baby Jesus never had it so good--for real.

A New Day

Today was a big day at Raleigh House, Fans: Joe woke up, and didn't cry and wail for Mommy and Daddy because he didn't know if it was "wake-up time."  Instead, he got out of bed; told Clara she didn't need to be crying, she could get up, too; went into the living room; turned on the lights on the Christmas tree; turned on the lamp; and was all set to settle into who knows what, when Julie dashed downstairs because she heard a crash.  The crash turned out to be Clara's new baby doll's head hitting the floor.

Off and on for a while now, we have been talking with Joe about not crying when he wakes up because he thinks he can't get up, and that he is, in fact, old enough to get himself up, patter on out of his room, and make his way into the living room to play quietly.  We have had corollary discussions about reserving crying for when we are hurt, or sad, or particularly scared, for example.  It's tricky--we are trying to teach Joe and Clara to think for themselves, but they are four and two, so there is still necessarily a lot of bright line rule issuance which might be making murky the think for yourself lesson.  So time will tell if this morning's events become commonplace, but Joe seemed to like the taste he had of owning his own power.  The face he had on when Julie found him and Clara looked a little something like this one (which was taken shortly before Joe had pretty much nothing but cranberry sauce--"raspberry sauce" as he keeps calling it--for his Thanksgiving Day dinner--it is really good, and also made of cranberries).