We have also been meaning to report that Clara's move from the "Twos" room where she has been since she was about 18 months old to the Pre-C room is imminent. She will begin the transition next week. Our Longtime Readers may recall that the pre-school gauntlet at our KinderCare proceeds illogically thusly: Pre-C, to Pre-A, to Pre-B. Current enrollment does not actually support having Pre
-A open, so the order is Pre-C to Pre-B. Longtime Readers may also recall that one's child passes through the Pre-C room, in which the focus is potty training, even if one's child is potty trained. Longtime Readers may also recall that when Joe moved to Pre-C, the room was manned by one teacher and assorted "floats" and given that the focus was potty training, it seemed that if it didn't happen to be your child's 10 minutes in the bathroom, he or she was running about like a banshee.
We might harbor some bad memories of the pre-school room gauntlet and, in particular, the preschool-C room.
But, it is now staffed by two teachers, the lead of which, Ms. Jenny, has been there for a while now, and seems to be good people. To be fair, she's been set up for success better than her predecessor who was trying to manage potty training for multiple children as well as execute curriculum such that parents like us weren't making appointments with management to inquire what exactly our children were doing since the daily doings board, for example, hadn't been updated in days?
So we have high hopes that all will be well. Clara of course, has been using the potty with aplomb for months and months now. She has, also, for two weekends in a row now, on both Saturday and Sunday, woken up after her nap dry--!!!!! (She has been doing this at school practically since she first started using the potty, but her naps at home are longer and so she would often have an accident.) Clara is excited to make the move because she will be reunited with her pals, Daphne and Silvia. AND, there is this: Joe's room will be her drop-off and pick-up room--!!!!! The dynamic duo will begin and end their school days together--until the fall. (Until the fall--!!!!!)
Friday, March 29, 2013
Bedtime Piggyback Express
We have been meaning to report that lately, Joe and Clara have been taking piggyback rides into bed. They both have to be reminded to hang on, but Clara also has to be reminded not to inadvertently choke her mother. Clara's always been terribly good at hugs and squeezes and snuggles. Her natural propensity is to hang on tight--a lovely, lovely thing to be sure. It's just that right now, the length of her arms is such that when she clasps them around Julie's neck, and catches her hands up, the knot of her hands rests right against Julie's larynx. So we're working on the subtleties.
Rabbit
Clara has had a small patch of dry skin by the right corner of mouth for weeks a weeks now. She had impetigo nearby, but on subsequent visits to the pediatrician's, we've been assured that it is not impetigo still. The treatment is a layer of cortisone followed by a layer of Aquaphor, though by this point, we suspect the dry skin will not be vanquished until winter's dry air is also vanquished. In the meantime, we've been laying the cortisone and the Aquaphor as instructed. Early on in this routine, Julie asked Clara to tilt her chin up so that Julie would have a better angle for application. That was when she heard Birdie muttering about a rabbit. (Clara tips her chin way up. No half way with this one! So she really was muttering. It was probably hard to get her voice out with decent volume given how far back her head was.)
You know how most families have their own, perhaps small, lexicons and troves of shared memories? Things that only that small tribe knows? We think we may have written that this delightful aspect of families here before.
One of Clara's favorite books is Madeline. Clara has always liked a book with drawn illustrations--from the get-go, in a way that Joe didn't anyway. Julie has always wondered if Clara's affection for the book is due in part to its drawings. It also has a bold yellow spine with Madeline down it just as bold (we have the oversized board book edition). In any case, Julie has read Madeline to Clara many times. So that is why she almost instantly realized that Clara actually wasn't muttering about rabbits, but rather reciting the line from Madeline about Madeline's time in the hospital following her appendectomy, "And a crack on the ceiling had the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit."
And that's all there is. There isn't any more.
You know how most families have their own, perhaps small, lexicons and troves of shared memories? Things that only that small tribe knows? We think we may have written that this delightful aspect of families here before.
One of Clara's favorite books is Madeline. Clara has always liked a book with drawn illustrations--from the get-go, in a way that Joe didn't anyway. Julie has always wondered if Clara's affection for the book is due in part to its drawings. It also has a bold yellow spine with Madeline down it just as bold (we have the oversized board book edition). In any case, Julie has read Madeline to Clara many times. So that is why she almost instantly realized that Clara actually wasn't muttering about rabbits, but rather reciting the line from Madeline about Madeline's time in the hospital following her appendectomy, "And a crack on the ceiling had the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit."
And that's all there is. There isn't any more.
 |
| You can see both the patch of skin--getting there though so its faint!--and the pose in this picture. This is how Julie and Joe found Ted and Clara when they got back from Owl Moon and the park last Saturday. As a sidebar, we would note that it is difficult to find Princess Leia things. WHY????? That is what we call a missed opportunity, Toy Manufacturers. |
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Of Owl Moon, and Friends
On Saturday afternoon, Julie and Joe met Sara, Graham, and Connor at the children's theater one town over in Hopkins for the matinee performance of Owl Moon. Long time Fans may recall that about a year ago, Julie took Joe to the same theater to see Llama, Llama Red Pajama. Then, they got all dolled up to go, and apparently, Joe remembered that because as Julie came down the stairs--in jeans (fancy jeans, but jeans nevertheless)--she ran into Ted coming out of the bambini's room with khakis, an undershirt, and a button down for Joe. Fans, you have to love this little dude.
This production of Owl Moon was a ballet which you might be doesn't sound like a promising outing for three boys ranging in age from almost three and five and their mothers, but you'd be wrong, Fans! For starters, this is a rather successful children's theater which, among other things, means they've got the marriage between recommended ages and run times down flat. This was a 45 minute show with no intermission, and ballet. . .Well, you can see, can't you, how to the pre-school and pre-K set it looks a lot like really cool running and jumping?
Julie and Sara had snagged some boosters, but all the boys ended up in their respective mothers' laps. You'd think this sounds like an uncomfortable way to spend 45 minutes, but you'd be wrong again, Fans. Joe took Julie's arms and wrapped them around him just so. Toward the end, he reached up, looped his arm around her neck, and pulled her face down so that her cheek rested against his. Julie will at least admit that it was an awkward angle, but she will also say that she'd have stayed like that happily for a long, long time. It was really just a sign that he was feeling sleepy. He eventually curled himself up and leaned back against Julie and tried to pull her coat, and then his, around him like a blanket. He kept one eye on the stage though. At the very, very, very end, Joe asked Julie if they could go, and when she said no, he asked when the end was going to be. Fortunately, the owl had been spotted so the end was less than five minutes away at that point, which meant treats at Dairy Queen were also not far off.
Sara and Julie walked with the boys (who ran) six blocks or so to a Dairy Queen and then, because it seemed the only fitting thing to do after going to Dairy Queen in March, in Minnesota, when there's still a lot of snow on he ground, they took the boys to the park. The three of them tore around while Julie and Sara sat on a bench and talked and watched them.
You'd think it would have been cold. But it wasn't. It was so warm.
Sweet Mess
It's been a little tough to be Birdie of late. It is also tough to be a Birdie's parent of late.
Of late, one is apt to have exchanges with her like this:
Parent: "Birds, it's time to get our coats on. Can you please put your coat on?"
Birdie: "I don't wanna do it! I want you to do it!"
Parent: "Well, if you ask appropriately, it might happen."
Birdie: ""Please you put my coat on please?"
Parent: "Sure."
Birdie [as soon as the slightest movement is made to assist her in putting on her coat]: "NO I WANNA DO IT!"
This, in fact, was the exchange Ted had with Birdie in Qdoba Tuesday evening, the evening, you will recall, Dear Readers, of the kindergarten round up when we were, therefore, trying to get home in order to have Clara bathed and in her pajamas before the sitter arrived. Now, to be fair, is anyone in a good mood at Qdoba? We're in Qdoba only when the bambini have received a coupon for a free kid's meal with the purchase of an adult's meal for being Read-y McGees and maybe this is why every time we are in there and it's nearly empty, we wonder how they have stayed in business. (We speculate that the St. Louis Park location has a booming lunch business.)
Clara got her coat on but then the same routine started to unfold with respect to the hat and the mittens.
Whether it was because we were at Qdoba, or Julie had the sore throat that was the harbinger of the cold that settled in that night, or we didn't really have time to send the how-the-hat-and-mittens-were-going-to-get-on bill to committee, Julie told Clara that she was going to count to five and if she wasn't making progress on the hat and the mittens, then Julie was going to pick her up and haul her out to the car without them.
Having drawn the line, for better or worse, Julie couldn't back down. Clara isn't one to back down either though. She may have thrown her mittens on the floor all petulant starlet like?
In any case, five was reached, Clara's hat and mittens were on the floor, and so she departed the restaurant in a bawling blaze of glory and was unceremoniously deposited into the car and strapped in to her seat, where she proceed to screech her indignation the entire way home. You can hear a portion of her tantrum here. Warning: it starts out on a shrill note, so you might want to turn the volume down--or up, if you want a sort of on the scene feel!
Here's what she says:
"It's too tight."
"I wanna go in the blue car."
"I wanna get out."
"I wanna get out of the Bronzie car."
"I wanna walk." (With this last, she means walk out of the restaurant to the car, not walk home.)
She's sort of a mess, Brigade. Is she getting molars? Was she still feeling run down from the tummy bug? And the strep throat? And the cold? Is she just tow-almost-three? All of these things? Whatever the reason, she's a bit of a mess lately. But--but--she's such a sweet mess.
Tonight, she was up to her usual antics at bedtime, which resulted in the removal of her friends from her bed. And before you go getting all weepy, Brigade, we hasten to add that she was nonplussed by this. If we've got her number, she's got ours.
Really, she does. Because when Julie went in there to do her routine, nightly "I love you Joseph Trump Ekkers" and "I love you Clara Jane Ekkers" benedictions, she found Clara awake, and as Julie leaned over Clara, Birdie reached up and pulled Julie down to her hard. When Julie started to pull away, Clara pulled her back down hard. You kinda can't help but fall for her, hard.
Of late, one is apt to have exchanges with her like this:
Parent: "Birds, it's time to get our coats on. Can you please put your coat on?"
Birdie: "I don't wanna do it! I want you to do it!"
Parent: "Well, if you ask appropriately, it might happen."
Birdie: ""Please you put my coat on please?"
Parent: "Sure."
Birdie [as soon as the slightest movement is made to assist her in putting on her coat]: "NO I WANNA DO IT!"
This, in fact, was the exchange Ted had with Birdie in Qdoba Tuesday evening, the evening, you will recall, Dear Readers, of the kindergarten round up when we were, therefore, trying to get home in order to have Clara bathed and in her pajamas before the sitter arrived. Now, to be fair, is anyone in a good mood at Qdoba? We're in Qdoba only when the bambini have received a coupon for a free kid's meal with the purchase of an adult's meal for being Read-y McGees and maybe this is why every time we are in there and it's nearly empty, we wonder how they have stayed in business. (We speculate that the St. Louis Park location has a booming lunch business.)
Clara got her coat on but then the same routine started to unfold with respect to the hat and the mittens.
Whether it was because we were at Qdoba, or Julie had the sore throat that was the harbinger of the cold that settled in that night, or we didn't really have time to send the how-the-hat-and-mittens-were-going-to-get-on bill to committee, Julie told Clara that she was going to count to five and if she wasn't making progress on the hat and the mittens, then Julie was going to pick her up and haul her out to the car without them.
Having drawn the line, for better or worse, Julie couldn't back down. Clara isn't one to back down either though. She may have thrown her mittens on the floor all petulant starlet like?
In any case, five was reached, Clara's hat and mittens were on the floor, and so she departed the restaurant in a bawling blaze of glory and was unceremoniously deposited into the car and strapped in to her seat, where she proceed to screech her indignation the entire way home. You can hear a portion of her tantrum here. Warning: it starts out on a shrill note, so you might want to turn the volume down--or up, if you want a sort of on the scene feel!
Here's what she says:
"It's too tight."
"I wanna go in the blue car."
"I wanna get out."
"I wanna get out of the Bronzie car."
"I wanna walk." (With this last, she means walk out of the restaurant to the car, not walk home.)
She's sort of a mess, Brigade. Is she getting molars? Was she still feeling run down from the tummy bug? And the strep throat? And the cold? Is she just tow-almost-three? All of these things? Whatever the reason, she's a bit of a mess lately. But--but--she's such a sweet mess.
Tonight, she was up to her usual antics at bedtime, which resulted in the removal of her friends from her bed. And before you go getting all weepy, Brigade, we hasten to add that she was nonplussed by this. If we've got her number, she's got ours.
Really, she does. Because when Julie went in there to do her routine, nightly "I love you Joseph Trump Ekkers" and "I love you Clara Jane Ekkers" benedictions, she found Clara awake, and as Julie leaned over Clara, Birdie reached up and pulled Julie down to her hard. When Julie started to pull away, Clara pulled her back down hard. You kinda can't help but fall for her, hard.
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