White House Trend Report

Also trending high right now:
1.  Talking about farting.  It's true, we regret to say.  It's tapered off a bit, but all of a sudden, Joe's seemingly favorite thing to say was: "Who farted?"  (Apparently the gang at school hasn't yet heard "If you smelt it, you dealt it.")
2. Asking "Are we on the highway?" incessantly, while we are YES!  ON THE HIGHWAY!  And YES!  STILL ON THE HIGHWAY!  And YUP!!!  STILL.  ON.  THE.  HIGHWAY!!!--!!!!!
3.  The Kidz Country version of Alan Jackson's Little Bitty (It's alright to be little bitty; a little hometown or a big old city; might as well share, might as well smile; life goes on for a little bitty while.)  Little Bitty has no peer at the moment.
4.  Talking about heaven: Where is it?  How do you get there?  Why is it above us?  And you can't come back?  And it's way far away?

The day before the Fourth, we were riding along in the car and Joe said, "Maybe Raleigh?  We drove him to a skyscraper and then a cloud went by and he jumped on."  If there's any dog that could do that, Fans, it was our Ribby.  (And, he could fart like no other dog, except maybe Berenice.)

The Bambini's Get Their Annual Once Overs

Also in this week's news, the bambini had their well-child appointments.  Clara is well past her third birthday, but our beloved Dr. Harrington was on maternity leave at the end of April and we were told that she preferred to see her own patients where possible so Birdie got scheduled out.  Birdie weighs 35 pounds (79%) and is 39 inches (81%) tall.  She has a heart murmur!  Apparently, 50 percent of all kids do at some point.  Turns out, Ted had a heart murmur, too!  We're not to worry about it.  Dr. Harrington will keep an eye on it and mentioned mostly so we would already know about it if Birdie had to go to urgent care and it was mentioned after she was examined.  Otherwise, she showed off her counting prowess (she can count up to 14 easily, and will not only count by rote, but will count things) and her charming conversational abilities.  So fun!  No shots for Birdie so she breezed on out after the vision screen which was, apparently, also fine since we heard no more about it.  Naturally, everything was so breezy that a day later, she developed some sort of rash on her torso.  We're slathering that up with some hydrocortisone for now.  Could be heat rash since it felt like 112 degrees outside nearly all week long.

Joe weighs 46 pounds (81%) and is 44 3/4 inches (84%) tall.  He continues to be a big dude.  He looked especially big standing on the examination table, where he had climbed.  (Climbing is trending high with Joe.)  He also later helped himself to Dr. Harrington's ear-look-y-in-y thing and checked Julie's ears (no puppies--though this was the first appointment where Dr. Harrington didn't have to use the let's-check-for-puppies gambit when looking in the bambini's ears; the end of an era).  Joe was given a clean bill of health, but did have to get two shots which were sort of a big deal to him for the first time ever.  He got the first one--and didn't even feel it--when he was telling Julie he really, really, really, really, really didn't want to get shots and Julie was explaining that it would be illegal for him to go to kindergarten without having gotten them since unfortunately, he wasn't a Jehovah's Witness.  But the second one hurt.  Turns out, a Wolverine band-aid makes for a pretty awesome distraction.  He won't get any more shots until he's 10.  Can you even imagine Our Hero at 10, Fans?  Can you imagine  Birdie at five?

Joe's Fifth Birthday Bash

Fans we are behind in our reporting.  We are still very much engaged in the business of settling in and the most progress is made when the bambini are asleep which is historically when we compose blog posts that are hopefully irreverent yet heartfelt and that capture the madness and magic of years in which two preschoolers are padding about our hearts.  Once we are further along, we plan to take you on a tour of White House a la Jackie.  We save that for another day.

Tonight we bring you an overdue report on Our Hero's fifth birthday bash at Kiddywumpus where as you may recall, he and 10 of his nearest and dearest got to throw paint on the wall at the "Action Jackson" party. Fans, what an operation!  Ms. Amy and Ms. Shelia (who was working her first day ever!) were amazing.  We loitered about in the toy store that constitutes the store's entrance (Ms. Amy is shrewd owner-operator) and as parent arrived with Joe's guests, they were whisked to the "gift trolley" and asked to leave their contact information on a clipboard and before we knew it, the kids were lined up ready to head back to the art studio.  Ms. Amy had already quizzed us on who Joe's besties were, who was especially energetic, the mix of girls and boys, and so on.  She wrote each child's name on a piece of paper and then hung them on the wall in an order that made sense so each one knew just where to go.  The main event was bookended by small, table-centered art projects to allow late comers time to arrive and all paint throwers time to wind down.

Birdie was there and Fans, let's just just say that on that day, she was ROCKSTAR Birdie.  She was in the mix, but it was Joe's party for sure.  Clara was the only one who got to stand close to the wall as Ms. Amy rightly knew she was too little to throw paint very far.  So she painted, and couldn't have been more darling.

And now, as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.  (Are eight of them are worth 8,000?)

Checking out the materials. . .

Suited up in magic (washable) shirts and socks, ready to make the first throw. . .

Considering the canvas. . .

Throwing!

Dabbing.

Note paint on ear.

Genius pauses to consider whether purple would be too much.  (Never!)

Masterpieces.

Of Bedtime Blues In White House

Our Hero takes matters into his own hands.  Notice that he brought all his friends with him--and also Clara's purple walls!

Fans, we are coming to you tonight from the home computer which was hooked up tonight and which, together with the desk, live at the top of the stairs tucked into a desk-sized nook.  The bambini are tucked into their respective rooms.  You read that right, Fans.  A new era has dawned and it did so with rather little fanfare, probably because although the bambini spent their first few nights in White House* in separate rooms, they were soon enough in the same room while the floor in Clara's room was redone.**  Clara reprised her award-winning The Late Nite Bedtime Bearcat Show Staring Birdie Bearcat; tempers and patience were both short.  She moved into her room for good Wednesday last and the Bearcat has bounded off into the night.

But all is not yet quiet on the bedtime front.  White House is a bit larger than Raleigh House, and the bambini's bedrooms are not on the same floor as where the rooms in which the majority of the living is done.  It's a bit much for Our Hero.  He does not like to be upstairs by himself.  He has a (fabulous) new orange lamp, and we've found his books and put them on the shelves in his room.  The lamp stays on at night and he knows he can look at his books.  He can, of course, listen for the noises.

The first few nights, Joe kept appearing downstairs.  When asked what else he thought might help, he told us we could be louder.  He also suggested that every night be a family dinner night, but that was only because he was under the mistaken impression that the entire household would then retire upstairs at 7:30pm.  One night he told Julie that he wished he was a grown-up.  When Julie asked why, he told her so he could stay up late (read: not have to be upstairs by himself at bedtime).  Julie told him that she sometimes wished she was a little kid so she could take a nap every day.  Joe smiled a very little smile.  One night, he took matters into his own hands and got into Clara's bed.  She transferred herself to the big bed in the middle of the night and, at some point, Joe fell out of her bed onto the floor (and did not wake up).

Julie feels Our Hero on this one.  She was long afraid of The Dark and still, if Ted is not home, will sleep with numerous lights on (and when she does, she thinks, "I am a grown-up!  I can sleep with the lights on!"  She doesn't think too much about the irony.).  So she feels you have to respect the fear, but also feels that respecting it does not extend to forgoing sleep.  Our Hero cannot still be up at 10pm or we'll have a new bearcat on our hands.

But we may have hit on a winning strategy, rather by chance.  Last night, after the bambini were tucked in, Julie stayed upstairs and pattered about putting away this and that.  Early on, Joe asked if she could sing.  So she did: My Favorite Things, Moon River, Tonight, and I Feel Pretty.  Joe was asleep within half an hour.  She had grand plans tonight for a Sinatra medley, but Joe wanted Christmas songs.

All is not yet calm, nor is it bright, but we're getting there.  In the meantime, we have the orange lamp, books, and singing, and we are endeavoring to be noisier.

*We live on 39th Street; 39th House lacks a certain flow.  The house is white.  White House has a ring to it.  Yes, we're certain we've heard it somewhere before.

**Laminate covered faux wood linoleum that featured cantering evergreen colored ponies at regular intervals (very rustic chic) over Douglas fir.  We're back down to the Douglas fir.

Second to last night in Raleigh House, where Clara always piled into Joe's bed, never the other way round.

Two things

There are two things Clara Jane has been doing the past couple of days. The first is asking to watch the videos Ted took of the parade at Disneyland. She will ask to "watch California on your phone." This morning when said activity was promised she ran over to the sofa and laid back with a blanket to take in the show. 

The second thing is for Clara to get her play stethoscope or thermometer and approach people saying "I have to doctor you."  She will hunt down her patients and ensure she administers her care.