Super Mitten Sunday

As longtime Fans know, periodically, Joe takes Julie to the theater.  Today, they went to see The Mitten, staged as a 45 minute ballet.  It was sunny, but the temperature was still in the low double digits, so they did not swing through the McDonald's drive-thru for shakes as is their usual custom.  (That's what happens when your first date--or one of them anyway--is when McDonald's in menuing the shamrock shake.)  They did stop at Byerly's where Joe got to select a package of Oreos from all of the arrayed Oreo options.  (We won't leave you hanging, Fans: he chose mint Oreos.)  The Mitten was fun, in part because Julie amused Joe by referring to "the theater" in a British accent, and in part because during the performance, there were children all around familiar with the story whispering things like, "It's a mouse!  A mouse is next!"*

When Julie asked Joe if he liked it, he said, "Good."  This is his standard response if asked if he likes something.  He doesn't say he liked it; instead, he says "It was good," but without the lead in.  It's Joe-nacular.  When Julie asked him which of the animals he liked best, Joe replied, "All of them."  This, too, is typical.  He tends not to play favorites.  When first asked who he was going to root for in the Super Bowl, he said the Broncos and the Seahawks.  In the end, he did root for the Seahawks because that's where buddies Elsa, Anja, Wyatt, and Gavin live.  If he were still up though, he might switch allegiances because one sort of feels bad rooting against the poor Broncos at this point.  Their Bronco might need a mitten to snuggle in tonight.

*For our Fans unfamiliar with the story, a girl looses a mitten into which various woodland creatures cram themselves until one of them sneezes and they all come flying out, whereupon the girl finds her mitten, now terribly stretched out, and is left to wonder what went on.

What Mommies and Daughters Do

It has been another cold week here in the Great White North. It was so cold that Our Hero's school was closed again on Monday and Tuesday. Meanwhile, Birdie has had a cold that has made her cranky  and coughy and her skin that much more  dry. Friday night Julie was cranky because she had discovered that the Aquaphor was MIA. She was making do with some other lotion, rubbing it furiously on to Clara's chapped knuckles, when Birdie said to her, "Mommy, you do a lot." Julie said she supposed she did; that's what mommies do. That's when Clara threw her arms around Julie. Daughters do a lot, too, you know.

Twinsfest '14

Today Ted took Joe with him to Twinsfest, the annual celebration of all things Twins baseball.  With the Metrodome being demolished the event was held at the ballpark. So while it was a brutally cold day, the boys got to go to the stadium. Joe even got his picture at two standard statues: Kirby Pucket and the big gold glove (no photo op line when its below zero!). You can see Joe trying to withstand the stiff arctic breeze while smiling.

Ted wondered how much space would be available to have this event within a baseball stadium and he was surprised to discover all the swank lounge and concession space they have for the prime seats behind homeplate. Clearly a ballgame is a very different experience for about 10% of the crowd. 

That said, they had a fun time.  Joe played some games and won trinkets and candy, got his face painted, and got a balloon animal. They also got to see the press box and the locker room and all the aforementioned lounges. Of course the highlight was seeing the mascots: Wanda, Skeeta, Babe, and Bullseye (Louie was resting his handler told us).

Hard Moment

Fans, it's so cold here that many school districts have again cancelled tomorrow's classes. Such was the case this past Thursday, as well, and how it came to be that Julie and Joe were headed to the library that afternoon. On the way there, Joe asked Julie who made the roads, which led to a discussion about the government and its various officials--mayors, governors, the President. Joe confirmed that the President of the Inited States is Barak Obama and that he is a boy. He then asked Julie if the President could be a boy or a girl. Julie said that the President could indeed be a boy or a girl. Her voice broke ever so slightly as it trailed off, as she refrained from telling Joe that although the President can be a girl, the President has never actually been a girl. He would have asked why--he would have--and what would she have said? What would she have said?  What could she have said that wouldn't have led to who know how many more questions with unsatisfying answers?  Those answers would have had to acknowledge that we live in a world that sometimes uses the uncertain and often easily made promise of possibility to excuse the more meaningful and often harder to realize substance of reality.  Hard answers.  Hard moment.

Canopies!

As our regular readers know, in recent months, the bambini have become taken with the Fancy Nancy books. Joe likes them because Nancy likes big and fancy words and he does, too. Nancy has put out a compendium (that's fancy for collection) of her favorite fancy words from A to Z. Her favorite word beginning with Y is yearn. Joe used it in a sentence right away: "I yearn for a DS." He thought he was hot stuff, Fans.

Clara likes the Fancy Nancy books because the stories and sentences are a little more involved, because the pictures are also more involved--always has liked fancy drawings, and because Nancy also likes to deck herself out all fancy like.

Nancy's whole world is fancy really. She's got a canopy over her bed. Sometimes, she stargazes and sleeps in a tent in her backyard. Canopies and tents are amazing when you are the ages of the bambini and Joe and Clara have been busy off and on trying to create them for themselves.

A few nights ago, Julie came upstairs to tuck herself into bed with her book, and found Clara still up. She said she was scared which is really a catch-all phrase these days that signals something is amiss in her world. In this case, she'd been trying to make a tent out of a blanket and it "all fall down." When she looked at Julie and said, "Can you help?" Julie said she would see what she could do.

That night, Julie made half a canopy with a yardstick, an unused closet hanging bar, and a baby blanket. It was the closet hanging bar that fit perfectly in the corner of the bed--and Birdie's soft delighted giggles--that set her to thinking about a better canopy.

So the next day, she stopped at Home Depot for dowel rods that were the same diameter. Turns out, they come in four foot lengths which was perfect; no cutting required! Target was having a January white sale, and so right dowel rods, two twin sheets, and some blue painter's tape later, the bambini had two surprise canopies. Since that first night, Julie's efforts have been refined by Ted who is, after all, a trained engineer. He secured the sheet at the top if each dowel rod with a binder clip, and will be swapping out the blue painter's tape for white duct tape.

But that first night, there was still delight. Joe--such a big boy--said, "I love it! I don't even know how to thank you!" Of course, he just had.