They're Pink!

Lots of petals.

When we moved into White House, we found gardens overrun with weeds which, when we cleared them out, revealed, among other things, peonies that had come and gone.  So we waited in anticipation this spring to see what color they would be.  They began blooming and then it promptly began raining, so it wasn't until a few days later, this past Sunday, when we were outside trimming the lilacs with the bambini darting about doing this and that, that Clara stopped short in front of them and exclaimed, "Mommy!  They're pink!"  When you are a four-year-old girlie girl, there's no better color.

With lilac branches.

On a puddle walk, Saturday.

Joe's Last Day of Kindergarten

FANS!  We know: the posts--they're flowin' like mud.  It ends here and now.  So, too, today, did kindergarten for Our Hero.  A week ago Friday, he brought home his homework notebook for the last time, and thereafter, each day, more and more papers and items came home.  Kindergarten teachers are very, very good at chronicling things on laminated pieces of construction paper, perhaps spiral bound.  The dining room table is filled with a happy mess of academic detritus from Our Hero's kindergarten year.

We think he liked it.  We are basing this assessment in part on the fact that he has stated that "of course" he would like to invite Mrs. Dvorak to his birthday party in July.  (Here we pause to share that it will be at The Big Thrill Factory which is, frankly, not such a big thrill if you are over the age of, say, 10.  It is like your Chuck E Cheese, on steroids.  We suspect Mrs. Dvoark may have other plans?  Here is what she wrote to us in her final "communication folder" communique: "It has been a pleasure being Joe's kindergarten teacher this year.  It has been fun to watch him grow as a reader, writer, and mathematician!  I will remember him for his great hugs and smiling face.")

It seems like just yesterday we were walking Our Hero off for his first day with his tag on the bright aqua blue string hanging round his neck. . .The next threshold we will cross will be summer camp drop offs, pick ups, and everything in between.  We have arranged a veritable jenga of them that, of course, double as child care.  Their start is delayed by a weekend trip to Long Island where Our Hero will hold Ted's hand while Ted says goodbye to Little Red which will be a hard thing.  Good thing Our Hero is a first grader now and knows all about making your way through hard things.

A Bird In the Hand

We are in the midst of a perfect week here weather-wise, so today, Ted picked up Joe on the bike and Julie picked up Clara Jane on foot. The Birds stopped in the Starfoxes on the way back home and got an iced tea lemonade to share. They held hands except for when they were passing the drink. Sweet times. They saw plenty of birds on the way home which prompted Julie to say, "I've got a Bird right here!" Clara replied, "I'm a Bird, but I don't fly. I'm just called Bird. I'm a Bird, but I don't fly because I have hands, not wings, and I wear clothes. Wild animals don't wear clothes."

Impetigo Is For the Birds

Birdie Brigade, the source of Our Birdie's incessantly running left nostril has been deemed impetigo, one of the illnesses that seems to be coincide with the advent of spring in your preschool hot zones.  She had a sore in the corner of her mouth (that actually cleared up) that was all part and parcel of the same. Strep was on a tear in the preschool rooms and we were reminded that impetigo is a close cousin.  Birdie is on penicillin for it and after just the first dose even seemed so much better--her nose has stopped running, she's less cranky, and she just looks better, you know? Ted took her to the doctor this morning, but the old split-the-day trick where whichever parent was home in the morning goes to work in the afternoon while the other parent does the reverse did not work since both Julie and Ted needed to be at work in the afternoon.  So we did the oh-didn't-you-know?-it's-bring-your-child-to-work day! trick. Ted dropped Clara off with Julie around two-thirty, and Clara spent an hour and a half quietly looking at books, coloring in her new Princess Sofia coloring book, examining the rocks from Orient Point on Julie's desk, eating a chocolate chip cookie and, as it turns out, three wint-o-green Lifesavers--at one time.  She said they were "spicy." Clara was not a fan of the commute home.  Julie really couldn't blame her; it is a total drag. Julie thinks it was mostly the commute that caused Clara to start bellowing about five blocks from White House what turned out to be "I'm going to cough all over the floor," by which she meant vomit. Julie figured this out after pulling over, throwing on her hazard lights, getting out of the car, and opening the back door nearest Biride.  Julie somehow realized that Clara didn't have the word vomit and was trying to communicate with the words she did have.  Clara did, in fact, cough all over the floor, only it was really into Julie's water cup because Julie figured out the code in time.  Julie was car sick not infrequently as a child and today's commute was rather stop and go, so it could have been just that. Or the antibiotic.  Or the three wint-o-green Lifesaves.  But at any rate, Our Birdie appears to be on the mend.

Joe Looses His First Tooth!

But the biggest news of the weekend is not the catastrophe of the dropped paint, the triumph of the lemonade stand, or the triumph over the stump. The biggest news of the weekend is that Our Hero lost his first tooth! And we don't have it. It came out when he was playing football with Eli in Eli's backyard after dinner. He left it on the field of glory, Fans. He left it on the field of glory.

The tooth fairy has tucked a $5 spot under Joe's pillow. Now that might seem spendy, Fans, and we are with you. But here's the deal: a week or so ago, Joe got an Avengers-branded watch with his own money, after having seen it in Target weeks earlier and apparently having tucked away in his secret heart. And in his zeal to get it out of the package, he was hacking away at the packaging--and hacked right through the flexible plastic band. Oh Fans. Oh Fans. The heartbreak. Accidents happen. But Ted noted that this was not the first time that Our Hero had damaged something because of overly enthusiastic package hacking and the Avenger watch hacking became a Teachable Moment.

They can be such a drag, Fans, right? Especially when what follows in their wake is the carefully taping of an Avengers watch band with black electrical tape multiple times a day for many days after the Teachable Moment.

So tonight, Julie said that she thought the Tooth Fairy should leave $5 for Joe so he could get a new watch, under the managing-expectations-guise of it being the first tooth which scores one a bit more than those that follow.  And so Our Hero is sleeping right now on a fiver. We can't wait to see him in the morning.