Unlocking the Books

Lately, before reading bedtime stories to the bambini, Julie has been asking Clara to say all of the names of the letters in the title of a book to "unlock" the book. Sometimes she's game and sometimes she gets a little huffy and puffy in which case we just wait (because the book is locked--imagination: sometimes it's a drag). Not always, but sometimes, when Clara names a letter in her name, she will point to herself, or tap her head, or add, "Like me!" She will also point to Julie if she identifies an M for Mommy. Before we know it, she'll know the words, too, and lower case Ls won't be upper case Is and G and H will be totally locked down even though they are next to each other. But it's all very dear in the meantime.

Our Hero, Our Camper

Our Hero had his first day of YMCA day camp today. It's called Kici Yapi. It's out of the Cities a bit, as camp grounds tend to be. Joe takes a bus there with Graham, who is a fellow camper. When Julie asked Joe what he'd done at camp, he said, "Swimming, face painting. . .rode a bus a long time--like an hour!" (Later, he quoted a two hour bus ride.) He allowed that he sat by Graham on the bus, but apparently, there were no words spoken--not even, "This bus ride is, like, five hours long, right?!?!"  Turns out they also made lanyards today and went bouldering. Julie asked if, after they got their faces painted, they went around roaring like tigers and Joe said, "No!" in a you-don't-know-much-Mom tone. (Apparently, not everyone got made up like a tiger.) But Our Hero had fun. He wants to go back tomorrow--in spite of the nine hour bus ride.

Birdie Goes to Her First Twins Game

On Saturday Clara attended her first baseball game with Ted. It was a big game for the Twins, against the Yankees.  Unfortunatly, Birdie's father is a sucker for a promotional giveaway so he ensured they were at the ballpark when gates opened two hours before gametime to secure their Tom Brunansky bobble heads (maybe one day Clara will cherish this memento that today she can't even see on her bookshelf). Ted did have the wherewithal to reserve a spot for lunch in the nice dining area.  When we were seated, Clara was very quiet and still which is what she does when overwhelmed.  Tableclothes and waiters are not the norm yet in her world. But after a lemonade, fries and pizza she warmed up. We even took Tom out to nod at us while we ate (the first picture shown was sent to Julie with the heading "Bobblehead and Birdie head"). After lunch we still had almost an hour before game time and Clara enjoyed watching the mascot TC bear hit softballs in the outfield. But pretty soon she was in Ted's lap and asleep.  She slept through a presentation honoring Derek Jeter on his career, the National Anthem (with fireworks) and the first inning of the game. She finally woke when Ted asked if she wanted ice cream.  So helmet sundaes were procured and it wasn't long before the much anticipated and hyped (by her big brother) mascot race.  Babe the big blue Ox (Daddy's favorite!) won a close race just edging out Skeeta and Wanda. And that was all the girl could take, so they headed home where Clara excitedly told Joe that Babe won the race and that he could have a "bubble head" too!

The Fourth of July is For Friends

This long holiday weekend found the bambini seeing all kinds of friends.  Joe saw his best buddy from Mrs. Dvorak's classroom (who will be missing Our Hero's birthday party next weekend), Karlis, at the playground behind Susan Lindgren.  It was, of course, like seeing what Our Hero was probably like at recess.  We can report that he stood on top of the swing and swung standing up which seems like just the right amount of rebellion for a kindergarten.  They also played hide-and-seek (hiding in the same spots over and over again) and moved mud around.  Joe also saw his best buddy from his KinderCare days, Marco, when Marco, his little sister Liliana, and their parents came over for dinner one evening.  You wouldn't know it had been probably about a year since they'd seen each other except in passing in the KinderCare halls ay pick-up time for their little sisters.

But today, we had a visit from Ms. Anne, Mr. Brent, their two boys, Nathan and Andrew, and their four-week old daughter, Adeline.  Ms. Anne let Birdie hold Adeline and Birdie took right to it.  She got herself situated, and then stuck her arms straight out to receive little Adeline, and listened attentively to Ms. Anne explain all the things Adeline couldn't do--like control her arms or hold her head up or even sit up on her own!  Clara often hangs out with Ms. Anne and Julie when Nathan and Andrew come to play and Adeline is maybe just one more reason to do so.  She's all kinds of lovely.

The Bambini Return!

Fans, we've been talking to the bambini on the phone every night they've been at their Grandparents Trump's and can thus report something many of you, Fans, probably already knew: that the bambini's voices sound the same over the phone. Both are in that higher register of children. But we quickly discovered that one can tell them apart by what they say, the relative sophistication of their speech.

So we've been hearing the blow-by-blow of the bambini's adventures in what is, let's be frank, a veritable Bambini Shangri La: they spent their days going to a Lippenzaner horse show, the children's museum, the Lake Forest beach, the library, a puppet show, and the neighborhood pool. It all came to an end today at the Mauston, Wisconsin McDonald's where we met the Grandparents Trumpmobile but no tears were shed because Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles will be in Minnesota in just six days!

And now we are motoring north on I-94 having a Frozen sing-a-long.  Love is and open door, Fans, and grandparents like Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles.