Take Us Out to the Ballgame

Our last Twins game of the summer was a night game.  Ted planned to take Joe, but bought the Birds tickets, too, when we were offered four that failed to materialize with excitement already running high.  We scored stocking hats with pom-poms on them, which were just the thing for the late summer evening as the sun went down.  The bambini had cotton candy for the very first time.  Clara was delighted by its pinkness; they were both taken with it in all other respects.  There was a marriage proposal that night!  Joe really likes the "love cam" (as he calls the kiss cam), and actually cried when he returned from the bathroom and learned he had missed it, and a marriage proposal.  That was the first sign that we weren't much long past the seventh inning stretch, which is when we packed it in for the season.  The kid's cam never caught the bambini's dance moves and projected them on the jumbo-tron, but there's always next year.

Our Book Worms

What?  You don't don your pearls to read?

Fans.  We're back.  The last few weeks have been lost to birthdays and the attendant birthday cakes, the last Twins game of the summer for us, visitors (form of: Bishopps!), a cocktail party, the last gasp of summer itself, the start of fall, and--frankly, a deluge of books that have come in at the library, for which there is a waiting list for many, putting pressure on one to read them straight away instead of issuing reports from the front here in the North Star State.

Now that we are back, we can report that we are all of us absorbed in our respective books.  Longtime Fans may recall that the school year at Susan Lindgren Elementary kicks off straight away with the annual read-a-thon fundraiser.  Last year's theme was Read to the X-treme, with that x-treme X.  We regret to tell you that this year's theme is something so tame and forgettable that we have in fact forgotten it.  But we are pleased to tell you that if you are so inclined, you may make a donation on behalf of Our Hero here by October 10.  He aims to read an average of 30 minutes a day over the course of the two-week read-a-thon.  So far, so good.  That's 420 minutes total in case you are a Fan making a what-you-would-have-pledged-per-minute-based donation.  Might be wise to keep your pledge per minute small.  The school-wide goal is 118,000 minutes.  If it's reached, then the Minnesota Science Museum will come and dazzle everyone with the delights of science.

It is also Reading Month at KinderCare (even if nationally, it is--at least according to the interwebs--March) so Birdie we have been logging the books that she is reading (or, more accurately, are being read to her) as well.  We are not counting the books that she reads every night after being tucked in since at this point, we think she is more "reading" them as best she can from memory.  By week's end, most of the books from her shelves are strewn about the floor and her bed, teetering in a stack on the nightstand.

Not infrequently, Joe will read to Clara.  You can see a clip of one such instance here. (Keep your eyes on their legs.)  They are both still huge fans of the Berenstain Bears and Fancy Nancy, but in recent months also met Henry and his enormous dog Mudge both of whom are now also beloved.  Turns out, Henry has a cousin!  Annie.  Annie has a bunny named Snowball.  These relations were just discovered this past week.  A whole new world has opened, which is of course, the joy of books.

Joe's Mudge.  Joe often sleeps on top of Mudge.  Probably because when he doesn't, there is barely room for both of them in his bed.

When Joe got Mudge, Clara got an equally enormous Pink Bear.

New Friend

Joe has made a new friend at school, and has been on his first after-school (solo) play date. It all started when Julie was at the so-called "parent pick-up" at the final bell about three weeks ago. While she was milling about with the other parents, her friend Erica introduced her to another mother named, Anne--also known as Caden's mom, who had asked Erica if Erica knew a Joe. Erica said she knew Our Joe, Fans, and pointed to me.  That was when Anne told Julie that Joe was the sweetest boy (making an instant Anne Fan), which she'd discovered when she came upon him the day before in the hallway crying. It seems Our Hero missed the whistle signal calling in his class, and was then at a loss as to what to do, worrying that he would be in trouble. Anne gave him a hug, told him not to worry, and then took him to find his classroom. She also explained to Mrs. S what had happened.

Fans, you know, sometimes you read the front page of the newspaper and sort of despair at how we treat one another sometimes, and then you chat with Anne at parent pick-up and think how the world is filled with so many kind people.  And THEN, Anne hauled off and asked Julie if Joe might want to get together and play with Caden one day. Julie about fell over because usually, she's the one asking and the people she's asking are explaining that they are all tied up visiting relatives on both sides--like cousins thrice removed--and their best friends from second grade. (Minnesotans love for their native state and its pull on them is both impressive and frustrating.) Smd a THEN Anne hauled off and shared that Caden's transition from half-day kindergarten to full-day first grade had been a little tough. Julie liked her so much right off for being so open about the things about which all parents worry. (Julie might have made a new friend, too.)

So Julie tracked Anne down straight away and they got a play date on the calendar. A week ago Saturday they met up with the boys at the school's park. They circled cautiously for a bit, but then Caden asked Joe if he wanted to swing and that was that. By the end of the morning, they'd ridden bikes, Joe had seen Caden's house and room, and Joe had been invited over after school a day later, on Monday. (Caden lives about two blocks away from both White House and the school.)

So now, as we understand it, Caden has joined Joe and Karlis in "the watchtower" at recess. (This sounds a little creepy, right, Fans?! It's the top of the jungle gym in this turret-type tower. To them, it's like a treehouse. They just chose the creepy sounding name in their first-grade wisdom.) Apparently, they "just hang out." But Joe has already said he can't wait for winter so they can go sledding, and it seems like he's picked up another buddy to go with.

LP Zoo

While in Chicago, "Grandpa and Grandpa" took the kids and Ted to the Lincoln Park Zoo while Julie worked her law school forum downtown. Joe really wanted to see the birds so we headed there first and got up close to lots of colorful avian friends.  That brought us by the giraffs, and an Africa exhibit where the kids crawled around a replica of a termite nest. We ended with some big cats where we saw the lion lying on his back much like Berenice does. It was s beautiful day for a walk around the zoo!

Merrily We Roll Along

This weekend finds us in Chicago visiting a Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles. Clara often refers to them jointly as "Grandpa and Grandpa," and yet, interestingly, addresses them as Grandma Connie and Charles--just Charles.  We drove to reach Grandpa and Grandpa Trump's which brought, as usual, all manner of interesting questions and observations. Clara asked why old people die, why we have night, and why we breathe.

Joe spotted two blue herons in one of the areas still flooded by this spring's heavy rains. He said that he had to tell Joe, his Bird's Eye View camp counselor.  He then added, "I am not daring to let that out of my brain."  When darkness fell, before he fell asleep, but perhaps after we'd established why we have night, he was trying to spot an owl.

Some families like to play the alphabet picnic game on long car trips, or the license plate game. Not this family! We tackle Big Life Questions and go owling as we roll along.