Lockdown

Fans, we know: we've left you hanging. We have so much to report! And we shall get you all caught up with all the bambini's doings. For tonight, we bring you a news bulletin from this afternoon that resulted in the St. Louis Park KinderCare, where Our Birdie goes, being on lockdown from about 1pm until its close-!!! A repeat felon was on the lose and as part of the as-yet failed efforts to apprehend him, police had converged on Byerly's, a large grocery store quite near the KinderCare. (The Grandparents Trump may be interested to know that Highway 169 was briefly shut down in the northbound direction, on a stretch encompassing the exit leading to the Marriott at which they sometimes stay.) The manhunt has since moved far south, and not long after 3pm, KinderCare Director Lacee had said they would remain on lockdown, but that they would open the doors to authorized pick-up people. (A "soft lockdown"?)

So the lockdown represented more an abundance of caution than a response to a true threat.  One can see this fact clearly in hindsight, now that Rational Brain is in the driver's seat again. At the time, Julie's Emotional Heart shoved Rational Brain in the back seat and floored it right on down Oh-My-God-A-Person-With-A-Loaded-Gun-Could-Be-Walking-Into-Clara's-Day-Care-Right-Now! Road, while Rational Brain screamed from the back seat, "Oh for the love of GOD! Get a Big Gulp of perspective and take a sip!" Had she been able to reach Ted, she feels certain that he would have said the same thing then as he all but did later: when she reached him later to discuss estimated times of arrival home given the snow that began falling around 3pm, and said, "Did you hear about this lockdown thing?!" he said, "Yeah?" So see, he probably didn't need the Big Gulp.

Rational Brain eventually managed to clamber up to the front seat and at least ride shotgun and the bambalinos are tucked in, safe as houses, in their White House.

Ring-A-Ding Duh!

This just in: Julie has found Clara in bed, propped up on her pillow in her Santa Claus hat, with her toy Frozen-themed cell phone up to her ear. Clara has glanced up at Julie framed in the doorway and said, "I'm talking to Emma."

Um, like, hello???

Knitting (or Heartfelt, Heart Melt)

Knitting, first moments.

Playing in the (handcrafted) tree house in one corner of the store.

Joe learned to knit yesterday, though to be fair, it might be more accurate to say someone tried to teach him to knit. Early this fall, Joe announced that he would be asking Santa for a "knitting kit" or sometimes, in the alternative, a "sewing kit"--"like the one he saw with Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles at Barnes & Noble." We spent a good amount of time between then and Christmas trying to ascertain what these words might be describing.  The Grandparents Trump were of no help because they did not realize they where even present when the knitting (or sewing) kit made such a remarkable impression. A family field trip to a local Minnesota Barnes & Noble revealed mostly that Joe and Clara planned to ask Santa for items that were carefully culled from a list of nearly every toy available at Barnes & Noble.  There were too many delights to even focus on finding a knitting kit.  But it revealed itself to Julie from a table curated by the Barnes & Noble staff--sewing kit! (cue light streaming from the heavens and lilting angelic voices)--from which she quickly spirited it away to a register.

This toy was being marketed to girls. A fetching tween was pictured on its box looking perky and crafty. The box was filled with pink, purple, and aqua yarn with small amount of black and orange thrown in for interest; pink knitting needles; and other assorted crafting tools in shades of pink and purple.  Julie spent the next several weeks looking for alternatives that might be more age appropriate and, perhaps,  more gender-neutral. She had once had a weaving loom on which she made many a not-very-useful five-inch-square pot holders (repurposed as coasters by their recipients).  That loom was red, and came with loops in every color of the rainbow. She set out to find a like loom and quickly realized that if we have come a long way, baby, in telling girls explicitly and implicitly that they can do all the things that the boys do, and celebrating girls who do not conform to female gender stereotypes, we do not do the same for our boys who do not conform, always or sometimes, to the stereotypes associated with their gender.  Girls who do not conform to female stereotypes and their parents have a some support as they make their way, and a whole lexicon to describe their journey.  Mighty girls unite! Boys, try not to cry. It's maddening. The fact that we don't really recognize, let alone celebrate, the boy who doesn't conform to the dominant male stereotype might be a kind of vestigial sexism--what boys do is where it's at--or confusion about the distinction between still-not-always-accepted homosexuality versus gender role non-conformity.  But there is clarity in the toy aisles and it is clearly that gendered toys sell.  Boys who do not confirm to the dominant stereotypes of their gender and their parents have few or no options.  Knitting--or sewing, if you like--kits abound featuring all you will need to make a pink or purple hat or scarf or felted bag, very likely with a flower appliqué, modeled by smiling tween-aged girls. Today's looms are exclusively pink or purple and come with an over abundance of pink, purple, aqua, and pale yellow loops and the girls on the boxes containing them look tickled (pink, of course).

And, on top of this exasperating circumstance, there was this: neither Juie nor Ted knits. So with the sewing kit secure, and Joe's more frequent use of "knitting kit," Julie figured she should think about how Joe was going to learn to knit. The whole endeavor seemed like a non-starter given Joe's age, but if it is true that six might be too young to knit, it is not too young to be taken seriously. So, she arranged a lesson from a knitting colleague on one of the last days she worked in December before Christmas. She casted on, she knit a row.  She was skeptical she would remember, but it seemed better than nothing.  That same colleague gave Julie the name of a friend at a knitting and textiles store that, as it turns out, is right down the road from the White House.  It was a good thing, too, because Julie's skepticism of her ability to remember how to knit was well-founded.

So one day after Christmas, Julie and Joe made a trip to the knitting store.  Juile's colleague had suggested knitting with a goal, so Julie asked Joe what he would like to make.  He said a blanket for one of his stuffed animals. At the knitting store, they introduced themselves and told the person there that Joe would like to learn to knit, to make a blanket for his stuffed animal. That person quickly demurred, but suggested another name of a possible teacher, and also that he might select some yarn to use. So Julie and Joe walked out with orange, "super washed"--a modifier Our Herois now always quick to attach--yarn, and the appropriate needles for said yarn (size sevens).

Later that day, Julie called one of the teachers who didn't laugh, but also didn't seem terribly excited about the prospect of teaching a six-year old how to knit.  She mentioned a store called Heartfelt, in this tone that implied she couldn't imagine why Julie would be calling her when Heartfelt existed. So Julie called Heartfelt and when her elevator speech about knitting lessons for her six-year-old son who wanted to make a blanket for a stuffed animal was interrupted with "Oh! That's a great first project!", she knew she'd found the right place to take Joe.

Heartfelt is a kid's crafting haven in a Minneapolis neighborhood with the bucolic name of Linden Hills.  (You can see the hills of linden trees, right?)  Joe's teacher is Heartfelt's owner, Lisa.  Lisa sat down on a small couch with Joe, asked him about himself and his experience with knitting, casted on for him, and then started knitting with him using a little rhyme: "In the front door, around the back, peek through the window, and out jumps Jack." She was very, very, very clam.  In between rows, she sent Joe on a lap around the store to burn off a little of his abundant excitement.  At the end of two rows, Lisa told Julie that although Joe was a little young, she was game to keep going. She asked Joe if he wanted to keep going with knitting a blanket for Pengy (which Lisa rightly guessed was Joe's penguin) or explore other ways of making a blanket.  Joe said he wanted to knit the blanket.  So Julie and Joe is will head back next week where Lisa will revisit what Julie's colleague showed her so that Joe has a partner in crime on the home front which will aid in the Pengy Blanket Campaign.

After Julie and Joe walked out, on the sidewalk in front of the store, he looked up at her, smiling and on a peel of laugher said, "I can't believe you let me do that!" And then he threw his arms around her legs and added, "Thank you, Mommy!"

Heart melt in front of Heartfelt.

Skating

First off, this post, too, will be a videopalooza.  Settle in, Fans.  The bambini have begun learning to ice skate at the "skate school" at St. Louis Park Rec Center.  (It's almost a life skill up here in the Great White North.)   Joe has been roller skating a few times, as recently as the week between this past Christmas and the end of his winter break.  You can see a brief clip of him flying around the rink with these white contraptions they have for beginning skaters who want them--and Joe does (though he probably would be fine without it)--here.   He's in green.  That's Graham next to him in the orange!  (Bonus footage of Julie--whose first roller skates had a Garfield decal on them and yellow wheels and laces--skating here.)

So Joe has been very comfortable on ice skates and loves being out on the ice.  Clara is also comfortable, but is not quite as light on her blades yet.  They spent most of the first class learning how to get back up after falling down, though in this clip of the end of this past class where the instructors had the kids pick up blocks, Clara embraced another way of getting around the ice when you've fallen down.  But in this other clip from the middle of class, you can see both bambini up and on their skates and--skating!  They are to the left of the frame at the start; Joe is helping Birdie up.

Winter Gala 2015, the End of an Era

Fans, this past week, we marked the end of an era.  We attended our last Winter Gala (now "Winter Concert"; also known as "Winter Event") put on by the pre-schoolers of the KinderCare.  The inaugural Winter Gala in 2010 was conceived when Joe was the Toddler B room with Ms. Krystal and Ms. Nicole.  Longtime Fans will recall this was when Joe and his classmates pinged about the performance space in the St. Louis Park Rec Center, orbiting around the valiant Ms. Krystal like so many electrons around, as Little Red Caboose played in the background.  Joe pumped his arm, blowing that train horn for all he was worth.  No one was surprised when, the next year, children ranging from 15 months to 18 months were not included in the program.

But the two-year-olds were!  This next year was the year that Joe, searching in vein for us in the darkened theater, began crying before his class's performance even started and was whisked to Julie who had made her way to the side of the stage.  No one was surprised when next year, children who were not yet three were not included in the program.

Joe performed as a part of the Preschool A room in January of 2012 and then the Pre-K room in December of 2012, and then passed the torch to Clara who first appeared in the Winter Gala in January of 2014 as a member of the Preschool B classroom.

In her farewell Gala performance, Birdie took the stage (in the cafeteria of the St. Louis Park Middle School) with her Pre-K classmates to sing Let It Snow (a winter-themed play on Frozen's Let it Go) and Pre-K Lead Teacher Mr. Mark's stand-by original chant.  You can view the performance of Let It Snow here,  and of the original chant, here.  Our Birdie is fifth from the left (or stage right, if you like).  She was composed throughout, but deployed some dramatic emotion to great effect in Let It Snow.  Pay attention, in particular, after the pick-up 1:30 in, and again at the close, 2:30 in. Her class's performance as enhanced by some lighting design work which you will notice at the start of Let It Snow.

In the bambini's collective tenure at KinderCare, we have attended all five of its Galas, including both in the double Gala year of 2012.  January 2016 just won't be the same.