Cheers!

While Julie was affixing stars to the ceiling and doing a pale imitation of Madonna, Ted made family dinner. (Family dinner means we all eat together at the table, instead of just Joe and Clara with Ted and Julie eating later, usually on the TV trays). Joe and Clara's Great Aunt Susie sent Ted and Julie some wine as a surprise (and what a lovely surprise!) so Ted poured some and after we'd all sat down, he asked who wanted to say "Cheers!" Joe loves this some he was quick to get in on that action. But Clara is never, but never one to be left out or behind or dismissed in any way. She wasted no time in raising her little plastic cup. Here's to Birdie's first raising of her glass (cup?!)!

Lucky Stars

At pick-up today, Joe was excited to show us a package of glow-in-the-dark stars that he apparently received today for being a super good picker-upper and cleaner-upper of the Pre-A room. Once we got home, and in, and everyone has gotten out of their shoes, coats, hats, mittens and gloves, had gone potty, and washed their hands--phew!--we put them up. As we did this, Clara was a little frustrated she couldn't chew on one, so we sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, as well as Madonna's Lucky Star, an early, early hit of off her eponymous album. (Joe looked on in wide-eyed delight hearing this new tune.) Alas, these stars: not so twinkly, not so lucky. The dubious nature of these stars glow-in-the-dark-y-ness should perhaps have been suspected given that they were a dollar, and had no adhesive with which to affix them to the ceiling, but we didn't really think about it as we stuck tape to the backs of all these little stars and got them on the ceiling. Joe seemed nonplussed though and for that, and him, and his erstwhile sidekick, we thank our lucky stars.

Letter Boy

Last night, Julie went to a parent-teacher conference with Joe's teacher. Ted stayed behind again to man the circus. Fans, it will perhaps surprise not one of you to know that Joe is bonkers--bonkers!--for the letters. He has figured out pretty much all of them, upper and lower case, in sequence and mixed-up. He apparently, right now, prefaces every lower case letter with "lower case"--e.g. looking at d, instead of saying "d," he will say "lower case d." A few letters give him trouble: G (occasionally), p (sometimes calls it b), and q (tough; how often does one see a lower case q?). He also knows the sound a lot of the letters make, though he will still sometimes say an S makes not just an sss sound (like Susie and snake), but also a C sound. He's got colors, shapes, and counting, too, down, but he isn't much yet for identifying numbers beyond 10 on sight. We are thinking of getting a big calendar for home, like they have in his room, which will have numbers up to at least 30 every month. Ms. Kristin reports he is a sweet boy, and nice, and though it was fun, of course, to see all the letters and such he's learned, hearing that Ms. Kristin thinks Joe is sweet made Julie's heart swell and eyes tear up a bit.

In a related sidebar, we should report that recently, Joe has been chirping about his friend Nina (N for Nina!) going to an extra class they offer called Phonics Learning Adventures, and even though Julie, despite her love of reading, recalls phonics being decidedly not phun, we thought Joe might have fun with it and so, signed him up!

Of Fridays and Locking Up

In other humorous and charming conversational gambits brought to you by Our Hero, we can report that this evening, when we were very nearly home, Joe announced from the backseat, with increasing excitement, that tomorrow, after he went to sleep, it would be FRIDAY!!!!! And after that, it would be Saturday!!!!! "HOLY! MOLY!!!!! That's a lot of weeks!"

Yesterday, he wanted to tack down just how things would go down once we arrived home. He noted that we would lock the doors once we were inside so "anyone doesn't fall out." Of Raleigh House, presumably.

Road Trip to Heaven?

Also on Saturday, when Joe woke up from his nap, he was wondering if we could go and visit Grandma Jane. We think it may have come up because he happened upon a pair of her gloves that came to Julie when he and Clara were mucking about in Julie's winter wear bin. Julie told him we could not go and visit Grandma Jane because she was in heaven, which was way, way too far away, and that besides, once you go to heaven, you can't come back. Joe didn't touch this last part, but after a moment's consideration, as a rejoinder to the first part, asked if we could drive there. If only, Fans, right? If only. We could listen to our new "Beachy Boys" CD on the way!