Always Up For A Snuggle

We have written here before about Clara's love of being held.  Her strong will and confidence means that this love is very often expressed by Birdie marching up to her target, tossing her head back as she flings her arms up as she says, "Up!"; or taking his or her arms and wrapping them around herself; or placing his or her hand just so on her knee.  There's not many a meal that goes by at our table that Clara doesn't make it known to Julie that she would like Julie to place her left hand on top of it so that Clara can place her right hand on top of it now and again.  Birdie's latest is this vein is to demand, from her car seat, Julie's hand from the front passenger seat, bringing new meaning to the phrase backseat driving.  It might be completely annoying if it weren't so sweet.  Julie thinks a large measure of Clara's appeal is due to her obvious delight in the physical world, and the unabashed way she goes about meeting it.  In other words, she's always up for a snuggle, so frankly, you'd better be, too, because when you're with Clara, it's gonna be cuddle time before too long.  It's fabulous; she's fabulous.

Welcome Back Whaley!

Fans, it's back: the whale pool.  Longtime readers will recall that last summer, we got a wading pool shaped like a whale, replete with a tail and a blow hole to which one can hook up the hose to make a fountain.  Sadly, we must report that when Whaley was overwintered, his tail sprung a leak so it does not remain in all its perky glory for long.  But the science-minded Ted assures Julie that he knows how to find a leak in an inflatable so Whaley shall be returned to fully inflated splendor before too long.  (Julie is perhaps more relieved than the bambini who paid the wilting tail little mind.)

It's been sweltering here so we spent rather a lot of time in Whaley this week with our buckets and sand toys which double as water toys.  The bambini had much bailing of water business to be handled.  Also making a return appearance: the beach balls with the shark and seahorse inside.  They actually went missing for a time.  Turns out, they'd blown down the street.  When Julie retrieved them she learned that a wonderful way to meet one's less immediate neighbors is to lose some pretty fantastic beach balls that also serve as conversation starters.

The Fine Art of Conversation

Longtime readers might recall that after reading books before bed, Julie and Joe often chat for a bit.  This practice began when Joe was in Ms. Kristin's preschool room and was working with the kids on asking questions and responding to others, right around the same time that we began working with Joe on looking at people when he was responding to them, and making sure he did in fact respond to greetings and the like.

The other night, Julie asked Joe if could remind her how old he was?  Three.  And how old was he going to be in just another week or so?  Four.  Did he know how old Mommy was? No.  Julie said she was thirty-five--going on thirty-six.  Joe's eyes got very big.  That's when he asked when Julie would get to the end of the numbers.*

*Julie said she had no idea, and that seemed to satisfy Joe.  Thank goodness.  It was rather not the moment that Julie wanted to explain that living to the end of the numbers is tricky business indeed.

The Mushy Machie

Also yesterday, we decided to make jam.*  Before we headed to the farmer's market for berries, we headed to the ATM for cash.  We referred to the ATM as "the money machine," and as we pulled away, Clara said what sounded like, "Goodbye mushy mashie!"  Joe promptly informed her that it was the money machine, and added, "You got to talk in a real voice."  Then he expounded about how if one didn't talk in a real voice, others couldn't understand what one was saying.  But it wasn't long before everyone in the backseat was saying goodbye to the mushy mashie.

*We couldn't make strawberry rhubarb only as we usually do, because our early spring meant that the Minnesota strawberries had come and gone; the season had moved on to raspberries.  So we made some strawberry rhubarb with rather sad looking berries from the grocery store, and rather beautiful looking raspberries from the farmer's market.  We'll see.

Moon Rocks

Yesterday afternoon, Julie and Clara hauled a box of books to the resale shop while Ted and Joe went to collect Berenice from "camp," where she goes to relax and revive on busy weekends.  When Julie and Clara returned, they were greeted by Joe who shouted, "I'm playing moon rocks!"  As you can see, Fans, when you play moon rocks, you remove all of the cushions from the sofa and chair, place them in a big pile and then leap into them from the sofa or chair.  (Joe is in his bathing suit because it was sweltering all weekend and the bambini ran through the sprinkler before lunch.  Also, Our Hero just loves him a bathing suit.)