Our Hero, Down, But Only Just

We arrived at KinderCare to collect the bambini, and saw that Joe had done his best today on the rainbow-clothes pin discipline chart.  Hooray!  But when we found Our Hero and began crowing over him, we were met with a sort of listless smile.  That's when Joe said his throat hurt and that he was thirsty.  Roh roh Raggy.  We found Clara and hustled home thinking it might be that he was overheated from the late afternoon outdoor play.  He's often flushed and sweaty at pick-up time in the summer.

But when we got home, Joe threw up on the porch, between the two doors. Poor Pal-o.  There is nothing quite so miserable looking as a kid who's just lost his cookies.  Clara went upstairs with Ted, and Julie took Joe in for a bath.  (Berenice was sent to the backyard at a forced march because as you all know, Fans, if there's something gross like vomit or pee or diarrhea to be licked up, Boo will be on it, like white on rice.)  After the bath, Joe climbed into bed where he ate a quarter of a piece of toast over the course of about three years.  Mostly, he manhandled it while trying to understand that he should eat only what he felt like eating, but that doing so, and being sick, did not give him leave to play with his food.

By now, we have decided (in our infinite medically sound wisdom) that Joe has--had--what Clara had on Friday evening.  This would be the Barfed-It-Up-and-I'm-Good-To-Go! bug.  Because although Joe wanted to lie down after taking a bath, soon enough he also wanted to play, and to know when his partner in crime was going to arrive.  He was jumpier than a Mexican jumping bean while snuggling with Julie as Ted gave Birdie a bath, and then with Ted when Julie was reading Birdie stories.  One got the sense that Joe felt being sick was a drag if it meant that he had to rest, and to be fair, he certainly seemed pretty revived.  Resting shmesting!

As this report is filed, the two of them are yucking it up in there.  The kitchen timer has just gone off and Clara is helpfully calling "It's ready!" from her crib.  (These back-up kitchen timers are fabulous.  It's a wonder we lived without them for so long.)

Snuggle In Huckleberry Friends

Tonight, at bedtime

Most mornings, the entire family piles on to Joe's bed and snuggles for a bit before plunging into the day.  A few weeks ago, Julie snuggled with Joe on the other end of the day, and now, Joe will often ask if she will stay and snuggle after he's been tucked in to bed.  Clara is often still dozing herself.  A few nights ago, Julie asked if she should sing a song.  Birdie popped her head right up and said, "Yes!" before plopping it back down.  Julie is partial to Moon River at such moments (even if it one of those songs in during which one can quickly get into trouble if one does not start not too high, but not too low) because she is singing it to a pair of would-be huckleberry friends, off to see the world and no doubt before we know it.

Last night, we heard Joe crying well after he'd gone to bed and all was quiet.  When Julie went in to see what was the matter, Joe informed her he heard people (our friends Anne and Brent were over for dinner).  Julie lay down next to him and wrapped her arms around him for a bit.  After a while, she noticed that he was running his little hand up and down her arm, and then stopping to rest it for a few beats before continuing to run it up and down her arm and down to her hand.  This is just how Julie touches Joe and Clara--running her hand all up and down their limbs before cradling some bit of them for a moment.  It's something to do with wanting to be sure of them, and not quite believing they were once so small they could be held all tucked up just on her chest, and wanting to hold them always.

Birdie Phone Home

Birdie with Cupcake Kitchen drawer as phone

Now and again, one can hear Birdie chirping "Hello?  Hello?" from another room, and find her with all manner of things pressed to her ear as a pretend phone (seldom is it an actual phone).  Coming upon her and catching her eye, one who makes an imaginary phone with his or her hand, holds it up to his or her ear, and chats for a bit with Clara, will be rewarded with a smile bursting with light.  The whole scene is made all the more charming by the knowledge that if one was talking on the phone with another, one would not see that other person, which is not the case when one is chatting on the imaginary phone with Clara, which is marked by consistent delighted eye contact.

These conversations have rather little to them.  Clara has a few words phrases she repeats again and again: "Hello?", "See you later!", and "I love you!"  But you know, one day, she'll be twenty-two instead of two, and if she calls only to say hello, see you later, and I love you, we won't complain.

A Midwestern Drop-In From the Knudermuths

Fans, this is a picture of, from left to right, Anja, Elsa, and Birdie.  !!!!!

Longtime Fans will remember Joe's friend, Elsa, and her parents, Julie and Ted's friends, Sanne and Todd.  Sanne, Todd, and Elsa moved to Salt Lake City in June 2009, when Joe and Elsa were about a year old.  Since then, they have added Anja to Team Knudermuth, and moved to Seattle.  But yesterday, they were back here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  (Todd's family vacations at a spread one of his aunt's has in Wisconsin and they, together with Todd's sister and her partner and their new baby, and Todd's mom, broke the multi-part trek out there at Raleigh House.)  We laid eyes on Anja for the first time and saw Elsa as a big girl.  Wow and wow.  Sanne saw Clara for the first time, and we saw Sanne after what had been about two years.  Sanne and Julie cried.  It was better than Cats.

Clara was really interested in the people who were, to her, all new, save Todd who was in town briefly a little over a month ago.  Elsa and Anja had to eat lunch and Clara sat herself right down at the table where the girls had a conversation about the IKEA cups they all have at their respective homes.  We learned that at the Knudermuth residence, family members use a particular color--e.g. Todd uses yellow; therefore, better for Elsa to use a different color at this lunch.

Joe had just woken up from a nap and was a little more wary of the invaders, especially after Todd and Ted left to go get more groceries for the Wildermuths' week away and he was the only boy among rather a lot of girls: Sanne, Elsa, and Anja; Julie and Clara; Elsa and Anja's Aunts Amy and Gwen, and their little Lila; and Elsa, Anja, and Lila's Grandma Jean.  But by the time the cars were being reloaded, he was flitting around--and had been tempted into the female fold with apple slices.

Story time with Amy and Gwen

Sanne and Elsa (Todd's outfit did not coordinate with his ladies' ensembles)

Anja (Sanne, all over again)

It was a sad day for us when the Knudermuths moved away.  Sanne and Julie's pregnancies with Joe and Elsa overlapped by seven months, which meant that their maternity leaves overlapped by about a month.  So after spending some of our college post-college years together, we spent a lot of our first year as new parents together.  To the extent we thought that might change, we just hoped it wouldn't.  Of course,  you never know where life will take you.  But at least with that uncertainty comes the possibility that life will bring you back around again now and then to the people you love who scatter about.

Yesterday, as the Knudermuth caravan pulled away, Sanne leaned toward the open window and said, "Don't cry, Julie!"  Too late.

But we'll see Team Knudermuth again in about a week on their way out of town, and we'll get to spend more time with them then.

A Visit to Eloise

But this morning, Birdie appeared no worse for the wear, and since the weather was about as close to perfect as you can get, this morning, we headed off to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.  As our longtime Fans know, this is a favorite destination, so it was not to be our first time at the EBWG, but it was our first visit this season.  The thistle, rudabeckia, cone flower, and phlox were all in bloom.  We walked all about listening to the birds, and a Joe (who likes to stay 12 steps ahead in the day's plan: "When are we walking to the car?", "And then I'm going in the blue car with Daddy, right?", "To Teddy's party*, right?", "Calara, you're going to go in the bronze car with Mommy.").  The bambini were plenty tired after we'd summited "Spook Hill," so-called after the same in The Berenstain Bears Bears In The Night, but by then, it was time to get rolling on down and into the afternoon.

Follow the leader.

Big Tough.

A single halfway decent shot of the bambini together.  (Take 56)

"Can you give your sister a kiss?"

Imagine both little heads turning toward the camera with gazes of smiling wonder.  (You have to imagine it, because in your imagination is the only place it will happen.)

*It is the summer of birthday parties for Joe as it would seem everyone in his class is turning four.  Teddy's birthday party was today, and we have been discussing it for days.  For.  Days.  Specifically, we have been tacking down the difference between Teddy's birthday, and Teddy's birthday party.  It is impossible to say how many times Julie or Ted has said that they did not know when Teddy's birthday was, but that his party was not today, but Sunday.  After a beat, Joe would inevitably say, "But today is Teddy's birthday, right?"  Dearest Readers, you might be thinking that we should have just said "Yes, today is Teddy's birthday."  But you know where that road leads?  To "Why aren't we going to Teddy's party today?" Land.