It's Mommy's Birthday!!!!!

Today began with Julie hearing Joe holler from his bed, "IT'S!  MOMMY'S!  BIRTHDAY!!!!!" shortly before he and Clara clattered upstairs.  They each made a few trips up and down the stairs to collect the cards they'd made as well as the one they'd bought (a monkey with enormous google eyes  on a head that one can pull up and down).  In case it's not visible in the picture, the card Joe made for Julie reads:
"What I Love About Mommy:
Make dinner for us
Snuggling with Mommy
Sing Happy Birthday
Mommy is really good at mopping and vacuuming"
(Fans, it's true: Julie is terribly good mopping and vacuuming.  May it never be forgotten.)  The card features a hippo that Ted outlined, Joe colored in himself, and then Joe outlined again in blue.

The morning was filled with the usual craziness including the discovery of a pool of pee in front of the toilet that had cascaded down the stool that is almost always in front of it as we were finally headed out the door to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden to see how autumn is unfolding there.  The culprit remains unknown.  Also shrouded in mystery is the reason why the unknown culprit did not announce that an accident had occurred.

As they say, Fans, the days are long, but the years are short.  And as the song says, and many more. . .

Birdie In Chief | The Video

Brigade, when Julie arrived for pick-up, Ms. Manisha told her to sit down because she had something to show her, which turned out to be Birdie rockin' her way through all the presidents the class has learned.  You can watch Clara do it again here because Julie asked Birdie if she could tape Clara doing it, and Birdie said yes so Julie dashed out to the car for her phone.  Here is a cheat sheet of Clara's responses in case it is hard to hear:
Clinton
George Herbrt Bush (but "Walker Bush!" is more fun to say, as you will see)
Carter
Eisenhower ("holding glasses!")
Taft (who has a mustache, which is why she holds a finger up to her upper lip)
Wilson ("got glasses!")
Reagan
Jefferson
Kennedy
Taylor
Nixon (fist appearance; thus, likely not actually Nixon--probably Lincoln because you know, they were so similar in all aspects)
White House (extensive exchange about who can live in the White House)
Adams
Obama
Roosevelt
Coolidge
Bush ("Walker Bush!"; so shall he be known as evermore at Raleigh House)
Washington
Nixon
Washington monument
Lincoln memorial
Buchanan

Bird In Chief, An Addendum

This morning, at drop off, Ms. Manisha asked if we'd reveled in Birdie's display of presidential identification prowess.  We reassured her that indeed, we had.  That's when Ms. Manisha informed us that Clara is the only child in the class who can identify James Buchanan, and added that yesterday, they'd learned Dwight D. Eisenhower.  ("Not tower!  EisenHOWER.  Glasses!"  This from Clara and the other early-arrivers.)  Today's daily doings report states that with today's lesson regarding Jimmy Carter, the class has now covered 20 presidents.  So we were so wrong, Brigade!  We are way beyond the Founding Fathers and the three most recent guys now.

An Idea Whose Time Has Maybe Come?

This morning, while snuggling before getting up, Joe said, "I know!  Let's have a stay-at-home pajama day!"  This comment remind us to report that of late, he's been delivering pronouncements of this ilk, replete with adult inflections and hand gestures.  Always, the suggestion is something completely outlandish and unworkable like, "We could maybe get a pet tiger!" or "I know!  We could maybe paint the house purple."  Always, the suggestion is delivered with a gesture like upraised palms and a shoulder shrug, like "I'm just spit balling here!  But I think I'm on to something. . ."  Of course, he really might be with this stay-at-home pajama day.

The Idea Man

Bird in Chief

We have been meaning to report that Clara and her Twos B compatriots have been learning to recognize some of our presidents: Washington, Lincoln, (Teddy) Roosevelt, Kennedy, Clinton, Bush, and Obama.  No doubt you will have discerned, Brigade, that for the most part, those presidents making the cut are those that are readily distinguishable on sight, or who have recently held the office, relatively speaking.  Now lest you think Ms. Manisha and Ms. Marjorie are neglecting your more typical pre-school concepts in favor of these less traditional topics, we would tell you that shapes are also a focus right now (and that Birdie nailed them all tonight in her shapes book for the first time ever).  But Ms. Manisha is all about the knowledge extensions and well, it is an election year after all.

Today's report of Clara's daily doings said: "Quiz on presidents resulted in a 3 way tie.  Clara finally won the tie by guessing two more presidents."  Bird Nation, we can believe it.  We neglected to report that the other week, when we were discussing, over dinner, things we'd learned at school, Clara informed Julie, in a tone that suggested Julie was a complete dope, that the president of these United States was Roosevelt.  She could not be dissuaded.  Obama?  He's some schmuck that lives in the White House, sure, but President?  Pshaw!  Birdie lives in the Yellow House so whatevs, O-bam-ah.  Also, Birdie Brigade, Birdie would have you know that it's not Bill Clinton; it's just "Clinton."  Hail to the Birdie, she's the one we all say hail to!

Presidential Historian