Free, Free, Freeeee!

Number 4844 was the former object of Joey's desire

I'm calling it! It's official! We've had an excellent week, and I've decided We are Done With Diapers.  Joey is appropriately pleased with himself, and this morning, first thing, we went out to the store to buy Joey his celebratory treat.  He's been gazing at a picture of a Playmobil, taped next to the toilet, for the last several months, anticipating this fine day, but when we reached the Migros toy aisle he was immediately distracted by the endless possibilities. He considered the Legos for a time, and spent a while eyeing the trucks, but he eventually wandered back to the Playmobil section, where he pulled three boxes from the shelves, lined them up on the floor, and stood back, considering.  The caveman set, with the really fierce looking bear?  Or the pirate set, with the awesome hammerhead shark?  No, he eventually decided he wanted the little zoo clinic, because it had a baby panda that he could feed with a baby bottle.  I was relieved that we had some kinder, gentler playtime in our future.

And here's a little search puzzle for you: ten points to whomever can guess what on earth possessed me to purchase these today:

When we got home, I found a fun little surprise in the mail: an official bill from the World Wildlife Federation, informing me that we owed them precisely 47.60 CHF for the walkathon that Ella participated in a couple of weeks ago.  We'd long been expecting some sort of note from school, and maybe a collection envelope, but I didn't reckon on Swiss efficiency and exactitude. The WWF explained, an the attached letter, that Ella had walked precisely 9.5 kilometers...since we pledged 5 francs a kilometer, I'm not sure where those extra ten Rappen come in, but I guess I'll let them have it.  I'm pretty surprised that Ella walked a full six miles in a morning...and honestly, I'm proud, too. She really took her fundraising charge seriously.  Well done, little girl.

Joey and I had to turn right around and rush out to make it to his play group on time.  I gave him the book Sam and the Firefly, and he pretended to read it the whole way to school, hooting "Whoo? Whoo wants to play with me?" He found a few volunteers at Blumen Tots.

And then home again, where I rushed to get the kids fed before 1:00, when a representative from our moving company arrived to do a survey of all the things we'll want to ship home.  If he was amused by our priorities (aside from our clothes, it's all books, toys, games, and a few stray souvenirs: a cuckoo clock, a wooden sledge, a spätzel maker, a Hofbrauhaus stein) he didn't show it.  And he gave me permission to sneak in a few bags of gummy candies.

After his visit, things finally slowed down.  Joey at last got a chance to open his new toy, and Alex and he used the new dolls to tell a long and complicated story of a rogue goat who was attacking the countryside, trying to cubnap the baby panda, only to be stopped by a hero veterinarian and his giraffe sidekick.  I wanted to videotape it, but I was afraid of making them self-conscious. But it was pretty special, with Joey enthusiastically echoing everything Alex said.

It's the size of a small mouse!

But then, all at once, they'd had enough of each other and started spatting. So I separated them: I had Alex read to me, and I had Joey do a puzzle...and after that they decided they were better off playing together, before I could make them do any more educational activities.  They were distracted for a long while by a critter Alex noticed and who seems to have taken up residence in our front window: our new pet. But they eventually drifted. I found them back in their room, snuggled up, trying to build a truck. Ah, brudders.

Ella came home with her usual Friday heap of homework and did her best to get it done. She sat down and wrote a two-page essay in German about The Firebird: awesome, right?  And her class is starting new novel: she sat down to read it with Dennis this evening, and he tells he didn't have to translate a single word for her. He only helped her with some pronunciation. I never would have believed it. It's a day of Major Accomplishments.