Happy V-day!

Sadie says, "Happy Valentine's Day!!" Well, not really. She can't talk yet. But she did give me a high-five yesterday!!! I was so excited! I was also very excited when I found this shirt for her. It reminded me of a "mini-dress" I had when I was little! Oh...this is Ali by the way. Hope everyone has a nice V-day!

Election Day

Well, Tuesday is primary day in VA, MD and DC so get out there and VOTE! No pressure, but you can see who Jake and Sadie are rooting for:


We went to the Obama rally on Sunday at TC Williams high school. We were going to bring the kids, thinking it would be fun for them to look back on when they got older, but we decided to bring Erin & Fred, who ended up being much more patient with all the waiting in lines than the kids would have been. It turns out that they handed out too many tickets and about 700 of us were directed to an auditorium where they were going to pipe in the audio from the big gymnasium. We were pretty disappointed, but decided to stick around since we'd waited over two hours. We heard Gov. Kaine over the loudspeakers, welcoming the huge crowd, and doing some introductions. It reminded me of the old "fireside chats" where everyone crowded around radios to listen to FDR. He said Barack would be out shortly, and a few minutes later, a bunch of serious looking guys in suits and earpieces came into our auditorium, followed by Barack Obama. He thanked us for coming and apologized for running out of room. He talked to us for a few minutes and then did the rope-line thing for a bit, and shook the hand of a little boy about Jake's age who was sitting in the row in front of us. If I can just Photoshop that kid's hair blond, we'll just pretend Jake was there with us.

Here's Barack apologizing for the overflow room, joined by Gov. Tim Kaine, Congressman Jim Moran, and the Mayor of Alexandria who gave an awkward speech about kids being on a "high" about Obama-- but not that kind of "high".

Either Clinton or Obama would be a vast improvement over Bush, but if you're still undecided, here are my top 10 reasons to vote Obama:

1) Obama is not George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush or Bill Clinton or Hilary Clinton or Jeb Bush for that matter. We've already had TWENTY YEARS of Bush/Clinton, do we need another four or eight? If we saw this in another country, we'd call it an oligarchy, not a democracy.

2) Obama only has four years of experience in Washington. This isn't a liability. This means he isn't entrenched in the system. As a contrast, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld combined have almost 80 years of experience in Washington.

3) Obama and Clinton have very similar policy proposals. Their health care reform proposals are about 95 percent identical, for instance. For reasons mostly outside of Hillary's control, she would face stiff opposition from many in Congress who will simply refuse to work with her, making her proposals less likely to become law.

4) Hillary has often referred to the vast Right Wing Conspiracy and the constant attacks on her or her husband. She's either correct and will have a difficult time building consensus (see Point 3) or she's paranoid, which will also make it difficult for her to work with Congress.

5) If you're a woman and tired of seeing white male Presidents, I don't blame you. I like change too. But out of 535 US Senators and Representatives, there are only 43 blacks and only 82 women. Who's more deserving? The best candidate. Regardless of race or gender.

6) Obama has a better chance of beating McCain. Republican voters, at least according to polls, don't have fond memories of the Clintons. This isn't Hillary's fault for the most part, but it's an uphill battle she'll have to fight. Obama has shown an ability to win over independent voters, and Republican voters give him a higher favorable rating than any other Democrat who ran for president this cycle.

7) Obama will be more effective in repairing our reputation worldwide. First, he favors John Kennedy's approach of "Never negotiate out of fear, and never fear to negotiate". Clinton's campaign ridiculed Obama's suggestion that he might sit down with someone like Chavez. Is that really so crazy? How's our Cuba policy working out? Second, his name is Barack Hussein Obama and his father was a muslim. George W. Bush is a huge recruiting figure for young angry muslims. What will it say about our system of government if we can elect someone with that name and background? Will it make it more difficult for Al Qaeda to make their case against the US? I think it would, and I would be proud to demonstrate that our system is respectful of all backgrounds.

8) Obama doesn't accept money from PACs or registered lobbyists. He admits that this doesn't entirely fix the money-in-politics situation, but it shows a greater committment to the problem than the Clinton campaign has shown. Also, Obama's campaign has relied much more heavily on grass-roots contributions. Obama has twice the percentage of <$200 donors, and Clinton has three times the percentage of $4600 donors (the maximum allowed).

9) Michelle Obama is a great role model for young women, as is Hillary Clinton. No, it wouldn't be the same as being President, but she has shown she is a strong, outspoken, successful woman both in her profession and as a mother.

10) Obama speaks for the majority of Americans who fall in the middle of partisan politics. Contrary to the image of the talking heads on CNN and Fox News, most Americans aren't just passionate about a few fringe issues. I think most Americans simply want policies that help maintain a level playing field. I think Obama is the candidate that has the best proposals accomplish that.

Eye Candy

Ok, I promised some new pictures and I'm sure you're ready for them after a series of boring, text-only entries. Here's a shot from tonight, just before bedtime. See more photos here.

They were having so much fun together in Jake's room - jumping off his bed, rolling around on Jake's sleeping bag, and then climbing up on the rocking chair together (yep, Sadie climbed up on her own). Watching them play together, I always think of the Woody Allen movie Sweet and Lowdown. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth the rental. Sean Penn plays a 1930's jazz guitarist who's kind of a sympathetic scoundrel, who falls for a mute girl, who in turn loves him unconditionally, despite his sometimes derisive treatment of her. There are so many scenes in that movie where he talks and talks about himself to her and she just nods and smiles and loves him with her eyes. Jake doesn't play guitar very well yet, but he talks and talks to Sadie, and often pushes her around, and she just stares back at him and smiles and loves him. So, has anyone seen this movie? Maybe I should stick to mainstream movie references. Anyway, this was supposed to be a post all about the visuals. Here's a little movie starring Captain Hook (played by Jake) as he fights Peter Pan (played by Ali's index finger):

And here's a video of Jake giving us his favorite quotes from Finding Nemo:

"What's the crab say?"
"Says: HEY HEY HEY (in Australian accent)"
"And what does Nemo say?"
"Nemo says: 'I don't need any help'"
"And what does Dory say?"
"Dory says: 'You need help'"
"And what does Nemo's daddy say?"
"????"

Tune in next week when Jake reads from "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Newzzzzzzzzzzz

I know how it is. You're at work, you're a little bored, maybe you'll check to see if there's anything new on Tripdub. Nope, still NOTHING! Or maybe you're semi-retired on a lake somewhere and thinking, I wonder what my grandchildren are up to? But that no-good-son-in-law still hasn't posted ANYTHING in the last week or so!

Well, we're still here. We've been having a lot of fun during the days, but maybe not so much at night. Saturday we did our farmer's market run, picking up some sweet potatoes which Sadie happens to LOVE! We were so happy to find something besides bananas for her. She'll eat a whole banana while you're checking your email, but she turns her nose up at just about everything else.

Then we headed to IKEA for their lingonberry pancake breakfasts. I think we pay more for gas to get there than on the actual breakfast, but it's a fun place for everyone. They have little kid stations here and there and Ali and I can look at the furniture and think, "that looks great, but who's going to distract the kids for the 6 hours it takes to assemble it?"

Jake's back at First Steps-- his old pre-school-- for three mornings a week. He was a little bit wary at first, but he seems to be having fun there now, and I think the interaction with the other kids is good. Last week his teacher told us he was doing well, but he often ignored group time and wanted to do his own thing. On the way home that day, Ali attempted to broach the subject:

"Jake, do you always listen to Ami (his teacher) and sit down with the other kids?"

"No"

"Well, it's important to listen to Ami. But.....it's also important to retain your individuality"

"ok"

I'm sure he got the message.

We also went swimming at the local rec center pool this weekend. Jake jumped right in with his water wings and swam up and down the lane like a pro. Sadie seemed to enjoy herself too, smiling and giggling.

The nights have been a struggle, though. On the up side, Sadie's been sleeping through the night for about a week. And that's no small feat. But, on the down side, Jake's new found freedom of his big boy bed has left us a bit sleep deprived.

Jake's always been a pretty good sleeper, so we're hoping it will just take an adjustment in our approach to get us back to restful nights. Our new strategy when he gets out of bed at night is to take him back to bed without any talking, except to say "You have to stay in bed." No more negotiations or pleading or promises or threats ("the sun won't come up in the morning unless you go to sleep") -- just brief, firm but gentle insistence that it's bedtime. This might seem obvious, but logic is pretty fuzzy at 3:30am.

More pictures soon!

Decibel Test

The past few nights have been a little rough. Sadie is nursing a cold, so she hasn't been sleeping very well, and she ends up crying for loooooooooooong stretches. And Sadie's cry is especially pathetic so it's hard to do what we think is the right thing and let her fall back asleep on her own. Jake is still sleeping well, but now it takes twice as long to put him to bed because he can get up on his own and comes up with all these excuses like "I have to go potty" or "I need my truck" or "I just need to check CNN to see the primary results in South Carolina".

But last night, Sadie seemed to be feeling a little better, and actually took quite a few steps on her own. She went right down after her little workout -- and Jake went down on the first try! So, we enjoyed our 45 minutes of quiet before going to bed ourselves, and crossed our fingers that we'd have an uneventful night.

It turns out, there is something louder and more ear-piercing than Sadie's wailing. Wait for it, wait for it................a JACKHAMMER! That's right, at exactly 3:00am, we were awoken to the rattling of a jackhammer on our quiet little hilltop in Falls Church. There was a whole crew out there: front end loader, dump truck, generator truck, etc. We were so tired that we probably could have slept through a constant jack-hammering, but we weren't that lucky. They apparently had to cut 5,000 little holes in the street that involved all kinds of stop-start jack-hammering. It lasted over an hour. Luckily, and ironically, the kids slept through.

I guess it was a water main break. In the morning all our pipes had some air in them, and we saw evidence of a small river that must have flowed down the street.

Decibel levels (for comparison)

softest audible sound	0 dB
normal breathing	10 dB
whispering	25 dB
normal conversation	60 dB
dishwasher	65 dB
busy traffic	75 dB
noisy restaurant	80 dB
average factory	85 dB
screaming baby	90 dB
subway train	100 dB
power mower	105 dB
shouting in ear	110 dB
live rock music	90-130 dB
football stadium	117 dB
car horn	120 dB
jackhammer	130 dB
air raid siren	130 dB

31 months

Today is Jake's 31 month birthday. We're not the parents that normally remember that sort of thing, and I think we were both happy when Jake turned two so we could stop answering the "how old" question in months. But, it occurred to me tonight, and I thought it'd be fun to look at a picture from a year ago. Here's Jake, in his "grrrr" face heyday, helping stir some pancake batter (take that, Maria Montessori-- we had him doing practical life activities a year before you would have).

A year ago, Sadie was still warm and cozy in Ali (sometimes I think she's still trying to get back in there), Jake was in diapers, in a crib at night, and eating his food from a highchair. He hadn't climbed a playground ladder yet, he hadn't learned to swim with just water wings on, and he hadn't learned the power of "no!" yet. But, there's a lot that hasn't changed. A year ago, we could already tell that Jake had a sense of humor. He still loves to laugh and to make other people laugh. And he's still curious and observant and independent.

Sadie is often the object of his developing personality, and I think their relationship has been good for both. He's shown his caring side (nice for Sadie) and his curious, playful side (often dangerous for Sadie), but as often as she's gotten her head bonked when they play, she seems to really look up to him, and he loves the attention. We talk to Jake a lot about his responsibilities as an older brother, and I think 2 or 3 percent of it might be sinking in. I don't think he'll ever be a doting older sibling, but we see glimpses of a protective older brother that will keep an eye out for his little sister. Of course, she's just starting to want to play with his toys, so my assessment may change over the next year.

Happy 31 months Jake!

Update to Big Boy Bed Update

Last night went a little more smoothly with Jake and his new bed. It still took a few tries to get him to stay in bed after story time, but Ali finally hit the jackpot with: "If you don't go to sleep, the sun won't come up tomorrow". We didn't hear from him again until about 7am, when he came running into our room and said "The sun came up!" Then he ran back into his room, and back and forth a few times, and then to the potty. He's still a little delirious with this new freedom of movement.

Here's a fuzzy cell phone picture from Ali and the kids' trip to the DC car show yesterday. Jake's favorite part was the off-road Jeep track they had set up. Here it is going through the fake water hazard.

Happy Friday!