original little hellraisers

hey kids… this was an incredible, incredible month.  you’re alive during a very historic time in u.s. history.  senator barack obama is now president-elect barack obama.  hopefully the reason why this is historic is so unbelievable to your generation that you view our writing this for posterity as a bit silly.  odd. a sort of common sense perspective that the generations before me could not process.

you see — obama is… black.  for the first time in our united states history, we’re going to have a black president.

i am very proud of my country.  proud to see that this has come to pass.  i didn’t think it was possible myself.  i am so glad to be wrong.

i am very ashamed of my state.

california had the chance to legalize gay marriage in november and passed a proposition to amend the state constitution to ban it altogether.  it is inevitable that this civil right will come to the gay community.  i have yet to hear a solid argument why gay marriage is going to hurt society.  fear has decided something that common sense will dictate in the future.

for sake of reference, just over forty years ago, blacks could not marry whites. just over fifty years ago, schools were segregated. eighty-seven years ago women could not vote. how stupid were they in retrospect? i can only hope that by the time you are old enough to read this, we can write about how pointless and fearmongering it was for two men or two women to not be able to marry one another.

we never intended for this site to be a place for our politics as a family — but there is so much history in this month we would be irresponsible not to mention it.

dylan: you’ve really begun to lose your hair.  you have these awesome patches of baldness that is pretty damned cute.  you’re begun to giggle more robustly and specifically at your brother.  you still go from zero to pissed in a flash.  i wonder if it is a reflection of impatience or the signs of a temper.  when you’re not pissed, you’re amazingly calm.  you go from one end of the spectrum to the other.  and you’re a pretty loud cryer.

you’re not sleeping as well anymore — we have started sleep training you to get through the nights without you waking up every two hours.  it’s slowly getting better — but we’re gearing up for a long flight to the phillippines and tokyo and everytime we travel with you young kids, it throws your sleep schedule off. we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

i love, love, love watching you smile through your pacifier.  there’s something so magical about seeing the smile in your face, but not being as able to see it from your mouth.  you’re disarming with your cuteness.

you’re amazingly adept at blowing out of your diaper.

oh, and you sh*t on your mother this month.  that was so hilarious.

owen: you’re talking more and more and more.  you’re starting to put together some complex sentences.  such as: ‘oreos are my favorite cookie.’ and ‘oreos are papa’s favorite cookie.’  you are absolutely enamored with your baby sitter, chelsea.  the morning after she watches you, you always ask where she is.  it’s cute, given how shy you tend to be with new people.

you got really sick at the end of this month — you’re probably allergic to not having phoebe around, because when we left her at my parents, that seems to be when you got sick.  it is hard to explain how frightening it is to have a sick child.  you threw up on your bed in the middle of the night and the look in your eyes when i came to get you broke my heart.  you were terrified at what happened — it’s the first conscious puke you had.  i compared it to our cats, who throw up all the time, and that calmed you down.  you told your mother that you were, ‘sick like chaos.’

oh, and  you sh*t on the side of the road this month. that was so hilarious.

big trip ahead of us — will try to post from the road.  wish us luck… we’re going to need it.