Fuss

This is one of the funniest blog posts I have ever, ever read.

And one of the most horrifying.

God help me if that is what I have to look forward to in two years.

Image: Chimps

Harrison has lots of girlfriends, but only Kaiva picks his nits.

In our stereo

We just picked up Songs from the Street from the library on Friday and are still working our way through its 3 discs and 63 songs. What we've heard so far is fantastic. The excellent 70-page booklet contains song lyrics and a whole lotta history too.

Go here for the tracklist and to listen to snippets. "Captain Vegetable" may be the funniest song Henson ever sung, and if you aren't touched when you hear Aaron Neville and Ernie sing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" then you have a cold, black heart indeed.

Call to Action

Every single teacher that I know (and I know many, including my mother) believes that Bush's 2001 No Child Left Behind policy, with its emphasis on rote learning, standardized testing, and unbelievable funding problems, is taking education in the wrong direction and ultimately hurting American children. Putting aside the failings of NCLB itself, it's pretty transparent that the idea behind this high profile campaign, that of leaving no children behind, is at odds with the Bush administration's ongoing dismantling of social programs whose primary beneficiaries are poor families with historically "left behind" children, in favor of unprecedented funding for the war/defense coupled with tax cuts for the wealthy.

Where's the outrage? Coverage of Bush's 2007 budget, which was released on the 7th, was dwarfed in comparison to the sensational news of Cheney's hunting snafu a week later. Thank god for NPR. You can read a succinct and revealing analysis of the budget here.

Of course, this didn't start with Bush. In the last few chapters of her 2001 book Misconceptions, Naomi Wolf does a much better job than I could ever do of detailing the ways in which American society, for all its showboating, is fundamentally unfriendly toward children, parents, and families.

And with our exorbitant defense spending and economic downturn, things since 2001 have gotten much worse for American children. This is palpable and observable locally. Buffalo has instituted a stunning number of library closings and cutbacks. This affects all children, but is an absolute crisis for poor children who depend on neighborhood libraries for computer access and a quiet and safe place to meet or study.

This morning's local paper has an article (here) about the sad state of subsidies in Monroe County for working parents who need assistance paying the childcare bill.

This situation is desperate, and things need to change. You can't complain if you don't do something. An easy way to find out how to make a difference is by visiting MoveOn's Campaigns page (here). Sign some petitions. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Find out about local activist groups and gatherings.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

60 Days and Counting

Doug and I had pretty much written off the possibility of ever going on vacation during the tenure of daycare and possible private school and college tuition payments, which if you do the math assuming we have another kid in the next year or two meant WE WOULD NEVER GO ON VACATION AGAIN.

Sorry. I exaggerate. Assuming Kid 2 is born in 2007 or 2008, we could hope for a vacation when he/she finished college in 2030. I just said "NEVER" in all caps for the dramatic effect.

Thank god for my generous parents with no mortgage or car payment, and money to burn. As you may recall, they took pity on us last year and rented a wonderful beach house outside Tampa for us all. Harrison had a great time, though he didn't really like the ocean or the sand and spent most of our time at the beach furrowing his non existent eyebrows like this:

Well, praise the sweet baby Jesus, my parents are rescuing us from poverty and snow again. Tickets to Tampa are booked and we are counting down the days. It's all thanks to Harrison and the ease with which we can pimp him out to my mom. How else would she get to spend a whole week with him?

(Please let the upstairs renovation be done by then. Please. It's only day three and this project is already hanging over me like a life sentence.)

Weekend Highs and Lows

Lowlights:

--A 15-minute breakdown because of the 10 bazillion pens in the pen can, none of them are the pen that he wants!!!!

--Leaving on the light in Harrison's room when I put him to bed at 7:30 last night, which Doug didn't discover until he went to cover him up and put his socks back on at about 9:45.

--A new house project to work on every night after Harrison goes to sleep: stripping painted wallpaper off the walls in the upstairs guest room.

--Getting teary that my baby somehow turned into a 21 month old boy on Sunday.

Highlights:

--Finally getting enough snow to use the sled that we bought Harrison at Christmas time.

--Spending time Saturday with Doug's parents, though Harrison is somewhat perplexed about having two sets of people that he calls Uhmma [Grandma] and Poppa [Grandpa].

--Watching Oscar singing "I Love Trash" over and over. And over. And Harrison saying "Yuuuccckk!" everytime.

--All three of us dancing to Weezer in the living room after Sunday dinner.

--"Skit skat skoodle doot! Flip flop flee!" Reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which Harrison calls "Boom! Boooom!"

--Watching Harrison teach himself his ABCs, by pushing the letters on his electronic phonics toy and repeating the letters.

Image: Muppet Trance

Warm and Fuzzy

This morning after getting his goodbye hug, without me saying it first, Harrison said

"Wuv woo"

[Love you].

My heart is still atwitter.

Daycare Daily Report

"Harrison put snap beads together for awhile this morning. He liked painting and driving cars too. He was very helpful at clean up time today. He also took advantage of me changing a diaper by getting up on a table and dancing."

My name is Sarah and I'm obsessed with robots.

I've been trying to think of a clever way to tie this post into something Harrison related, since this is a "mommy" [cringe] blog after all, but I can't and, frankly, who cares? Because you must listen to this story, over here at NPR . It's about an off (off)-broadway production of Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler. Only it's called Heddatron! And some of the parts are played by real, "live" robots!!!

No fucking kidding.

I almost peed my pants with glee listening to the robot-speak.

This is almost as good as dictionaryoke. Almost.