My favorite part of the inauguration was when the quartet that played, “Air and Simple Gifts”. Of course, I found out today that they lip-synced, but that’s besides the point.
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
I want to be in the place just right, in the valley of love and delight. Where is it?
Jeremy biked to DC for Barack’s big day. It was cold, exciting and a long ride. He estimates that it was about 30 miles back and forth. We spent the day at our cousin’s house eating sandwiches and bagels and watching the inauguration on a 42 inch HDTV. I have never spent time in front of such a grand TV, it’s almost like being there (except not so cold).
I have been preoccupied this weekend thinking about being Edda’s mom. We have started drawing up our wills and also all this extra focus of Edda starting kindergarten has thrown me for an emotional loop which I do not like being in. I spoke with a friend last week who has a disabled son and we talked about whether it was possible to be happy if your child has a long-term disability. She is not so sure if it is possible, I told her that I needed to believe that it was possible, otherwise, what is the point of it all? The pursuit of happiness – that’s what I’m doing.
Maybe in response to that conversation, I was a little determined this weekend to take Edda to see a little more of the world. She spends so much time at home, there is so much more to do! That’s why we did the crazy ice skating thing. I had no idea how it would work out – would Edda yell her head off? would she fall to the ground immediately and break an ankle? – she did neither. We went around twice.
We took the kids ice skating today – our town has a fake ice rink. It isn’t made of ice, it’s made of white plastic. It’s less slippery than real ice.
We biked to town.
Vince loved it.
Edda was not thrilled, but neither did she complain (too much).
We held our own inaugural ball! We did invite the Obamas – but did not hear back from them, perhaps they were booked tonight.
Jeremy cooked a meal based on all the places associated with Obama. Hawaii, Indonesia, Kansas, Kenya, Indonesia, and Hyde Park!
Obama dessert:
And we boogied down to the wee hours of the morning – well until 8 pm.
We are luxuriating in a 4 day weekend here in DC. I was thinking about going to work next Monday and Tuesday – but the traffic around here is already getting a little unpredictable, and I’ve had just about enough of work – so we are staying put and trying to keep warm.
Kiki is down here enjoying the festivities (since it’s so cold, it means that we are watching a lot of videos). Here we are watching, “Annie Get Your Gun”. Had no idea that Judy Garland was originally suppose to be Annie and that “There’s No Business Like Show Business” was from this musical.
Vince went to an indoor climbing gym for a birthday party. I thought I had never been to this climbing gym, but as soon as walked in, I had this flashback to high school. I looked at their brochure an they’ve been in business since 1990, so it must have meant that I went the summer of my senior year.
On the constipation front, I think we’ve had a breakthrough. Thank goodness.
1. Saw Vince and Edda off to school.
2. Both Jeremy and I went to an informational meeting set up by the staff at Edda’s school about kindergarden placement for kids with special needs. Spent a lot of time talking about the mysterious “codes”. I think that to get services throught the public school system, one needs to get a “code” assigned to your child – so you might be mad if you wanted a “code” and didn’t get one, but everyone in Edda’s school is clearly getting a “code” so I’m not sure why there was so much time spent on it.
3. We ate lunch at a place that serves:
4. Went to the dentist. No cavities, but I could improve my flossing.
It’s the middle of the week and again, I’m struggling to find something to talk about on the blog. My good blog fodder (at least pictorially) comes from our weekend antics. If I took photos of what happens to me during the week, it would be just endless photos of strangers on the Metro and then endless stacks of papers and a computer screen at work.
Some things I’m thinking about this week:
1. Au pairs are generally contracted to work in the US for one year, but they can renew their contract for an extra year. Things have been going so well with Yvonne, that we asked if she wanted to stay another year. For various reasons, I was optimistic that she’d stay another year, but just last week, she told me after seriously thinking about it for a while, that even thought she loves America, she needs to go back home. So we are in the process of finding another au pair – targeted arrival of mid-May.
2. My new year’s resolution is to wear more jewelry. I found a stash of mine in a plastic baggie over the weekend and I’ve organized it into ice cube trays (earrings) and a small plastic bin (bracelets and necklaces).
3. Edda, at 46 (!) pounds is getting really hard to get in and out of the car. Actually, getting out is not so bad (you kind of lift from her armpits and drag at the same time), the getting in is harder, you have to curl her body and lift her so she clears the car seat and then tuck her tushy into the crook of the car seat. So getting in means that there is a moment that she’s 100% airborne and 46 pounds is a lot to keep off the ground. We are looking at purchasing a minivan with a seat that swivels out. We spent a recent car ride thinking of vanity plates for the new minivan and so far “MINIVAN” is the front runner.
4. Jeremy is attending an MIT alumni lecture tonight. Tonight’s topic “Energy Supply: Use It or Lose It”. I read in today’s NYTimes that MIT is no longer teaching 8.01 in 26-100. (For non MIT folks, that translates into “no longer teaching freshman physics in the large lecture hall.)
5. Edda’s IEP meeting/placement is coming up soon. ‘Nuff said.
6. Jeremy is planning on biking into DC for the inauguration. Someone is going to drop him off at the C & O canal and he’s going to bike the 10-15 miles into town. Apparently, he’s reserved a space at the “valet biking” service downtown. All the bike blogs are saying that the city will be so car-free that it will be a bicyclist’s heaven! I think I’m going to watch it on TV. Maybe.
7. We got the first real heating bill of the winter a few weeks ago. Just about fainted – we’ve been spending about $20 a day on our electric/gas bill. I can’t write the full number down, it gives me the willies, you can figure it out. We are zoned for heating and cooling, meaning that the upstairs bedrooms are separate from the downstairs. The main expense was coming from heating the upstairs rooms at night. In response, we bought a room heater for the kids and then dropped the nighttime temperature in the house to 50F which is so cold, you don’t want to get out of bed at 2 am to pee. Now every morning when I wake up and walk into the kids’ room, it’s like a little slice of (warm) heaven. Jeremy and I talked about maybe we should move into the kids room during the winter. (If you are coming to visit, don’t worry, we’ll turn the heat up just for you!)
8. O.A.R. went to my high school! Donald do you know them? I know, I know, they’ve been around for YEARS, but I just learned about them about 7 days ago.
Jeremy made three dinners for us on Friday night – swirly spaghetti for Edda, long spaghetti for Vincent and chili and corn muffins for us.
I’m excited that Apple iTunes is getting rid of DRM. I think being able to copy music from one computer to another without it being complicated in addition to my recent obsession with Beyonce, I just might have to re-enter the music listening world. (Also, it’s good to hear that Steve Jobs is not dying.)
I haven’t been listening consistently to music for about a decade now, I had not heard of Maroon 5 until a friend at work mentioned she was going to the concert and I asked if it was at a local club and she gave me this strange look – um, they are playing at the Verizon Center (capacity = 20,000 Maroon 5 crazy fans). Oops.
OK, it’s been… a week since I’ve talked about poop? I just have to bring it up again! So we went out and bought the above items for Edda. (I should have added pureed prunes to this list, but I forgot to buy it). I wanted to say that she has a huge bowl of oatmeal with raisins for breakfast and usually has a piece of fruit with every meal, so I’m a little bit flummoxed by this constipation.
So ever since that last painful poop, we’ve replaced all her liquids with the plum juice on the very left of the photo. They call it “plum smart”, on their website, they claim it’s “clinically proven to regulate your digestion”. After 3 or 4 days of this, it hasn’t worked well. Tonight, Edda struggled on the potty again. I have to say the bright side of this is that the pooping training is going well. If you only gotta poop every three days and it’s like giving birth, it’s pretty easy to make it to the potty on time. I guess we are moving onto the fiber supplements.