Johnny had his friend Ryan over today after school. The nice thing these days about playdates is that the kids can entertain each other, so I am rarely needed during a playdate. Except when I am needed, it is usually not good.
Ryan[From the bathroom]: "JOHNNY'S MOM?!!!...I NEED HELP!!!"
There's only one reason someone needs help in the bathroom. And after wiping many, many bottoms, I understand why the Europeans have bidets. I slowly finish up what I'm doing, as I'm not looking forward to the bottom that awaits.
Ryan: "JOHNNY'S MOM! I REALLY NEED HELP! I POOPED IN MY PANTS!"
Now knowing that this is a true emergency, I stop what I'm doing and break into a trot.
Me [entering bathroom and trying not to inhale]: Okay, Ryan, stay here while I get some wipes and new pants from upstairs.
I hurry upstairs to get said items. However, I'm not fast enough for Ryan. As I descend the staircase, Ryan is waddling naked through our living room, chunks falling to the floor.
Ryan: "I NEED NEW PANTS!"
Me: "I KNOW you do! That's why I told you I was GETTING THEM and for you to STAY IN THE BATHROOM!"
Ryan got his new clothes, and John got his new clothes (he chose this time to urinate in his pants as well). Content in their clean dry clothes, the boys sat down to play computer games. There is one game that Johnny loves that features puttering cars. To a little boy's ears, though, the puttering sounds like gas-passing. Ryan bursts into laughter.
Ryan: "Hey, those cars are tooting!" [Not getting the pun.]
He almost sounded superior the way he said it, like he couldn't imagine anyone breaking wind in front of anyone else. And it's times like these that I wish that there were another adult around to laugh with, so I actually went into my room to say the words out loud to myself, "THIS from the kid who just POOPED all over himself and made his friend's mom clean it up?!!" I am a good audience, because I always agree with myself and laugh at my own jokes.
I just know that Karma dictates that this had to happen. At least a dozen times I have retrieved Johnny and Annie at playdates along with a plastic jewel bag of soiled clothes. And on one awful occasion picking up Johnny from a playdate, the front door was opened for me to reveal my precious boy in the background, standing at the top of the basement stairs with his pants around his ankles, urinating down the steps. His excuse was that he couldn't find the bathroom.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Johnny's first handout
Last night in the bathtub I hear "eeeewww! Mom!" I rush in from laying out pajamas in Johnny's room to find out the problem. Annie elaborated: "Mom, Johnny just threw a toot at me. He tooted on the washcloth and then threw it in my face!"
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Complications
Isn't it funny how when you're thinking about something, it's like the universe knows it and sends you messages about just the thing you're thinking about. Or perhaps you're just better tuned into it. Anyway, I'd like to share a quote from the book I'm reading, Atonement. The quote is from Briony, a very intense little girl with a vivid imagination and an incredibly sensitive heart:
"Was everyone else really as alive as she was? Fore example, did her sister really matter to herself, was she as valuable to herself as Briony was? Was being Cecilia just as vivid an affair as being Briony? Did her sister also have a real self concelaed behind a breaking wave, and did she spend time thinking about it?...If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated, with two billion voices, and everyone's thoughts striving in equal importance and everyone's claim on life as intense, and everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was. One could drown in irrelevance. But if the answer was no, then Briony was surrounded by machines, intelligent and pleasant enough on the outside, but lacking the bright and private inside feeling she had." (p. 34)
As I wrote about a few days ago, the voice of my professor has been bouncing around in my head, "embrace life's complexities," and this quote from Atonement I think further explains this sentiment. To be fully mature, we must understand that there are two billion voices, histories, prejudices, hopes, needs all striving at the same time. And to be fully alive, we must not feel as though we might drown in irrelevance amidst all the voices, but rather stand tall and take our place beside them.
"Was everyone else really as alive as she was? Fore example, did her sister really matter to herself, was she as valuable to herself as Briony was? Was being Cecilia just as vivid an affair as being Briony? Did her sister also have a real self concelaed behind a breaking wave, and did she spend time thinking about it?...If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated, with two billion voices, and everyone's thoughts striving in equal importance and everyone's claim on life as intense, and everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was. One could drown in irrelevance. But if the answer was no, then Briony was surrounded by machines, intelligent and pleasant enough on the outside, but lacking the bright and private inside feeling she had." (p. 34)
As I wrote about a few days ago, the voice of my professor has been bouncing around in my head, "embrace life's complexities," and this quote from Atonement I think further explains this sentiment. To be fully mature, we must understand that there are two billion voices, histories, prejudices, hopes, needs all striving at the same time. And to be fully alive, we must not feel as though we might drown in irrelevance amidst all the voices, but rather stand tall and take our place beside them.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Obama
OBAMA WINS IOWA!!!!!!!!
This is a moment in history. I could be proved wrong, but I believe this guy is the inspirational character of our time, the person who will be known forever as changing the course of history. I remember when our friend Sophie invited us along to the election night party to see this still fairly unknown guy named Barack win the Senate election. Matt and I stood in awe of this guy who radiates charisma when he enters the room.
Every empire has its heyday, every empire falls when its hubris grows too large, it takes its favored status for granted, and becomes entangled in internal disputes rather than understanding its place in the world at large. ( I think this is the theory of one of the books that Matt recently read that I just pretend that I read also). I feel like we need saving from our empire falling. Barack can be our savior! No, but seriously, I think he could really help us reestablish our footing in the world as a respectable nation.
Some quotes from his website www.barackobama.com:
---------------------------------------------------------
The American prospect's Ezra Klein writes...
Obama's finest speeches do not excite... They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.
The New York times' David Brooks writes...
Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucuses. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by this. An African-American man wins a closely fought campaign in a pivotal state. He beats two strong opponents, including the mighty Clinton machine. He does it in a system that favors rural voters. He does it by getting young voters to come out to the caucuses.
This is a huge moment. It’s one of those times when a movement that seemed ethereal and idealistic became a reality and took on political substance.
Iowa won’t settle the race, but the rest of the primary season is going to be colored by the glow of this result. Whatever their political affiliations, Americans are going to feel good about the Obama victory, which is a story of youth, possibility and unity through diversity — the primordial themes of the American experience.
And Americans are not going to want to see this stopped. When an African-American man is leading a juggernaut to the White House, do you want to be the one to stand up and say No?
Obama has achieved something remarkable. At first blush, his speeches are abstract, secular sermons of personal uplift — filled with disquisitions on the nature of hope and the contours of change.
He talks about erasing old categories like red and blue (and implicitly, black and white) and replacing them with new categories, of which the most important are new and old. He seems at first more preoccupied with changing thinking than changing legislation.
Yet over the course of his speeches and over the course of this campaign, he has persuaded many Iowans that there is substance here as well. He built a great organization and produced a tangible victory.
---------------------------------------------------------
And I can't help but feel like when he speaks, anything is possible, not just in our country, but in ourselves, in myself.
***
This is a moment in history. I could be proved wrong, but I believe this guy is the inspirational character of our time, the person who will be known forever as changing the course of history. I remember when our friend Sophie invited us along to the election night party to see this still fairly unknown guy named Barack win the Senate election. Matt and I stood in awe of this guy who radiates charisma when he enters the room.
Every empire has its heyday, every empire falls when its hubris grows too large, it takes its favored status for granted, and becomes entangled in internal disputes rather than understanding its place in the world at large. ( I think this is the theory of one of the books that Matt recently read that I just pretend that I read also). I feel like we need saving from our empire falling. Barack can be our savior! No, but seriously, I think he could really help us reestablish our footing in the world as a respectable nation.
Some quotes from his website www.barackobama.com:
---------------------------------------------------------
The American prospect's Ezra Klein writes...
Obama's finest speeches do not excite... They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.
The New York times' David Brooks writes...
Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucuses. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by this. An African-American man wins a closely fought campaign in a pivotal state. He beats two strong opponents, including the mighty Clinton machine. He does it in a system that favors rural voters. He does it by getting young voters to come out to the caucuses.
This is a huge moment. It’s one of those times when a movement that seemed ethereal and idealistic became a reality and took on political substance.
Iowa won’t settle the race, but the rest of the primary season is going to be colored by the glow of this result. Whatever their political affiliations, Americans are going to feel good about the Obama victory, which is a story of youth, possibility and unity through diversity — the primordial themes of the American experience.
And Americans are not going to want to see this stopped. When an African-American man is leading a juggernaut to the White House, do you want to be the one to stand up and say No?
Obama has achieved something remarkable. At first blush, his speeches are abstract, secular sermons of personal uplift — filled with disquisitions on the nature of hope and the contours of change.
He talks about erasing old categories like red and blue (and implicitly, black and white) and replacing them with new categories, of which the most important are new and old. He seems at first more preoccupied with changing thinking than changing legislation.
Yet over the course of his speeches and over the course of this campaign, he has persuaded many Iowans that there is substance here as well. He built a great organization and produced a tangible victory.
---------------------------------------------------------
And I can't help but feel like when he speaks, anything is possible, not just in our country, but in ourselves, in myself.
***
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