human flesh

I just finished a conversation with Stephen about under what conditions we would eat human flesh. I'm not sure if this means we will never run out of things to discuss together or if we're getting really desperate for conversation.

It's a . . . boy!

No, I'm not pregnant. I'm referring to Christian--he suddenly turned from a toddler to a boy. (According to him, he's not an 'old man' as I teasingly called him on his birthday-- he's a 'old old old old boy.' He turned three earlier this week, but it didn't hit me that he as entered a new stage-- that of a boy-- till I saw him walking tall, sure footed, and almost trendy going sock-less in shorts and shoes running around with his stick playing in his fantasy world on the way home from our Indian Thanksgiving. On the bright side of this aging is that I have my baby Simeon who is just as cute in his own way at a younger stage, Christian finally lets me read to him (and the books are finally fun), and he is saying (and signing) the funniest and sweetest things. I never have felt like I got that mother instict thing down, so having Christian be able to communicate with words to me and in the process I get to see how his mind (and tender heart) work, is priceless. He was my little stranger the day he was born, but he has been a gift of surprises every day since then to find out and more more this who this endearing child is.

We had left some ribbons from a present around and he found them and wrapped them around his neck. He said "I'm a present, hide me in the closet!"

the results:

Stephen woke me up at 5:30 this morning and said he couldn't stand it anymore, he had to know. In his defense I could have stayed isolated for days while he had to face a grad lab this morning.

exercises in self-control

Stephen and I are having a competition to see who can go the longest without knowing the presidential results. Whoever wins gets an hour long back message and of course the ignorant gloating rights. Any guesses who will win this race?

Philadelphia voting update

Apparently my name didn't appear on the registered voter list. I was allowed to be a provisional voter in which my "secret" ballot on paper will not be counted for 7-10 days (if it is counted at all). Oh well. But hey, this is Philadelphia where things like this happen. All this voting business made Simeon as tired as I've ever seen him. I brought him back and set him on the kitchen floor while I cooked lunch. I will stirring the pasta when I saw him do a "Bishop nod" leaning far over on one side then catching himself. I lifted him up and his eyes were closed again.

WIC Mamas and Voter Registration Crimes

I was down at the WIC office again today. I was watching the boys play with the other kids when another mother turned to me and asked: "Your kids don't go to preschool do they?" I responded that they didn't. She then said that she could tell. Half expecting her to compliment me on how happy and full of song Christian was that morning, she continued: "They have a hard time sharing, don't they? Preschool is so good for that."

Despite stranger's observations, I think the boys are making fine progress: Simeon is significantly less likely to go for other children's eyeballs then he was a month ago, and Christian hasn't threatened to cut our ears off in months.

That said, Stephen and I don't put much of a premium on angelic behavior at this age anyway. If we had wanted a passionless angel, we wouldn't have given Christian the middle name of "Mordechai." I'm afraid we had plans for Christian to be full of righteous anger and indignation from the beginning. All we need to do now is get that anger to be a little more righteous.

Back to the joys of Philly, I'm not sure how accurate this is: but when I ran into these people in the park I suspected something like this and purposely registered as a Democrat because I saw their Obama pamphlets and worried they might not turn my registration form in if I said I was a Republican. I guess we'll see tomorrow whether my Utah accent gave me away and my form was among the shredded or not.

And yes, I'm voting for Romney (assuming I can vote). All other issues aside, Obama is for SSM and Romney is for traditional marriage. To me this is the issue of the campaign and all others fade next to it.