The Infertile Gourmet

2 Years and 9 Months

Maybe what I most want you to know is how much I like you.  Of course, I love you.  I have too!  :)  But really how much I like who you are becoming is what makes me smile so much.  Sure, there are some days where "mommy needs space" but you also tell me that you "need space" too so I guess we are even!  Considering how much time we spend together (I hate missing even a minute even though I need those minutes) we still want to be in each other's presence.

"Let's talk mommy, let's talk"  If I heard this once today I heard it one thousand times.  You make me use your Snow White doll, that your Grandma Marlyn gave you on their recent visit, to carry on a conversation. I, Daddy, or any victim that may be close by talks to you about what is happening in your life.  The good, the bad, and the ugly is discussed with full disclosure.  How adorable you are as you practice your hand movements like an Italian mafioso and say "because" too many times in one conversation. 

You are mommies little parrot. You regularly copy me including moments like when I dropped a jar out of the fridge and said a favorite word of mine....oops.  You walked around tonight saying shit, shit, shit practicing several times.  I must change my language..I must increase the good words...I must. On a good notre I see you mimicking the lovely things that I want you to do.  Like when you lovingly pat a friend's baby when he cries.  Or when you delicately stroke a kitty and whisper sweet pet nothings into their furry ears.  Hmmm I just love you so much.  Too sweet.  I also adore when you come up and pat me on the back just to make it clear you love me!  Pure sugar!

Hurricane talking comes from those lips!  Talking up a storm just does not cut it.  You love to speak fast and are just now learning to speak fast enough to do that but the last few weeks to compensate for the lack of words that you could get out fast you just mumble jumble nonsense.  LOL.  You speak quite well when you are talking normally but when fast talk happens this is not the case.  We taught you to say excuse me when you wanted to politely intterupt but I think that I may have taught you a tool of mass control.  You hold up your little dictator hand and say no no no no mommy excuse me.  Of course I will see what you want because you were being polite and the fact that certain days I think I may have met my match.  The minute you detect Daddy and I may become the Bickersons you put up that same hand and say MOMMY MOMMY mommy getting higher pitched until we are laughing and you know that you have taught us kids a lesson in how to get along.

Trampoline.  Nonstop.  Bouncing bean of a little thing.  You like it so much that Christmas night we were out jumping with you at 2 in the morning!  I met my bad mother quota for the day and you got to jump.  Two birds with one stone.

You had a blast and were a blast during our Merry Hannuka/Happy Christmas celebrations.  We somehow blended both parts of the celebration which turned out to be a mini marathon present fest for you.  Thank you dollar store for presents that thrilled a two year old. How fun it was that you grasped the concepts of what was happening.  You helped me wrap presents, bake cookies for Santa, set out carrots for the reindeers, cook latkes, spin dreidels, assemble traditional Guatemalan Christmas eve tamales, dance in merriment, and circle the many parties we went to with ease and late nights.

I hate to label you as shy but when you are with someone new or in a  new place  you tend to be reserved.  Make sure that you do not think that I believe you to be a wallflower...oh no!  Just reserved.  No amount of pushing you forward makes you budge towards being social. However, the other night I had a gentleman come to the house to purchase a chandelier I was selling.  Your friend Leia was over and you both were playing while I showed him the light.  You walked in and he said hello and I expected you to leave but no you said hi back!  Then you even introduced Leia to the man!  Shock.  "Hi, this is my friend Leia"!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.  Who is the fairest talker of all?  You carry on conversations with the mirror.  I cannot  help but secretly watch you as you converse with yourself/mirror.  So cute. If you see me looking game over.  So I sneak looking at you.

You adore your friends.  Your best galpal is Leia. You frequently talk about her when she is not here and when you both are together it is nonstop giggling.  It warms my heart to watch you both play. I hope it is a lifelong friendship that is started this early.  I have friends that I grew up with and Leia is like your family.  We do Shabbat every Friday together, babygroup on Wednesdays, and the Perry's house on Sundays! 

I miss when you were a baby.  I love the age that you are now. I cannot wait for tomorrow.  I like all of your ages.  You are such a happy child!

New Years Hello

Got a couple of things I want to say before I launch into yearly in-law visit extravaganza.

First, I feel a bit harsh leaving Damn you, Missouri up for a long time.  I typically do not like to damn anything...sorry Missouri.   On a political note I did not mean to offend John Mccain supporters because I know he seems like a good guy.  It is just that I really, really dig Obama's chili.  I am not hatin' on Mccain.

I wanted to comment also on the historical election of Obama.  It is amazing that an African American can finally accomplish what has been reserved for the good ol' boys club for too long.  What an amazing, awe-inspiring, and deeply rewarding victory on so many levels!  I will never forget the sweet feeling  that washed over me when he won.  I finally felt like America had awoken from a bad dream into a better reality that had resided in our hearts for so long previously.  It was unseasonably warm here in St Louis on election night and I had the living french room doors open to the warm breezes.  Living in a house built one year after the civil war ended.  The wood in this house saw a different day. People living here in this very room lived slavery. I am proud to say that I have a secret passage way under my house that leads to caves that were used in the underground railroad.  The school through the field next to my house was built sometime during the 1820's. This school is actually where I casted my vote for Obama.   It was one of the  stops and these caves hid people heading to a new future.  So my land is inherently good. Somehow the ages swirled around my head intoxicating my heart.  Jubilant.  Here I was in 2008 and not only is slavery gone but a black man has the ultimate power to care for a nation that he once upon a time had no say in his own life.   Dare I say that we have evolved enough to finally allow the best guy to win despite gender or color?  Apparently we have.  Which leads to my next sentiment. 

I know Mccain supporters.  People who are close to me and whom I care about.  One of the questions asked of me several times was what has Obama done?  Are you supporting him because of color or his accomplishments?  I can sort of understand the question but on the other hand if frustrated me.  I agree that he is a young man compared to the average age of many presidents however experience with politics or age does not necesarily make a better president.  Sometimes, I think that a soul was prepared for an important job and cultivated for a position.  This is how I feel about Obama.  He is a smart man, a kind man, and is an insightful  man. 

The first time I saw Obama was when he was running for senator of Illinois.  He made me tingle and the hair stood up on end.  Before this I had learned to take care in politics, do my due diligence, and make an educated vote but never had I felt like singing to the heavens for a vote.  But he makes me feel that way.  He makes me want to be a better citizen....a flag flying citizen!

Regarding his color....that is just a bonus!  I would have voted for him whatever color he had been.  But, we got a bonus in this election.  The best candidate was an African American.  So not only did I vote for someone who inspired me on a soul level but I also got to cast my vote in history.

I am pleased to say that his actions thus far and the level of care he is taking his job is commendable.  He seems very pro-active.  It makes me smile that some of the Mccain supporters I mentioned even have had nice things to say about what he is doing.  Which proves my vote again.  He is bringing all of us together:

"It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work.

 It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.

There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

 In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?"

Please read the whole speech here.

Smile.