Jonathan helped Miriam and Mikaela make cookies for tonight’s Chanukah party.

Thursday was the official day for “Parents’ Watch Week” at Mikaela’s dance class. They only do one recital, at the end of the year in May. But this was a chance to see more of what a regular weekly dance class looks like. They started with their warm-up exercises, followed by the ballet piece they’ve been practicing, and finally an example of their tap work.

Mikaela’s been complaining about getting her hair brushed for quite some time now - he long hair was not only naturally curly, but also naturally tangly. About a week ago, she started asking to get her hair cut. To make sure she was really serious about it, I asked her every day for a week if she was really sure that she wanted to cut her hair short. She answered “yes” seven days in a row. So today, Miriam took Mikaela to get her hair cut:

Shear Madness cut off a ten-inch ponytail! It was long enough that Mikaela’s hair cut was free, in exchange for agreeing to donate the hair they cut off to Locks of Love, for use in making wigs for children who lose their hair due to cancer treatments and the like.

Mikaela was playing dress-up last night, and Jonathan wanted to play dress-up too.

Yeah, I’ll be archiving these pictures for when he’s a teenager. Perhaps they’ll also come in handy at a future prenuptial dinner presentation.

Holidays, birthdays, school events, work events, travel for trial - there’s been so much going on lately that I’ve been paranoid about missing something. Mikaela has been doing her best to remind us of her events. Most recently, she reminded us every day last week about “Parents’ Watch Week” during her Thursday dance class. So I took off work early on Thursday and rushed to the JCC to get there in time for the 4:15 p.m. dance class - only to discover that Parents’ Watch Week is NEXT week.

Mikaela’s dance teacher graciously invited me to stay for class anyway, and that gave me the opportunity to take pictures without having to jostle for position with other parents.

I got to watch the kids practice their tap routine and also their ballet routine that they’ve been preparing for Watch Week. I was really proud of Mikaela - she didn’t have the routine down quite all the way, but she was focused and working hard to get it. The class ended with the kids getting to play a round of Freeze Dance, punctuated with students called on to demonstrate ballet positions. Mikaela proudly displayed this arabesque when called upon.

His actual birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but we went ahead and celebrated Jonathan’s second birthday a day early. With so many big family gatherings this time of year, we kept it small - just Grandma Marcia, Zaydie Larry, Uncle Matt, Aunt Sarah, Cousin Samantha and the Alexanders from across the street. Jonathan was treated to his favorite dinner - Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza - followed by ice cream and cake. Jonathan’s dinosaur obsession dominated the decorations and gifts - dinosaur balloons, paper plates, cups and tablecloth, dinosaur jammies, a dinosaur puzzle, a dinosaur sweatshirt. He also enjoyed playing with his new tools and reading his new books.

There was really only one thing about the birthday celebration that Jonathan wasn’t so excited about. After Miriam and I had both seen “Kota My Triceratops” (I saw it at Costco, she in a video at Amazon.com) we had each independently concluded that it was incredibly cool, but just too much for a two-year-old’s birthday present. And by the time we finished talking about how it was just too much, we had talked each other into getting it for Jonathan for his birthday. I put it together in the basement last night (there’s not much “putting together” - just a tail to attach and six “D” batteries to install). Mikaela and I brought it upstairs to present it to Jonathan as his final gift of the night — and Jonathan promptly refused to get closer than an arm’s length away from Kota.

He didn’t seem actually afraid of Kota, just wary. I’m sure he’ll warm up to it. Mikaela, Cannon, Whitby and Cosmo all had fun taking turns with Kota.

Mikaela wanted to share the song that they sing on Friday afternoons at school

You may remember this post, from a month or so ago, when Jonathan announced that he wanted to use the potty. Since then, he’s announced that he wanted to go potty about every other day. And each time, he’s sat on the toilet for about ten seconds, announced that, “it not work,” and got back up. That is, each time until this morning. Yep. This morning, Jonathan said, “I go potty,” as I was changing him from jammies into clothes. So I sat him down like usual. But this time, I could see him concentrating on what he was doing and . . . there it was! Peeing in the toilet!! When he finished, we flushed the toilet and did a little potty dance in celebration!

I don’t expect him to be out of diapers tomorrow, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

If you had told me the upheaval that could be caused in a household by a missing stuffed bear a couple of months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. But when Bear went missing a month or so ago, it was heartbreaking to listen to Jonathan laying in his crib whimpering and quietly calling out “Bear?” “Bear?” Luckily, that only lasted a couple of nights. It was still a struggle to get him to bed for a bit after that, but he started carrying around his “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight” T-Rex and we figured it would do while we frantically searched for a replacement for the now-discontinued Carter’s bear.

Then, miraculously, we found bear!! Sure that this discovery would be met with uncontained joy when we shared it with Jonathan, I got positioned with my camera as Miriam prepared to reunite Jonathan with his lost love. But when presented with Bear, I could almost hear the thought balloon that appeared over Jonathan’s head. “Look, no hard feelings, but I’ve moved on. Really, it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve found someone else.”

What Jonathan actually said was, “no way!” He shoved Bear aside, grabbed up his dinosaur, and walked off to play.

I’ve been trying since last night to figure out what to write about yesterday’s election. It’s too important, too historical, too wonderful to let go without comment. But what to say? This blog isn’t really the place for political comment (my occasional asides, well, aside). And my reaction to last night’s election is much more than political anyway.

Miriam spent two weeks trying to dissuade me from taking Mikaela with me to the polls on Election Day. She tried to convince me it would be easier to take her along to early voting. But I guess I’m a traditionalist when it comes to elections. There’s something “magic” about the first Tuesday in November. So I took a day of leave on Tuesday, and picked up Mikaela from school after kindergarten early release. We headed to our polling place and, thanks to the magic of early voting in Kansas, were able to get right to the voting. I did the selecting, but when it came to time to push the “Cast Ballot” button I had Mikaela push the button. Such a small thing, but somehow, it just seemed right. It was important to me that she have a part in this election.

She was invested in it enough that we let her stay up and watch election returns with us (today at school she told her classmates that she stayed up and watched The President Show). We explained to her about the states in the map being colored in red or blue, depending on who that state voted for for President. She got noticeably upset when she saw Kansas turn red. I think she thought that meant she was stuck with John McCain as her President. We calmed her down and explained to her that it wasn’t over yet. It was way past her bedtime already, but we told her she could stay up and watch until there was a winner. The poor kid fell dead asleep at 10:55 p.m. - just about five minutes before the election was called for Barack Obama.

We shook her awake and gave her the news. She managed a dazed, “Woo!” and then immediately fell back asleep.

It was important to me that Mikaela was invested in this election. Last night was an historic moment for our Nation, and Mikaela will remember being a part of it.