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.

We had a crazy day yesterday. Miriam had an early morning court appearance, so I was in charge of getting both kids to school (usually, Miriam takes Jonathan and I take Mikaela). Unfortunately, my brain wasn’t fully functioning yet by the time we left, and I managed to forget to pack Mikaela’s dance bag and swimming stuff for her busy Thursday afternoon AKK schedule. Miriam’s afternoon was open (she was planning on spending it cleaning her office), so she decided to run by the house, pick up Mikaela’s stuff, and then drop it off at the JCC. This is where the real fun begins.

While getting out of the car, Miriam’s finger got caught in her keychain, which in turn got caught by the car door as the door slammed shut — on her pinky! Ever the dutiful Mommy, Miriam wrapped up her hand and delivered Mikaela’s stuff to the JCC before calling me and having me meet her at the ER to get her finger examined. With an assist from Zaydie Larry, I got to the ER in time to hear the diagnosis - the radiologist saw a very small break at the end of Miriam’s pinky. In addition, it was cut all the way through the nailbed, so the ER doc put three stitches in through Miriam’s nail and put her on antibiotics. With pain meds onboard, I took Miriam back to her office for her afternoon client appointment (I used to the time to do some overdue server updating).

After the client meeting, we went together, in Miriam’s car, and picked up the kids at the JCC. It was Miriam’s car, but between the new stitches in her pinky and the pain meds, I was driving. As we pulled out of the JCC parking lot with the kids, Jonathan pipes up from the backseat, pointing at me and saying, “Mommy’s car! Mommy’s car!”

It took a minute to register, but he was concerned because he knew we were in Mommy’s car, but Daddy was driving it. So I told Jonathan that yes, it was Mommy’s car. But that she was giving me a turn to drive it.

Jonathan thought about it for a moment, and then he pipes up, “I have turn?”

To which Mikaela replied with a horrified, “NO!! That would be dangerous!”

Mikaela turned six years old yesterday, with Phases 2, 3, 4 of Operation Mikaela’s Birthday. The celebrations actually began back on Sunday. Mikaela and her Sunday School classmates Peyton and Shelby (who share Mikaela’s birthday week) brought cupcakes for the class (Phase 1). Then, Monday at Cottonwood Point, Mikaela got to bang on the birthday drum in music class and have a special birthday cookie for snack yesterday (Phase 2).

Continuing yesterday’s sugar theme, Miriam and I brought a kosher birthday cake with Disney princesses on it to the AKK class at the JCC (Phase 3). (That’s the one in the picture above). After Mikaela’s specially-requested dinner of hot dogs, corn on the cob, pickles and potato chips, we moved on to Phase 4.

She opened birthday presents from us - the new Little Mermaid movie and a collection of flavored and sparkly lip gloss (her very own “makeup”). Then Miriam served ice cream and this year’s version of the Princess Cake. The dress on the princess is Mikaela’s own design - she drew it for Miriam when Miriam complained that she didnt understand what Mikaela was describing.

The next phase of Operation Mikaela’s Birthday will be an extended family birthday celebration at break-fast at Aunt Judy and Uncle Lloyd’s house tomorrow - with yet another birthday cake - this one shared with cousin Sarah, who celebrated her 14th birthday today.

For the most part, I’ve kept politics out of this blog. This just didn’t seem the place to bring it up. But Sarah Palin’s latest attempt to tar Barack Obama with a bizarre guilt-by-association charge, attempting to connect Obama to Vietnam-era activism that took place when he was about eight years old, has pushed me over the edge. Rather than speculate about the the relationship between Obama and a passing acquaintance with whom he served on a community board, lets look at real relationships. The kind that matter. Like Palin’s own husband - a member of the secessionist Alaska Independence Party until she decided to run for office. Palin may not have been a member of the organization, but she attended at least one, and probably two of their conventions, and sent a taped greeting to the convention while Governor. That’s right, she publicly greeted a party whose primary aim amounts to treason.

And then there’s the top of her ticket, John McCain. It is laughable that a campaign headed by John McCain is suggesting guilt by tenuous association. How about we talk about real association? Let’s talk about Charles Keating, the “Keating 5,” and a $3.5 billion bill to taxpayers. Better yet, here’s a short documentary - a history lesson on John McCain and the Keating 5

While I’ve been driving back and forth to St. Louis, Miriam, Mikaela and Jonathan have been going about the business of starting new school/day care situations, new extra-curricular activities, and new neighborhood activities. Miriam, with at best a minimum of help from me, pulled together some 40 trash bags full of outgrown baby and children’s clothes and got them organized for the neighborhood garage sale. And that was while continuing to successfully run her own law practice and handle the kids’ daycare/school/activities with my sporadic assistance.

Mikaela started school and Jonathan started daycare at the JCC Child Development Center on the same day back on August 18. Mikaela has taken to school like a fish to water. At the moment, her biggest challenge is adjusting to being asked to write properly. She already knows how to form all of the letters. But she doesn’t always write them “correctly” - the right height and width and on the correct line. It’s been frustrating for her being told that she needs to do something she thinks she already knows how to do differently. But Miriam’s got some elementary school lined paper and helped her practice, and it’s already getting better. Hopefully, handwriting isn’t genetic - because given both my and Miriam’s handwriting, the poor kid is in for a world of trouble if it is. Today, Mikaela got to fill the “Mystery Bag” and share something of herself with her class via what she put in the bag. Mikaela chose to share her headband collection (she’s very into the idea of collections these days). Mikaela also enjoys the AKK program at the JCC. In addition to making her lunch as noted previously, her favorite thing is being the first one picked up by the bus for the ride to the JCC.

Jonthan’s adjustment to the CDC has been a bit more challenging and has taken longer. For the first two months of his time at the CDC, Jonathan WAILED when he was taken there. He’d start as soon as he was being strapped into Miriam’s car in the morning (since, to him, getting into Mommy’s car in the morning meant going to the CDC). He’d try to keep from getting buckled in and tell us, “no way, no way!” He’d also cling to whoever dropped him off at the CDC, whether it was Miriam or me, and continue to cry even when after we’d left him. The morning tears started ending sooner a couple of weeks ago. And finally, this week, a breakthrough! Since Tuesday, Jonathan has gone to the CDC in the morning without complaint. Yesterday, he refused to take off his Diego backpack, but he didn’t cry when Miriam left. And then today, not only did he let Miriam put his back away in his cubby, but he walked into his classroom at the CDC on his own, trotted right over to the other kids, and didn’t even give Miriam a second glance.

Whew! That should make mornings at our house MUCH more pleasant moving forward.

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve made a blog post. Life has been unusually hectic lately. I hadn’t done much traveling for work in about a year or two, but that all changed at the end of July. I was assigned as second chair to a series of very large OSHA cases involving a company that is based in St. Louis. The cases revolve around three separate fatal accidents that all occurred within about five months of one another. The first accident was in St. Louis, the second and third in Kansas City, all back in 2006. The St. Louis case finally started steaming toward trial in late July.

It started slowly - a short trip to St. Louis in mid-June, another in late July. But since August 10, I’ve been in St. Louis for at least a couple of days every week for the last seven weeks. In that time, I’ve eaten more than my share of tasty (but probably not so healthy) Zephyr Burgers at The Shed. I’ve earned Gold Member status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program, thanks to the Westin Cupples Station and the Sheraton St. Louis City Center (The Westin Cupples Station is a great hotel - I highly recommend it). And I’ve logged over 3500 miles on my odometer. I’ve also gained great experience, participating in what is probably the most important case of my legal career so far.

Miriam has been amazing keeping things together on the home front with me away so much the last couple of months. And Mikaela is certainly not fond of daddy’s frequent trips. She’d prefer I just tell my bosses “no” when they tell me I need to go back again. Tomorrow starts day three of a scheduled five day trial. It’s going well so far, and I’ve gotten great opportunities to develop my trial skills. Once this trial is over, things should slow down at least a little bit. We still have the two Kansas City cases, and I may find myself making more laps on I-70 for depositions in those cases as well. But it will be nice getting home on Friday night and not having to think about packing for the next trip right away.

Mikaela started kindergarten at Cottonwood Point Elementary School on Monday. So far, she LOVES school. She was nervous in the days leading up to school starting. She worried about not knowing anyone’s name and, oddly, about there not being a bathroom. In fact, in amongst all of the things she excitedly told me about her first day of school was, “Oh, and they DO have a bathroom.” She likes her teacher, Mrs. Hopkins. On the first day, her favorite thing was meeting the computer teacher (and finding out that they were going to get to use computers) and the new friends at her group of four desks. On the second day, she was most excited about reading a story about The Gingerbread Man — and about following clues to find a hidden Gingerbread Man in the library.

After school, Mikaela goes to the AKK program at the JCC. She likes the busy AKK schedule (which includes swimming twice a week), and bringing her princess lunchbox with the lunch she’s made herself in it. She’s adjusting to the lack of naptime.

Speaking of adjusting, Jonathan’s adjustment to the CDC is going a bit more slowly than Mikaela’s adjustment to kindergarten. On his first day, Monday, he started out OK but had a major meltdown in the afternoon - so major that the CDC had Miriam come and pick him up early. On Tuesday, he did a bit better. He got picked up a bit early anyway, because Miriam was picking Mikaela up for an appointment anyway. He had been crying, but it was just after naptime and he’s often cranky right after waking up. Hopefully, by the end of the week, he’ll hit his stride.

Jonathan has developed quite an affinity for blues music already - especially harmonica music. We listen to Blues Traveler and Guy Forsyth all the time when we’re in the car. Recently, he’s discovered Mikaela’s harmonica

On the way home from my most recent work trip to St. Louis, I was re-listening to the podcast of a This American Life episode, in which Michael Savage talks about discussing marrying his partner with his and his partner’s adopted son. Listening to that podcast reminded me of a conversation I had with Mikaela on the way home from camp a couple of weeks ago. It went something like this:

Mikaela: Can boys marry boys?
Me: Yes, in some places. Hopefully, everywhere sometime soon.
Mikaela: Can girls marry girls?
Me: Yes, in some places. Hopefully, everywhere sometime soon.
Mikaela: But usually girls marry boys, right?
Me: Yes, usually.
Mikaela: So girls can marry girls OR boys?
Me: Yes.
Mikaela: [deep sigh] I just don’t know who I’m going to marry. That makes so many to choose from.
Me: It’s OK honey, that’s not a decision you need to make any time soon.
Mikaela: [sigh] OK. But I just don’t know how I’m going to decide who to marry.
Me: I’m sure you’ll figure it out - hopefully sometime after college.

Up until this morning, Jonathan was doing great with the whole coloring (well, OK, really “scribbling”) thing. He’s been much better about following the mantra we’ve been drilling since the first time he picked up a crayon - “only on the paper”. So this morning, when he sat down at the table and started coloring, once I checked and made sure he was putting crayon to paper, I turned around to make coffee. Just as I was turning back around to ask him if he wanted to push the button on the coffeemaker, Jonathan came running toward me pointing at his legs and shouting, “ORANGE, ORANGE!”

Either he forgot his mantra, or he decided that his legs were made of paper.

The worst part - those markers seem to be not so easy to wash off.