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

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.

It’s starting sooner than I expected, but as a Girl Scout “Daisy” Mikaela is selling Girl Scout cookies this year. If you’d like a personal sales visit, let us know and we’ll see what we can set up. Otherwise, we’ll bring the order form with us to Thanksgiving dinner. She’s taking orders through the end of November. Deliveries will start the first week in January.

And no, that picture doesn’t have anything to do with either Daisies (she doesn’t have her uniform yet) or Girl Scout cookies - other than, “How could you turn down such a cute salesperson?” But she just looked so darned cute in her Mulan Halloween costume, that I wanted an excuse to post the picture - there are more in the Gallery.

Thursday afternoon, Mikaela decided that she was tired of that wiggling front tooth. She grabbed it with a paper towel at AKK, and yanked it out herself. So far, the extra-wide gap in her smile doesn’t seem to be slowing down her Halloween candy consumption. And she’s looking forward to slurping Chinese noodles through the hole sometime soon.

Dear Sarah Palin,

Please stop helping John McCain be President - he just does stuff for rich people.

by Mikaela

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!”

Yesterday was the final phase of Mikaela’s birthday extravaganza celebration. Seventeen of her current kindergarten classmates, plus three of her old preschool buddies and Jonathan took over Elite Gymnastics for a couple of hours. As the oldest kid in her class - and therefore with the first birthday of the year - we didn’t want to be the first ones to make any of her classmates feel excluded, so we invited the whole gang. It looks like we’re lucky so far - they didn’t really break up into cliques, all of the kids seemed to play well together.

The kids had a blast in the foam pits, the treehouse, the long slide, the bounce house, and especially the zip line. With 22 kids plus a few adults at the party, Mikaela’s traditional princess birthday cake gained a ballroom floor and a red carpet. The guests all enjoyed the ice cream and cake, and Mikaela came home with quite the birthday haul. She seems especially excited about her new Barbie collection. Now we can start deflating for a bit - at least until we start gearing up for Jonathan’s second birthday here in a couple of months.

Mikaela celebrated being six years old by yanking out one of her own teeth.

The tooth has been loose for months. She’s been wiggling it like crazy, especially for the last week, and I think she just got tired of waiting for it to come out on its own. Her other front tooth is also loose, so I won’t be surprised if Halloween candy presents a bit of a challenge for a front-toothless Mikaela.

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.

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.