Election Day

Our kids have been so into elections this year. Their grandfather is heavily involved in town and state politics, and a lot of people stop by his house for discussion and advice during the day and evening, and Marin and Emmy are often present to observe this. Additionally, the kids can read now, so they see all the names and referendum questions on road signs and they pepper us with questions about it.

So fast forward to this morning. I had the TV on at breakfast (something I NEVER do) in order to see the election results. The kids asked why the TV is on and I explained everybody voted yesterday and today we learn what the new rules will be.

Emmy starts in with
- What about Tracy, did she win?
- What about Noel, did he win?
- What about the farm? Will the people buy the farm? (referendum on a land conservation trust)
- Can two mommies get married now? (the gay marriage referendum)

And on and on and on. The kids have a remarkable memory, especially for names.

As I was about to lose my patience with the unending questions (while trying to pay attention to the TV so I would have the information to actually answer the questions), it occurred to me that here are two kids who will be voting here in less than 15 years, who may never have had an opportunity to vote if they had stayed in their rural village. In fact, they may not have even known the concept of voting, the democratic process, and one person/one vote equality.

Stuart Little

We teach our kids that all life is precious.

Friday morning, as we left the house, we saw a tiny little infant field mouse on our porch. I figured he was stillborn or something and continued on.

Saturday morning, the kids were playing on the porch and found this same mouse. Using two sticks, I attempted to move the mouse off the porch, and it moved. It opened its eyes, moved its legs, and tried to walk. Oh, crap. The darn thing is alive and the kids saw it.

Of course, they started in right away with "Can we keep him? Can we keep him? We can feed him and everything!" Right.

So I went off to work on my woodpile, but I couldn't get this stupid mouse out of my mind. I started thinking about that kids story Stuart Little. In the meantime, the kids are pestering me with "Daddy, you aren't going to let this poor mouse just die, are you? What is he gets too cold? What if a cat eats him? What is his Mama is looking for him? "

I remembered this guy in town, David Sparks, who rehabs injured animals and releases them. I called him with my tale of woe. He said to bring the mouse down to his house and he would do what he could. So I put the mouse in a salad bowl, strapped the kids into thei car seats, and off we went.

David was great. He gently picked the mouse up and stroked his fur. He said he would pop the mouse into the incubator, feed him with an eye dropper, and when the mouse got stronger, David would release him into a field.

My kids were beaming and so relieved. "You promise?" they said. And they asked if they could come back and see David's other animals some time.

Snapper Soup???

While driving the kids to school, we crested the hill to see a car in the middle of the road, its emergency flashers on, and a large dark lump in the road in front of the car. As we got closer, I realized it was a really huge snapping turtle. Yippee! Science lesson for the kids!

I pulled the car over, unbuckled the kids, and headed for the snapper. Visualize now, I am doing my best Bill Nye the Science Guy. I'm telling the kids about the shell, pointing out the claws, showing how he snaps at a stick, telling what he eats, and describing how I am going to lift him by his shell and toss him back into the brook so he does not get run over. I go on and on and on, finally pausing for a breath and to ask if the kids have any questions I did not answer.

After a pregnant pause, the kids lifted their eyes from the turtle to me and asked, matter of factly, and at the same time "Can we eat him?" I should have known.

things that scare us

Every now and then we still get some good nuggets from when the kids first arrived here. Turns out they were afraid of trees and white hair.

Their home area was barren. The only trees they knew were banana trees, which are not tall and do not have long branches. Then the kids saw our trees, so tall, with so many long branches - and when it was windy - the kids thought the branches were trying to reach out and grab them. Looking back, it makes sense why they were afraid to go outside for about three months after arriving here.

They had never seen white hair before. Nobody they knew grew old enough to have grayed. So when they saw white hair, they thought it was a ghost.

Speed Demons

I took Marin and Emmy skating for the first time. What a show. They gingerly stepped out on to the ice and hugged the siderail with a death grip. Taking baby steps, we completed our first lap around the rink in about 25 minutes.

By the end of the free skate, Emmy was standing by herself out in the middle of the rink doing turns. She fell a lot, but she always got right back up and skated more, and she got really upset with me when I tried to help her. The kid is fearless.

Marin was a lot more tentative. She began skating better and faster, but was never more than six inches from the rail, and always caught the rail before she fell.

The kids really enjoyed skating and I think we'll do more of it.

Koo Koo Loo hit and run

This morning, as we were leaving, there was an enormous ball of feathers smack in the middle of our driveway. It looked strangely familiar, but utterly foreign. I finally figured out it was a dead chicken or rooster. (the guy across the street keeps a flock) By the way, kookooloo is the amharic word for rooster.

I had been staring at it long enough that the kids saw it........and the questions began. We're talking torrential questions.

What is it, Daddy? Kookooloo?
Him dead? Why him dead?
He in heaven?
How you know that?
Can we see him?
He gonna wake up tomorrow?
His mama know?
Is he bleeding?
Call the doctor? Medicine? Bandaids?
Is the kookooloo a him or a her?
Can we eat him?
How we gonna have eggs now?

Do I hear witness?

Sunday we took Marin and Emmy to the AME Zion church so they could mingle with other African Americans. They were the belles of the ball. Everybody wanted to touch them and hold them and ask questions about them. The kids, being attention hounds, lapped it up.

The first half of the service involved a lot of music and gospel singing and our girls seemed to really enjoy that. They were smiling and rocking back and forth in time with the music. Then the sermon started. If you've ever been to an AME service, you know the sermon can be enthusiastic.

Afterward, I asked Marin how she enjoyed the church. She said "Why that man yell at me too loud? Why he angry. I was good girl. Why he yell at me too much?" It is always so interesting to see how Marin and Emmy interpret things.

First time meeting Santa Claus

The girls have been so excited about Santa. Every night for the past two weeks, after the bedtime routine, they say "Baba, tell us the story about Santa again."

So finally they meet him. Our kids approach him cautiously. They don't want to do anything that might be perceived as 'naughty'. Santa asks Marin "Have you been a good girl this year?" and Marin answered "I try to be good. I try really really hard. Honest. Not kidding." The poor kid was practically begging. It was adorable and sad at the same time.

Then Santa asks Emmy what she has done this year. While Emmy is staring, awestruck, not even knowing what to say - Marin decides to answer for Emmy. "Emmy kick Marin. Emmy bite Marin. Emmy smack Marin hard. Emmy really really bad girl." Ahhhh sweet revenge.

Emmy gets this "Oh, crap. What are you doing??" look on her face and starts stuttering trying to defend herself. Marin turns and looks right at Emmy, serious as a heart attack, and says "Emmy, you know you're a bad girl. I'm telling Santa. I'm mean it."

Quite a turn of events. Kind of embarrassing to be airing the family laundry in front of Santa.

First Skunk

Yesterday we were riding to work/daycare and Emmy complained she was "tookoos" (too hot) so I cracked some of the windows to cool her down. Shortly afterward, we passed a freshly killed skunk.
You know how that smell just kind of smacks you in the face and makes you gag? So I looked in the rearview for the kids expression. Meron's eyes were watering and she said "Mendayo?!Daddy Mendayo?!" (What is that?)
Emmy started making up a song about P.U. P.U. and holding her nose.

First snowman

Here it is mid April and we are still getting snowstorms. The good news is it stays light until 7:30 or later, so I can play outside with the girls after work.

Today we got 8 fresh inches of moist sticky snow. I was so excited about getting home and building a snowman with the girls. We did the best we could with them insisting that I not help. Stuck a few facial features on and a few sticks for arms. Added my hat and mittens, and viola, snowman.

The girls are calling it "Tinman". I look at Colleen like - huh? Colleen explains she and Grammy had introduced the kids to the Wizard of Oz while I was at work one day. And Grammy has this three foot tin man made out of coffee cans, which the girls really enjoy.

So Tinman it is.

The girls want to kiss the tinman, hug it, have photos taken with it. Meron built it a little snow toilet in which to go 'po-potty'. A little too realist for me.

Fast forward an hour and we're putting the girls to bed. They are all upset that the tinman will be outside alone all night. They insist on going to the window to blow him a kiss and leave the outside light on so he will not be in the dark all night.