Politics and Heartache.

Let's start with the heartache. I was feeling horribly sick last night and I needed to lay down on the couch. Izzy was having a grand time, however, running amok. I kept getting up and chasing him, hollering through the house, "Please come back here, Izzy," and imploring him to be good. Then he poured a glass of soda all over the table. I heard the liquid fall, and I bounced back up and I said, "Izzzzzyyy." He gets super excited when he knows he's done something bad, so he starts jumping around like a monkey, going, "Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!" I pick little man up and sock him in the playpen and I clean up the mess. Then I drag the play pen into the living room, beside of the couch, and I lay back down. Meanwhile, Chris is outside doing yard work.

Izzy plays for a few minutes, then he stands up and screams to be let out, plays, screams, plays, screams, and this goes on for about 10 minutes, but I'm fighting down the nausea, and don't feel like getting him out. Chris comes in and washes his hands and then picks Izzy up, who has, of course, been having a major meltdown since he saw Daddy walk in the room. Chris carries Izzy over in front of me, and he looks so sad that I reach my arms up to him, to hold him for a minute.

Izzy shakes his head no. "No?," I say. "Come on to mommy." He looks at me and firmly shakes his head no again. Chris said to him, "Are you mad at mommy?" He vigorously shakes his head yes! "Izzy," I say, "Are you really mad at mommy?" He shakes his head yes, up and down with conviction. "Are you ever going to forgive me?" He looks at me and very seriously shakes his head no! No! Can you believe that??? My 16 month old son was so angry at me that he thought he'd never forgive me!!

I looked up at Chris, who was cracking up, and I put my hand over my heart and I said, "That can really break a mama's heart!" I swear tears sprang to my eyes! A minute or two later, he reached down to me and I hugged him tight, and all was indeed, forgiven. But I really thought he'd be older than this before he started hating me! This child has a very vivid personality.

Chris, of course, finds this hilarious and has to call his mom and tell her. What loyalty. He says to her, "I can't believe Izzy can understand so much already!" Puh-lease. It never even crossed his mind to think for a second that Izzy didn't understand. Even though we had this conversation on Saturday:

(While eating chips and dip:) "Izzy, wouldn't you like to live forever on chips and dip?," I asked him. He shakes his head yes. "And olives too?," I say. He shakes his head yes. I think this is very funny, for I too, would like to live on chips, dip, and olives. Chris looks at him and says, "And sauerkraut?" to which Izzy shakes his head yes. This cracks us up, because Izzy doesn't like sauerkraut at all. Chris and I dive immediately for childish humor. "And dog food?" Izzy shakes his head yes. "And poo-poo?" Izzy again shakes his head yes.

So you can clearly see two things from this exchange: 1) Chris and I like potty humor and probably shouldn't be parents, and 2) Izzy is either very, very weird, or he doesn't actually understand everything we ask of him. But if it makes Chris feel all superior to think that Izzy hates his momma, so be it. I have to admit, however, that it still smarts, just a little.

Now for the politics: I took a Kerry/Edwards yard sign out to mom and dad's the other evening and as I stick it in the ground, I say to my 7 year old niece, Maddie, "There's the next President." "It is?," she asks, so innocently. "Yep," I say.

She says to me, "You know, I like John Kerry now too. Back when I was six, and didn't understand things, I liked George Bush. But he made Mark [her daddy's cousin and the father of her two cousins about her age] go to Iraq, so now I don't like George Bush anymore."

It really is that simple. If more people looked at what has happened to them, their families, and their friends over the last four years, I think many more people would come to the same conclusion.

I don't like George Bush either.