You can probably tell by looking at this image that my friend Elizabeth felt troubled about being forced into her role as Agent of No Child Left Behind.

I always feel terrible about administering those ridiculous high stakes tests, especially since we're randomly assigned to a group of kids who have never seen us before ever in their lives and then we hand them a test which they must pass or else not graduate.

I sure am disappointed in Obama for not only NOT reforming NCLB, but rather ramping it up with the stupid Race to the Top program. In fact, I'm so surprised that Obama turned out to be a republican. As a result of the realization that he actually doesn't believe in change, I've become more disillusioned with the political system.

At high noon tomorrow, Obama will become the president. That's pretty incredible, right? After these terrible Bush years and that long, long campaign?

After all, I'm absolutely sure Barack is the right man for the job. I want him to be very successful. He has my full support.

I just got a text from my pal Erin, who's in D.C. working like crazy. "It's an exhilarating endurance test," she says.

And so, who knew inaugural weeks and parenting the birth-to-five set had so much in common? Mac will be Shef's age at the end of Obama's first term. I'm pretty sure things will be better then than they are now.

Let's go, Obama! We're all behind you.

It's time for me to return to my usual fodder here on the blog. Dan told me that I didn't totally suck as a political blogger. That was nice to hear, and I'll probably still Twitter the Franken recount, but... well, I think I'll have to go back to writing about the little things that happen to us. That's probably my best stuff.

I'd like to thank Lee for the idea to blog Barack until he won. This was fun, and it felt worthwhile.

This was an unbelievable victory. I'd like to thank Senators Obama and Biden for inspiring so many people. I'd like to thank those people for making this happen.

It's happening today, and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. On the way to school , Shef asked, "Who is the next president of the United States?" I think we all know the answer to that. It's Barack Hussein Obama.



Here we GO!

Did you know that 90% of brain development happens between birth and age 5? That's why Barack Obama has a big "Zero to Five" initiative that will help states adopt universal pre-k programs and expand Head Start.

McSame advocates more regulation for Head Start centers. This is kind of funny, don't you think? More regulation for Head Start and less for Wall Street?

So, the Strib buried this story in Metro, but the word is that a good pal of Norm Coleman's used a company in Texas to pay his wife, Laurie, $75,000 to do nothing.

That's a pretty sweet job, right?

I've been in teaching for ten years. Would you like to know what my top salary has been? $41,000. For doing quite a lot, thank you very much.

Al Franken's daughter has been a public school teacher, so he has a clue about what it's like to teach in a test-crazy climate. Al would like to scrap or rehaul NCLB. For instance, he would like to stop testing ELL students with their age-mates until they can actually speak English. I think that's an excellent idea.

Let's vote for Al Franken for senate. Abby, I'm talking to you.

We are coming up on the last weekend, and I'm fired up. I'm so fired up that I'll be making some calls on Barack's behalf. You can do it too. You can do one call, or five, or fifty. All you have to do is go to my.barackobama.com, and it'll spit names at you. Then, you dial the numbers they give you and read the script they provide. I'll also be doing visibility on Monday and Tuesday, waving my signs at a busy intersection reminding people to vote. If you want to commit to waving a sign for the Strong Schools; Strong City referendum, you can sign up here. I plan to wave their sign and also my Obama sign.




Let's vote for Barack, Al Franken, Keith Ellison, YES on on the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment; and of course, YES for the Minneapolis Public Schools.

So far, in our first six hours, the kids are doing a pretty good job without Dan around. He's in Pittsburgh for the week, a place he's never been and a place where he'll spend many hours in a warehouse sifting through boxes. To make Shef more amenable to being cared for only by me, I bought him a little Star Wars Lego set. He's happy with it.

Speaking of Legos, here's a video of Shef and Mac having a little conversation. Usually, when Shef says a sound that's kind of like "alego, lego, lego," Mac does something similar. Not for the camera, though.


Untitled from Savvy Mom on Vimeo.

There are some amazing photos of Barack, his family, his staff, and his supporters here. The photographer's name is Callie Shell. Here's an example:



Shell writes a little narrative with each one.

We will win this election. We just have to.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Shef's first skating lesson and how we all spouted lines from Ice Princess the whole time we were at the rink.

Well, that super-fun activity has continued from Saturday to Saturday. We start on the way there, and then we continue for the duration of the lesson and on into skate removal and return.

We've done the lines of all the characters, including a supporting skater called Nikki Fletcher, aka The Jumping Shrimp.

"A BLT, hold the B, heavy on the L."

"Well, if it isn't The Leaping Dwarf. It's the JUMPING SHRIMP, actually. Like that's an improvement."

"Six months with Tina and she's going to whip my BUTT!!"

This really cracks us up, and it never seems to get old.

Last week, midway through the lesson, when Dan and I were yukking it up with our usual pitter-pat of IP dialogue, I noticed that one of the really good skaters looked pretty familiar. I stared at her while she put some stuff into a bag monogrammed with her name.

"Um, Dan," I whispered, "I think that girl IS The Jumping Shrimp."

He tried to look at her surreptitiously, but she probably noticed. Then, he got out his smart phone and we checked it out on IMDB.

Sure enough. Nikki Fletcher skates at Shef's rink. And she's probably heard us acting out her feature film every week in the small lobby. We've had finer moments, surely.

Mac is four months old now, and today we had him baptized. I'm glad he's officially a child of God. We all enjoyed the service. Since our church is exploring world religions, the music and readings were inspired by Hinduism. I thought that was cool. I'd like it if both of the boys grew up to value religious pluralism.



Mac has some new tricks this month like scooting in circles and eating his toys with more voracity. He's also been enjoying chewing on books. And he has a tooth! One of the bottom front two.

When I was little, my mom and dad read me all of the Little House on the Prairie books. I also watched the tv show. So, when my mom offered to take me to the new musical version of the story at The Guthrie, I jumped at the chance to see Melissa Gilbert, who played Half-Pint for ten years, star as Ma.

It turns out that Melissa Gilbert is not a very talented singer, but that was okay. She only had one solo, a ballad called "Wild Child," which she sang to Laura, her former character. The moment brought a tear to my mom's eye and mine.

When I got home, Dan summarized the debate for me and showed me some clips of McSame smirking and being sarcastic. He did not appear very presidential in these clips.

Michelle Obama spoke at my alma mater yesterday. I wanted to go, but I had to take Shef to swimming lessons. Still, my support for Michelle is unwavering.

I took Mac to see our beloved pediatrician, Dr. G., today. She pronounced him generally cute and healthy, and then she asked some questions about his habits.

"And how's this one sleeping?"

Of course, we all know that Big Brother is not a model sleeper. Dr. G. and I have discussed it many times over the years, and we still talk about it. In fact, we spent a few minutes of Mac's appointment talking about it today. But Mac? #2? Oh, he's fine. Sweet. You know, stays asleep for more than forty-five minutes at a time most nights.

"Oh, he's pretty good," I said. "Like, last night he woke up at 2:30 and 4:30." It had been a pretty decent night's sleep, overall.

"Hmm," Dr. G. nodded. "No, that's pretty bad, actually."

Huh. I had no idea.

I was happy to read that most of America agreed with me that Obama was the winner in the last debate. I had fun live-twittering the debate with Lee, my friend from afar. The only trouble was that I was behind because of the DVR. Every once in awhile, Lee would twitter something that I didn't understand like, "Cool hand on the tiller."

What's that about? I would wonder.

And then ten or twelve minutes later, I would hear McCain say "cool hand on the tiller," whatever that means.

I didn't think it was that great of McCain to keep calling me his friend and then to be such a petulant loser, as shown by his refusal to do a second handshake with "that one."

You know, "That One." The one we'll all be voting for.

Shef's new school has a lot of events you're supposed to go to and mingle with the other parents and become their best friends. So far, we've had the new student picnic, the first-day-of-school coffee, back-to-school night, parent coffee after drop-off (nannies invited too!!), and pre-kindergarten open house. And this weekend, there's Parent Party on Saturday from 5:30-7:30. We also have drop-off and pick-up every day, which offer multiple opportunities for socializing.

I think I've met most of the pre-k parents now, and here's a sample of how each introduction goes:

Other parent: Hi, I don't think we've met.
Me: Hi, I'm KC, Shef's mom.
OP: OH! Shef's mom! We've heard a lot about Shef at home!!
Me: Ah! [nervous giggle] Well, I know he really likes playing with your child. [and here I try to insert a specific story or piece of information about the other kid in question, if at all possible]

I ask you, how could it be true that EVERY parent hears a lot about Shef at home? I have a feeling this isn't such a good sign.

I saw some shiny new Obama signs in our neighborhood today, so I told Dan to hurry up and call the local Obama office to see if we could get one. Sure enough! We now have our sign AND some buttons.



And now, here's a little video of Mackie. To really appreciate it, you'll have to turn your volume way up. You'll also get a nice view of Mac's soul patch on the back of his head.


Untitled from Savvy Mom on Vimeo.

Shef started skating lessons yesterday. He's kind of interested in hockey. I'm leery of hockey as a sport choice because at least 85% of the hockey boys I've taught in eight years have been pretty much assholic.

But Dan kept telling me that if I didn't let Shef learn how to skate RIGHT NOW, I would ruin forever any chance he'd ever have of playing on any hockey team in the universe, even the nice ones. So I relented.

Shef is convinced he already knows how to skate because he's seen Ice Princess a few times. He was jumping around on his little rented figure skates the lobby before his lesson, and he and Dan were quoting lines from the movie, like "The toe pick is there for the reason! Use it or no friends over for a week!" And, "Those skates take, like, a minimum of ten days to break in. Everybody knows that." And, "To increase the height of my jump, I'll apply more force with my toe pick."

I thought this was pretty embarrassing, especially when Dan was crossing his arms across his chest and pretending to take off for a salchow. Also when he was watching the real skaters, and saying things like, "She keeps popping her lutz."

"What level are those girls?" Shef asked.

"Junior Pass," we told him simultaneously, and then we laughed because we have no idea if that's actually a real thing.

When Shef lined up with his class (no parents allowed inside the rink), Dan said meaningfully, "Hey, Shef! Skate with your heart, Buddy."

The lesson, which we watched through the glass in the lobby, consisted of moving about ten feet and then practicing sitting down and standing up.

Afterward, the kids were allowed to grab a cookie from the sign-in table. "Did you skate already?" the table lady asked cheerfully.

"YES," Shef told her. "I was totally awesome."

I support Joe Biden for Vice President. Biden chairs the senate Foreign Relations Committee. Although Sarah Palin says she keeps watch for Putin's ugly head from her house in Alaska, I still think Joe is the more qualified to contribute to important foreign policy decisions.