Schulzone

IMG_1907.JPG, originally uploaded by JoshSchulz.

Today was kim’s day to go to preschool which meant me and zoe stayed home together. We had a fantastic time, but a couple times zoe would stop and say “I want Kyra”.

Even at my most fun I’m not first string.

This evening Zoe had to get blood taken, and Kyra flipped out. She didn’t want Zoe to have to do it and she was really worried that zoe wouldn’t understand what was happening to her. So Kyra explained it too her a few times.

It was sweet. I have a relationship with my brother and sisters that I don’t have with my parents, a family identity completely separate from anything else, and it does my heart good to see that my little girls are developing the same kinds of relationships.

Of course now the countdown to bitching about their parents begins, but such is life.

Fluffhead died yesterday.

Kyra took it well, she cried a little and then enjoyed the novelty of walking on the cow dung in the back yard to a place we could bury him. I miss him: he was an entertaining little crab. I remember the night I bought him (to replace another dead crab). When the guy at petsmart picked him fluff head pinched him, then came out of his shell to escape. He finally got him in the box by scooping him up. All the way home I could hear him scraping around the box. When we finally got him home he wouldn’t let go of the box and we had to tear it apart to get him to let go and go into his new home.

Kyra is taking it well, but it’s making me really sad. Everytime we take a long car trip kyra wants us to tell stories about fluffhead, delicate accessory, shelly and pinch me. That’s three of her crabs now that have died and the stories are going to start getting macabre.

Sometimes at quiet time we could hear kyra talking to fluffhead in her room, and sometimes when she’d sit there and watch him he’d scuttle up to the glass and it looked like he was trying to talk to her too.

Tonight we were getting bed time things together and kyra was running around yelling “I’ll get my blanket!”, and zoe starts yelling “I’ll get my blanket!” (Kind of a pattern around our house). So I wander around for a couple of minutes and find zoe standing in her crib holding two blankets and a doll (Normal bedtime is one blanket and a doll, but somehow she ended up with two tonight).

So I say hi and ask her how she got in her crib:

“I jumped in”

Kim calls from the other room “She’s in her crib”? I thought you put her there / I thought you put her there, so we ask zoe to climb in again to see how she did it.

Damned if she didn’t jump (The first time was much less crashy than this video, but similar).

This is from after reading books, thats actually her going to bed for the night (surprisingly she fell asleep afterwords without too much trouble).

Today Kyra read me a book. She sounded out the words and read each one. It wasn’t a complicated book, but it still feels monumental. She’s been talking a lot about words, and what letter they start with, and the sounds that in words.

20081105_Chicago_IL_ElectionNight1805, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is the president elect.

I have a lot to unpack about this but I want to start here: I’m thrilled.

I’m thrilled to have a president I’m proud of.

I’m thrilled that instead of worrying about how bad things can get I’m starting to think about how good they could be.

I’m thrilled to have a president who is unabashedly liberal.

I’m thrilled that Obama didn’t back down to being called a socialist.

I’m thrilled to have a president who listens to people he doesn’t agree with and tries to understand their arguments.

I’m thrilled to have a president who is thoughtful.

I’m thrilled to have a president who inspires me.

I’m thrilled to have a government that won’t pander to our basest instincts but appeal to our better natures.

I’m thrilled by whats next, Obama:

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.”

Halloween was a big hit this year. Kyra was a pirate, and Zoe was a kitty cat. We did only make it down two roads before they decided they wanted to head home. Josh and I were stunned because we hadn’t been out that long and their pumpkins were far from full. We came to the conclusion that it must have been that Kyra realized the eating of the candy happened once you returned home. So we headed home in time to eat some candy and pass some out to some of our neighborhood kids. Zoe, who is normally reserved around strangers, had no qualms about speaking up to get some goodies. As I type this Kyra wanted to say, “We ate lots of candy and our tummies felt weird. I like Halloween. It’s my favorite, best holiday in the world.”



IMG_1786.JPG Originally uploaded by JoshSchulz.