Yesterday Rob woke me up at 6AM with Grace in hand. She said I could try to rock her back to sleep or see if she’d sleep in bed with me. I opted for the latter although Grace didn’t agree. After a handful of verses of Wheels on the Bus while Grace was screaming she finally relented and we both fell back to sleep.
When Rob came back in to say goodbye Grace was already stirring and Rob suggested I get up to check out the pre-inauguration. When I turned on the TV and saw the crowds I got chills.

It was time for breakfast so we moved Grace’s eating station in front of the TV. Some day she’ll get it.

In honour¹ of today’s US Presidential election, I give you this: Babies for Obama:

I saw this over at Feministing, where I also read that in the U.S., if you bring in proof of voting, you can not only get free ice cream from Benny & Jerry’s, but you can also get a free silver bullet and sleeve¹ at the New York and Seattle locations of Babeland sex toy store.

Given the pathetic voter turnout in our recent election, maybe Canada needs to look into this free-ice-cream-and-sex-toys-for-voters idea.

¹Yes, I am spelling honour with a ‘u,’ even though I’m talking about the U.S. ‘cuz that’s the way we Canucks roll.
²I especially like that this particular model of sleeve is called “The Maverick”^a
    aJust don’t picture John McCain using “The Maverick.”^{i
        i}I *told* you *not* to picture it.

I’ve never been one of those people who is principally opposed to leashing children. I simply do not have a problem with it, theoretically or otherwise. And I can now include myself among the ranks of parents who happily tether their children to their wrists. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the smartest purchase I’ve ever made was a baby leash from Target, and today we put it to great use.

Today Chase, Tatie Jill and I went to see Hillary Clinton speak at an Obama rally in Horsham. This was Chase’s second political rally, and this time he got really into it — playing, clapping, shouting and moving around. There were a lot of other little kids there, and he had a great time networking among all the tiny Democrats. Instead of being trapped in his stroller the whole time, Chase was able to walk around and explore, and I was able to hold onto him without being bent over at a 90 degree angle for two hours. This worked beautifully for both of us, and it was the best $8.99 I’ve ever spent.

In addition to sharing his goldfish crackers with his fellow Obama supporters, he also danced to the music. This is a new development (dancing, not goldfish sharing) and it is by far my favorite. He loves dancing and starts to move around to anything with a beat, and it’s the cutest thing I have ever seen. Today, he especially seemed to like dancing to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.” I like to think Andrew and I instilled a love of Stevie Wonder in Chase from the time he was a fetus, because we are big Stevie fans ourselves (Andrew sang “Ribbon in the Sky” to me at our wedding), so I was especially proud to see him rock out so hard to such a great song.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from today’s rally:

Chase and Tatie

All leashed up and ready to go

Clapping along to the music (I will take a video of him dancing as soon as I remember to do it, I promise!)

Hillary addresses the crowd

Time to canvass! Off we go!

Chase takes residing in a swing state pretty seriously, so this past Saturday we took him to his first political rally. He rocked out at the Vote for Change rally in Center City Philadelphia, which was headlined by my personal favorite musician of all time, Bruce Springsteen. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon and the Ben Franklin Parkway was packed with over 50,000 Obama supporters! Here are a few pictures from the rally:

Uncle Doods, Daddy, Tatie Jill, and Chase, who wishes they would lower the voting age to 13 months

The Obama Kid snacks on some goldfish

50,000!

Amos Lee was one of the opening acts for The Boss

Chase is not a fan of Amos Lee (there’s no accounting for taste), so Uncle Doods personally provided him with entertainment more appropriate for a one-year-old

Families for Obama!

Chase decided the view was better from Daddy’s shoulders than it was from the stroller

Chase P., a man of the people

Tatie Jill holds up Chase so he can get a better view of the stage

Tatie & Chase

The future politician: Chase greets a fellow Obama supporter

Gov. Ed Rendell introduces The Boss

Rocking the vote with Mommy

Chase decided that pulling Mommy’s hair was another way to reach swing voters. I’m not sure how this strategy will work, but he seemed pretty determined.

Hey! I didn’t see you down there!

The Boss takes the stage and rocks out for Obama

It is an election year,

and yes…

I am being compensated to promote family political beliefs!

Babies For Obama!

It really seems impossible to capture the way people’s brains work, or don’t work. CNN has been running a series of shots of Obama kissing and mugging wide-eyed at babies, and of babies cooing back–”Babies for Obama,” it’s called.  

Nobody makes the obvious comment that if it weren’t for a couple of accidental factors, that adorable baby could have been called–according to Barack’s wording–a ‘punishment’ for mom’s stupidity, and thus disposable. Dispensible.  Profoundly abortable.

No wonder Barack’s looking at that one baby all bug-eyed. He’s wondering how this one made it!

Nobody on CNN mentions this, as the piece plays for the ten thousandth time. The rest of us, meanwhile, can’t think of anything else.

What goes on in commentators’ brains? No irony? No gift of interpretation?

I predict–you read it here on thewhitelilyblog–that Barack will lose by exactly the number of babies aborted in 1992 when Barack launched himself with a voter registration drive. He’s voted every chance since then to abort the very demographic that could have put him over the top.

Oops, by the way, we didn’t mean to say stupid mom. They save stupid  for the posters at school in the counseling office to make fun of the girls who won’t abort.  We mean mistaken.  Mommy just made a little error ! It’s ever-so-easy to erase, girls, with a special little vacuum, and, see there? All Gone! Obama Baby All Gone.

Some people have made videos of their babies voicing support for Obama. CNN keeps playing this over and over even though nobody gives a crap.

Seriously. What waste of friggin’ air time. To all of you who approve of wasting time that could be spent discussing matters of life and death like the Iraq War, healthcare and national security on such useless tripe: Screw off!