Elections and the Good Stuff

I try not to make this blog about me, but I just have to say, I've been in a bit of a funk since Tuesday. I researched the issues and the candidates for months, watched all of the debates, read everyone's website - not just Obama/McCain, but senators, judges, etc. and carefully selected my favorite candidate and proposal stance in each race. Alas, in the end, every single thing/person (except one judge) I voted for lost. That's depressing. Yay for democracy, but when that happens you wonder why you bothered. So congrats to those of you who voted for Obama, etc., but when you and I are hanging out, I'd rather you wait a few months before bringing it up. I'm just going to get depressed again. Okay, that's out of the way. On to the good stuff and the real reason most people check this blog.



Isabella turns 6 months tomorrow and we're still trying to get her to eat from a spoon. I've tried rice and oatmeal, squash, broccoli, bananas, and applesauce - all with only very limited success. Here's a video to show you how it goes. She makes such hilarious facial expressions that I just had to get it on film. Of course, that's when she decided to finally swallow. It doesn't happen often. We'll just have to keep working at it, I guess. Benjamin took about 4 weeks of daily effort before he finally started eating well.


Benjamin has started taking a real active interest in Bella's development. It's been really fun to see. He'll hold a toy out to her and when she takes it, he'll cheer, "Yay Bella! Take! See mama? Bella take!" He's also decided that he's going to teach her how to crawl. I came into the kitchen yesterday and found them doing this:


Of course, I'm not really sure what he was trying to teach her with this:


In general I'm just happy to see him spending more time playing with her than beating on her.


He's actually gotten better at playing with kids in general. We've been doing a lot with his buddies Max and Maya and he still has a major problem with the concept of sharing, but again, the violence has been reduced and it's done my ulcer good. :)


Cookies and Dora the Explorer - what more could you want?