Sorry about the Barbara Streisand reference.

You know what I really like about blogging? The opportunity to look back and remember that 3 years ago today I got charged $130 for a sandwich.

There are so many moments in life that I would never revisit, never remember at all, if I didn’t have this little written archive. There’s a degree of comfort in that.

My 2-year-old is clever. More so than I’m comfortable with at times. Particularly when it comes to getting something she wants.

“Can I watch cartoons?”
“No, not right now.”
“Can I ask Daddo?”
“No, Button. If Mama says no, you can’t go ask Daddo in hopes that he’ll give you a different answer.”
“I want a different answer.”

Yesterday, we made a deal that if she ate all of her fish for dinner, she could watch some cartoons. She didn’t eat all of her fish. She didn’t get to watch cartoons. Then she decided to throw a fit, and got sent to Time Out.

We have a policy that in order to come out of Time Out, she has to tell us what she did wrong that got her put in Time Out. Sometimes pride gets in the way and she doesn’t want to admit her fault in the matter.

“Are you ready to come out?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me why you got in trouble?”
(silence)
“What did you do that got you in trouble?”
“Mama.”
“No, Mama didn’t get you in trouble.”
“I got in trouble all by myself.”
“Yes. Can you tell me why you got in trouble?”
(silence)
“Button, I would like to take you out of Time Out, but I’m waiting for you tell me why you got in trouble.”
“Can I watch TV if I talk about why I got in trouble?”

Obviously, she has a one-track mind.

And a mind in which the wheels are constantly turning. Eventually, she admitted that she got in trouble for throwing a fit. She then apologized and told me she would never do it again.

Yeah, right.

Just watched the Democratic debate in SC, which is officially my second debate ever. It was quite a contrast to the previous one I saw.

Hi-Def is not a friend to Hillary. She looks at least 10 years older than she does on regular TV. In general, she didn’t come off looking as well in this debate as the last one. She resorted to a lot of “attack” tactics, which comes across as very old school. And negative. I think the country is ready to move past that.

She is an excellent traditional debater. In high school debate, she would have totally and completely annihilated the competition. But the other candidates are no longer playing by the sling and spin rules - in fact, they’re calling her on it, which immediately renders those methods ineffective. She’s using outdated tactics and that approach is hurting her.

The other thing that I thought detracted from her showing was her tendency to refer to Republicans as “the enemy.” Those are my quotation marks, not hers, but her repeated statements infer that position very strongly. She obviously expects to go into presidency ready for combat - in a way that makes me think both sides would lose.

John Edwards did better this time around. When the answer to his first question was, “First of all, I’d like to say [insert totally irrelevant statement here],” I wanted to bash my head into the wall at the thought of listening to 2 more hours of his non-answers. But he was able to pull himself together pretty well after that and stick (relatively) close to the questions, especially during the back-and-forth Clinton-Obama showdowns.

I think Obama did well. He stood up for himself, most of the time without giving Hillary too much credit for her accusations. A tactic that he and Edwards have both mastered - which Hillary notably has not - is the commendation of other candidates. While Hillary continues to sling mud, Obama and Edwards are not afraid to commend their opponents on certain stances and issues. That positive approach is refreshing.

I really found the transformation between the first and second halves of the debate to be interesting. The first half behind the podiums was very formal - and very combative. The moderator had a terrible time just getting the candidates to shut up in a reasonable time frame, as all they wanted to do was argue with and accuse each other. The second half, where everyone was sitting down, was more conversational, more agreeable, and more like the previous debate I saw. There were virtually no “rules” - but none were needed, and it was much more comfortable.

I noticed a lot of attempts by the candidates to draw distinctions between themselves and their opponents. However, most of the time it didn’t really seem to work (because the distinctions they were drawing were determined inaccurate), which makes me think the democrats are not all THAT different from each other. One noticeable difference that I’ve touched on before is that Obama doesn’t believe health insurance should be mandatory. Clinton and Edwards tried to make that out to be a bad thing - the “it will never work” argument - but did not give any substantial reason why. I don’t think they succeeded in pushing down that stance.

I’m looking forward to the Republican debate on Thursday. I haven’t really heard much from the Republicans on several issues I’m concerned about, so it will be interesting to see if they actually have viable plans. The democrats have determined that John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee, so they’re gearing up for campaigning against him specifically. I’m not as certain that it’s so clear-cut at this point.

Button’s latest thing is “pretending” to do things she’s not really allowed to do.  For instance, this morning she pretended to smear lipstick all over her face.

A few minutes ago, she was told that she could NOT push buttons on Daddo’s phone.  Her response was “I’m pretending.”  She then informed us that she was pretending to call Uncle Jon.  Apparently, Pretend Uncle Jon isn’t much of a conversationalist in the morning… which means that her make-believe world is pretty darn accurate.

“Hi.  I’m Button.  And I’m at home… standing here… and stuff.  And Daddo’s in his chair.  And Mama’s standing there.  And I’m standing here too.  Bye.”

Last night we held a going away party for our friends who are about to jump into the mission field in Paris, France (yeah I know, poor them). We discovered that hosting a party is so much easier when other people bring most of the food.

It was a very enjoyable evening, and we had a good turnout. We visited with a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while, and I’m fairly certain I gave myself diabetes from all the cake and sweets.

Totally worth it.

Little Button had a blast as well. She made a new friend at the party - a couple we know brought their son, Lucas, who is 3 ¹/₂. Button was a little shy and standoffish at first (after all, J has been telling her that boys are bad until she’s 30), but she soon warmed up to Lucas and they spent several ours playing together. They had a blast running around, sliding, watching TV, eating cake, and chatting. The current state of our playroom is proof that good times were had by all. By the end of the night, Lucas was calling J “Daddo” and Button was (repeatedly) asking Lucas if she could hug him.

At one point, they even closed themselves inside the pantry and conspired together. Soon, Lucas emerged to ask me if he could have a breakfast bar - which was no doubt Button’s idea, as she asks for them several times per day. I walked into the pantry to find Button holding the box of breakfast bars.

It was so nice to see her really playing and interacting with another child. I have been somewhat concerned about her tendency to be a little aloof around other children, blaming myself for not socializing her enough. While it’s probably accurate that I’ve been a little lazy in getting her used to other kids, it occurred to me last night that most of the kids in our peer group are younger than she is.

Button is very advanced for her age in language skills - which when said by a parent may come across as bragging, but really it’s just a fact, and one we take very little credit for. A fact that has been stated by our pediatrician and just about every adult who comes in contact with her. Actually, we learned last night that apparently our friends who have kids sit around and talk to each other about how brilliant Button is.

So needless to say, the kids she usually “plays” with, who are mostly several months younger than she is, don’t have the same language skills and therefore can’t fully engage in her favorite form of entertainment: endless conversation.

Last night between Button and Lucas, there was a constant stream of chatter emerging from the playroom. When they eventually came down to join us, they continued to make observations to each other, ask and answer questions (in complete sentences). It was really quite adorable to watch them interact.

And by the end of the evening, Button finally had to admit defeat and concede that she had met someone with more energy than she has (gasp). She was completely worn out and started insisting that she was “ready for her nap right now” before all the guests had left.

When J put her to bed, she wiggled under her covers and sighed as though she did not know it was possible to be THAT comfortable. Then she said, “Daddo, I had a great day.”

Indeed.