Some sad news from this past week: S’s grandma passed away. Now, this is only sad in the way that it is sad anytime anybody dies – S’s grandma, after all, was quite old and had been severely enfeebled for the past few months or so – but it is sad nonetheless. S’s mom sent her text about it Thursday night after she was already in bed. I noticed the text on S’s phone as I was getting into bed, but her phone wasn’t showing the names of the people who had texted, only the numbers, so I had a brief moment of panic in which I thought the text was from S’s sister saying that their mom had died! The text said “Avva passed away” and the only “Avva” I know is S’s mom, because it’s what Lil’ S1 calls her (it’s Kannada for maternal grandmother), so I was like “OH GOD NO!” Before quickly realizing that it couldn’t be about S’s mom because (a) S’s sister wouldn’t text this to S and then not follow up on it; (b) S and her sister calls her mom Amma, not Avva.
So I put two and two together, but then I found myself in the awkward position of having to decide whether or not to wake S up to tell her the bad news or just let her find out in the morning. I decided on the latter under the better-to-be-rested-nothing-she-can-do-about-it-now-anyway rationale, but then she woke up on her own to use the bathroom, so I told her then. Not waking her up to tell her is one thing, not telling her after she is already awake is another. She called her mom, and they talked for a bit, and then she came back to bed. Both she and her mother seem to be doing okay. I mean, like I said, S’s grandma was really old, and all really old people die in the near future. So it’s only tragic if you consider death (and by extension existence) a tragedy in and of itself -- I go back and forth on this one, personally.
Speaking of S’s mom, we’ve been doing pretty well without her so far. In some ways, it is good she left because it forces us to set a more structured routine with our kids and stick to it. For example, Lil’ S2 was waking up a lot during the night when S’s mom was here, because she comforts him immediately every time he starts crying (she can’t help herself). For her this isn't such a big deal, because if she doesn't sleep during the night, she can nap during the day, but we can’t roll like that, so we did cry it out, and now, not even a week later, he’s sleeping pretty soundly until about 7 a.m. Well, actually, S gets him up around 4:30 and feeds him and then he sleeps until 7. That’s an important piece of the routine that S would probably not want me to omit. Also, Lil’ S1 has one fewer adult around to try to cajole into giving him what he wants. That’s a good thing. I’m always worrying that this kid is getting too spoiled.
But I’ll be damned if he doesn’t say some funny shit. A few of my favorites: glubs (gloves); tow-food (tofu); scrapter (scraper, a type of truck in one of his books), and being-haive (“Daddy, daddy, can I watch something? I’m being-haive.”). He also has a memory like a black hole. He just pulls in information and doesn’t let it go. I’ve learned to give him the benefit of the doubt when he tells me something I think isn’t right, as often it is right and I’m wrong or I’m misunderstanding what he’s saying. And now, when this happens, he follows it up with “See! I told you!” This bodes well for the future. I would love to have a little know-it-all son.
In other news, I’ve been keeping tabs on the presidential primaries, which are getting pretty interesting. On the Republican side, I’m firmly in the Donald Trump camp. It is a sad state of affairs when the best candidate one of our two major political parties has to offer is an odious, xenophobic, chauvinistic farce of a man, but here we are. I genuinely want Trump to win the nomination, and it’s not just because I think he would get crushed in the general election. He’s legitimately the least worst candidate. (Jonathan Chait lays out the liberals-for-Trump case nicely in this article. I find his Schwarzenegger-Trump analogy a bit lacking -- Schwarzenegger never said anything close to as bad as Trumps ban on Muslim immigration -- but I agree with the bigger picture.)
On the other side of the coin, I go back and forth every few days, but I find, on the macro-level, I'm gradually gravitating toward Hillary. I like Bernie Sanders, I think he's good for politics; I think he's good for the country; and I think he's been good for the Democratic Party; but I highly dubious that he would make a good president at this moment in time under these circumstances. Maybe the presidency of the United States isn't the best place to lead a revolution because the Constitution specifically limits the powers of any one branch of government, and right now Democrats hold the power in exactly one of those, and that is highly unlikely to change for at least the next few election cycles.
Also, I don't like that Sanders and his supporters are constantly trying to portray him as the people's candidate and Hillary as the candidate for corporate, sell-out shills. In reality, Clinton has a massive lead on Sanders among women, labor unions, and minorities -- that's hardly what I would call "The Man."
Anyway, I'm sure I will have more to say as the big election draws near, but for now, I must leave you. Oh, one more thing, we started watching the show Fargo. It's pretty good so far. At the beginning they say it's based on a true story, and I wanted to find out how true the true story is. So I Googled "Is the TV sh" and look what popped up! This is probably the second most prescient Google moment I've ever witnessed.
Until next time...
So I put two and two together, but then I found myself in the awkward position of having to decide whether or not to wake S up to tell her the bad news or just let her find out in the morning. I decided on the latter under the better-to-be-rested-nothing-she-can-do-about-it-now-anyway rationale, but then she woke up on her own to use the bathroom, so I told her then. Not waking her up to tell her is one thing, not telling her after she is already awake is another. She called her mom, and they talked for a bit, and then she came back to bed. Both she and her mother seem to be doing okay. I mean, like I said, S’s grandma was really old, and all really old people die in the near future. So it’s only tragic if you consider death (and by extension existence) a tragedy in and of itself -- I go back and forth on this one, personally.
[All that remains from the massive snow storm two weeks ago]
Speaking of S’s mom, we’ve been doing pretty well without her so far. In some ways, it is good she left because it forces us to set a more structured routine with our kids and stick to it. For example, Lil’ S2 was waking up a lot during the night when S’s mom was here, because she comforts him immediately every time he starts crying (she can’t help herself). For her this isn't such a big deal, because if she doesn't sleep during the night, she can nap during the day, but we can’t roll like that, so we did cry it out, and now, not even a week later, he’s sleeping pretty soundly until about 7 a.m. Well, actually, S gets him up around 4:30 and feeds him and then he sleeps until 7. That’s an important piece of the routine that S would probably not want me to omit. Also, Lil’ S1 has one fewer adult around to try to cajole into giving him what he wants. That’s a good thing. I’m always worrying that this kid is getting too spoiled.
But I’ll be damned if he doesn’t say some funny shit. A few of my favorites: glubs (gloves); tow-food (tofu); scrapter (scraper, a type of truck in one of his books), and being-haive (“Daddy, daddy, can I watch something? I’m being-haive.”). He also has a memory like a black hole. He just pulls in information and doesn’t let it go. I’ve learned to give him the benefit of the doubt when he tells me something I think isn’t right, as often it is right and I’m wrong or I’m misunderstanding what he’s saying. And now, when this happens, he follows it up with “See! I told you!” This bodes well for the future. I would love to have a little know-it-all son.
In other news, I’ve been keeping tabs on the presidential primaries, which are getting pretty interesting. On the Republican side, I’m firmly in the Donald Trump camp. It is a sad state of affairs when the best candidate one of our two major political parties has to offer is an odious, xenophobic, chauvinistic farce of a man, but here we are. I genuinely want Trump to win the nomination, and it’s not just because I think he would get crushed in the general election. He’s legitimately the least worst candidate. (Jonathan Chait lays out the liberals-for-Trump case nicely in this article. I find his Schwarzenegger-Trump analogy a bit lacking -- Schwarzenegger never said anything close to as bad as Trumps ban on Muslim immigration -- but I agree with the bigger picture.)
On the other side of the coin, I go back and forth every few days, but I find, on the macro-level, I'm gradually gravitating toward Hillary. I like Bernie Sanders, I think he's good for politics; I think he's good for the country; and I think he's been good for the Democratic Party; but I highly dubious that he would make a good president at this moment in time under these circumstances. Maybe the presidency of the United States isn't the best place to lead a revolution because the Constitution specifically limits the powers of any one branch of government, and right now Democrats hold the power in exactly one of those, and that is highly unlikely to change for at least the next few election cycles.
Also, I don't like that Sanders and his supporters are constantly trying to portray him as the people's candidate and Hillary as the candidate for corporate, sell-out shills. In reality, Clinton has a massive lead on Sanders among women, labor unions, and minorities -- that's hardly what I would call "The Man."
Anyway, I'm sure I will have more to say as the big election draws near, but for now, I must leave you. Oh, one more thing, we started watching the show Fargo. It's pretty good so far. At the beginning they say it's based on a true story, and I wanted to find out how true the true story is. So I Googled "Is the TV sh" and look what popped up! This is probably the second most prescient Google moment I've ever witnessed.
Until next time...
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