Update on the Boys

Kristin has requested an update on my two sons and so, to show I am responsive to reader comments, here are a few notable things:

We were discussing the difference between what a man and what a boy was as well as the female equivalents and Avi seemed to be getting it pretty well. "Colin is a boy," he said, "and Daddy is a man." So far so good. "Gracie is a girl and Mommy is a woman." Yup. And of course, the requisite question - "And what about you, Avi?"

"I'm going to be a penguin when I grow up."

My son. The penguin.

Avi is currently into story play. What I mean by that is he reenacts, re-imagines and amalgamates different stories he's heard or seen. Certain elements are currently recurring - it's snowing, we're in an igloo (a "blanket-fort" either on his bed or with chairs) and Veggie Tales characters appear. I'm currently Larry or Archibald. I suppose that's better than Bazooka Ears.

Ah, yes, Bazooka Ears. For a while Avi would greet me with "Hey you big bazooka ears" when I came home. It's not that I have enormous ears or that they make intermittent loud booming noises - it's just something one of the grape children called the other in a Veggie Tales book we got from the library. I'm glad that one didn't stick.

As for Theo, he's friggin' heavy, but oh-so-cute. He sleeps a lot, pukes a lot and generally does baby things. He thinks his brother is pretty entertaining and he's right. It's hard to tell what he'll be like as he becomes his own person, but we'll do our best to squeeze any normalcy out of him. I'm going for mad-scientist. It should compliment musical buffoon nicely, I think. (And lest you think I am maligning Avi, I'm not. Humor and music just seem to be his interests/intelligences and I suspect he will continue to use them for good and not evil.)

A Better Way to Vote

Bill Bradbury - A Better Way to Vote - washingtonpost.com

Oregon does all its voting by mail and this op-ed article from our Secretary of State is a great testament as to why that is a very good idea. This is my favorite paragraph:

One episode that highlights its success occurred in Tillamook County, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible -- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places -- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome.

I also learned why voting takes place on Tuesday:

Election days were originally scheduled on Tuesdays because that was when farmers brought their crops into town to sell.

We're not an agrarian society anymore - it's time to shed the old traditions and get into the 21st century. More on that later.