Where Have I Been All My Life?

I had a short, weird dream this morning that I was some sort of self-help guru (ha!). I had just written a book and was doing a book signing. Just before waking up, I caught a glimpse of the title of my book which was "Where Have I Been All My Life" and I woke up chuckling. When I told my husband about it this morning, he did a Google search (of course) and found a lot of blog posts with the same title, so I thought I should join in. He said there was one blogger who had written about the fact that Obama's campaign slogan (This is Our Time. This is Our Moment.) had really inspired him to take more responsibility for himself. Perhaps that slogan has just seeped in to my thoughts.

I went to a wonderful workshop last night called Beyond Birds and Bees. It is led by my friend Katie Malinski, who is a therapist specializing in early childhood. We talked a lot about how sex education is so much more than just talking about intercourse, contraception, and diseases. Sex education starts really early for children. We teach them about self esteem, relationships, respect, anatomy, autonomy, media, etc., and that is their foundation for a healthy, sexual adult. We were asked to think of the first thing that came to our minds when we hear the words "sex education" and we all thought "film strip," oddly enough. I was so inspired because it goes back to taking responsibility for yourself and your family. What a relief to know that I am open to talking to Levi about sex because nobody ever talked to me about it. It isn't like it was considered a bad thing in our family, but it just wasn't something that was openly discussed and, to me, that's almost as dangerous as shaming your child when they try to talk about sexuality with their parents. There were some hilarious stories from the workshop. And I just had to write down that Levi, instead of privacy, says privaseed. I love it so much that I don't correct him. And because he has a CD of stories that are told by a British woman, he now knows that there are two meanings for the word cock. All thanks to the twelve-year-old in me who just had to giggle when she said it. Of course I will make sure he knows that in our house, the correct term is penis.

Off to work! On my book.

Let's try this again

There has been so much going on since the last time I was here. Levi turned 3, we went to Virginia and Wisconsin to see our families, I've become obsessed with politics, I turned 36, Mark turned 36, etc. We had a great birthday party for Levi at the Elks pool. Lots of friends came and we just had a blast! We also had a party for him in VA and one in WI, so he had a party for each year!

Levi went to his first camp last week at the Nature Center, where he'll be going to school in the fall. He absolutely loved it and felt totally comfortable there. It made me realize that we are truly making the best decision for his preschool by doing both Bungalow (our preschool co-op) and Nature Center. He made a sweet friend named Natalia. His teacher, Heidi, said that they were basically inseparable for the entire week. I always worried that, since he's been going to school with the same kids for so long, he might have trouble making friends. I was so proud. Plus, she loves animals! It was a match made in heaven.

I went to a wonderful conference for progressive bloggers and other politics-obsessed people a couple of weeks ago. It is called Netroots (www.netrootsnation.org). I volunteered to stuff conference bags (blast from the past!) and help organize sessions in order to attend some of the events. I was lucky enough to see Howard Dean, Wes Clark, and the back of Al Gore's head as he was leaving. Hearing Howard Dean and Wes Clark speak was quite a treat and I have been thinking a lot about what we lost back in 2000 when the election was stolen from Gore. So many back room deals, so many lives lost in a war that should have never been started, so much favor given to corporations over people. I don't think we'll even know the whole story until many years from now when people in the administration will have to start talking in order to clear their own conscience.

I talk to Levi about politics and I sometimes say things I might regret later. But the thing is that I cannot handle the thought of him going to fight a war that is such a giant mistake. And for what?

Okay, I must go now. Dinner (at 10 PM) is ready and I'm out of steam.