children mentioned and photographed…

For the first time, I have the option to vote without the Wolvog and ChickieNob. I can drop them off at preschool, nip over to the polls, and still have enough time to grab a salted caramel hot chocolate at the nearby Starbucks before picking them up. It would certainly be easier on my back because I wouldn’t have to pick them up to push the buttons. It would ensure a little more privacy since they have a tendency to shout my voting record over the side of the booth.

So let’s just get that out of the way then: I’m voting for Obama.

Up until this point, they have voted with me out of necessity. Due to my neuroses as well as my limited child care coverage, we’re sort of a package deal. In 2004, I strapped on my Maximom and walked down the street to the elementary school like an enormous opossum. Except for the fact that I couldn’t really see over their heads to view the voting machine, it was an excellent plan.

2006 was the year of the nipple. Just as I was about to vote, the Wolvog broke free, ran to the center of the room, lifted up his shirt and screamed, “Peoples, these. are. my. niiiiiipples.” To which the ChickieNob gave a serious head nod in agreement to all of our neighbours who were trying to decide who would make the best comptroller. “They are,” she agreed, “his nipples.”

They came with me to the primaries a few months ago and informed the room who I thought would make the best candidate for sheriff. Since February, every time we pass our polling place, they ask if it is time to vote again. They solemnly inform people trying to buy heads of lettuce at the food store that their “mommy is voting for Obama.” Interestingly enough, while McCain refers to Obama as “that one,” my children refer to Palin as “that woman.”

This election kicked off a host of discussions including why women shouldn’t just blindly vote for someone because they’re a woman (a message the ChickieNob passed along to the poor, unsuspecting people at the library who were waiting to check out books and heard, “you shouldn’t vote for that woman because she wants to control your body and I think she’s against My Little Pony too”) as well as why preschool classmates sometimes switch over mid-year when their parents lose their appointments.

It also kicked off a host of less illuminating moments such as the time that we told the kids that all of the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike was caused by the man driving the car with the “Nobama” bumper sticker and they wailed at the man each time we inched past him during the hour-long congestion.

It is interesting to see how their experience of elections growing up in the DC Metro area differs from my own experience growing up. We talked about it in school and we voted in our Weekly Readers and I knew which kids had parents who worked for government and therefore probably wouldn’t make the best friends because they’d be possibly moving every four years. Politicians were not these remote figures you saw only on the news. They were the parents of my friends or the friends of our parents. But government is the backdrop for the area so it didn’t really register. I didn’t know who my parents voted for and I don’t remember looking forward to going to vote (maybe because there were no buttons to press as there are now).

The ChickieNob and Wolvog have election overload. They can read everyone’s name because they’ve seen it constantly on lawn signs and newspaper covers, but they’re also bombarded with Obama’s funky “O” and McCain’s little star every time they open up Firefox so they can play the Wonder Pets game. They hear way too much and I haven’t even turned on NPR in months. They ask why does the President’s house have to be white and what is a tax and why is John McCain so old?

I simply have no memory of being this attune to the election season.

The reason I’m having them vote with me tomorrow is not because I want to use the preschool hours to work on the LFCA or because I want to educate them on their civic duty or because they are such a good source of entertainment for my neighbours that I hate to take their comedy routine away from them. These are all good reasons, but I am taking them to vote because of a referendum that was struck from the ballot at last minute this summer but which we have been promised will still have petitioning and picketing outside of the polling station.

There is a group aiming to overturn a bill that gives equal rights to those who are transgender. The protest focuses on the issue of bathrooms and they have been petitioning outside of local food stores for months, trying to get transgender men and women banned from public bathrooms. Without really touching on who is being targeted, we used the whole brouhaha to explain to the twins why they need to treat everyone fairly and never make someone feel wrong for being themselves. We explained that everyone needs to pee and everyone needs to be potty-trained and everyone needs access to a bathroom. If not, they get urinary tract infections. Essentially, these people want others to be in tremendous pain from a UTI AND feel ashamed for who they are.

And it doesn’t matter if they are speaking about a group you belong to or not. It is important to protect everyone because you never know when you will need protection too. People who are willing to treat one group unfairly are most likely willing to treat a multitude of groups unfairly. And our focus is not on trying to change the unfair, smallminded, idiotic people in this world, but instead, to lend support, time, our words, our energy to making sure the rest of the people in this world are kept safe from mean words, mean actions, and UTIs.

We also told them that if anyone approached us with the petition and Mommy gave the signal, they should scream, “free the pee!” and make a pissing sound while dancing around. While I can’t get away with this, they certainly can.

Hence why I need them to come with me to vote.

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

I was online looking at handpainted dolls on Production, Not Reproduction’s review blog and while I thought they were really cute, I knew I could make something similar enough. I did purchase some of the wood turnings at the store that look like people but I also picked up a bag of clothespins (um…48 of them for about a dollar) because I love the history of clothespin dolls. I told the ChickieNob I would make her anything she wants and she has started with a wedding party. These are two of the bridesmaids, chatting with each other (and looking a little concerned, I might add) right before the ceremony. Do they think the bride will be left at the altar?

Stay tuned for a clothespin doll version of my fertility clinic complete with tiny wooden stirrups and a doctor with cold hands.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (actually, everyone should read it this week because I changed it around a bit). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.

Want to bring something to Show and Tell?

• If you would like to join circle time and show something to the class, simply post each Saturday night (or earlier in the week or on Monday if you can’t do the weekend), hopefully including a picture if possible, and telling us about your item. It can be anything–a photo from a trip, a picture of the dress you bought this week, a random image from an old yearbook showing a person you miss. It doesn’t need to contain a picture if you can’t get a picture–you can simply tell a story about a single item. The list opens every Saturday night and closes on Tuesday night.

• You must mention Show and Tell and include a link back to this post in your post so people can find the rest of the class. This spreads new readership around through the list. This is now required.

• Label your post “Show and Tell” each week and then come back here and add the permalink for the post via the Mr. Linky feature (not your blog’s main url–use the permalink for your specific Show and Tell post).

• Oh, and then the point is that you click through all of your classmates and see what they are showing this week. And everyone loves a good “ooooh” and “aaaah” and to be queen (or king) of the playground for five minutes so leave them a comment if you can.

• Did you post a link and now it’s missing?: I reserve the right to delete any links that are not leading to a Show and Tell post or are the blogging equivalent of a spitball.

• If you want it…
  I’ve now placed a Show and Tell archive on the sidebar that will be updated each week in case you miss it. And click here for the icon code if you wish to have it for your blog. It links to the archives.

Friday Blog Roundup is below the new IComLeavWe list (which, by the way, has an American Thanksgiving caveat so all can participate without missing the stuffing).

Just in case you were wondering where everything was.

The new list for December will open on December 1st. Please check back then to add yourself to the month of December. This list is currently closed and IComLeavWe is running..

Welcome back to IComLeavWe. It stands for International Comment Leaving Week, but if you say it aloud, doesn’t it sounds like “I come; [but] leave [as a] we”? And that’s sort of the point. Blogging is a conversation and comments should be honoured and encouraged. I like to say that comments are the new hug–a way of saying hello, giving comfort, leaving congratulations.

Here is the vital information, pure and simple (a more detailed set of rules follows below the list):

• The list opens the 1st of every month. It remains open until the 21st. You can add yourself at any point. The list is open to everyone in the blogosphere–blog writers and/or blog readers.
• Add yourself to the list by leaving in the comment section your blog name, blog url, and three words that describe what you blog about most often.

• I move the information from the comment section into the post (usually within 24 hours).
• Click here to cut-and-paste this bit of code to add to your sidebar (if you have the old code from another month, remove it and replace it with this one). Starting this month: you need to add the icon or a link to the current list on your blog (see below) and will not be added until it’s up.
• Commenting kicks off every month on the 21st. Please mark it somewhere (calendar, post-it note taped to your computer…). Commenting week runs from the 21st to the 28th. Every day, leave 5 comments and return 1 comment for a total of 6 comments. You are highly encouraged to choose the blogs you comment on from the participants list below, but this is not required. *Special American Thanksgiving caveat: the last two days of IComLeavWe this month are do-it-if-you-can. You can still participate, even if you won’t be by a computer on the 27th and 28th.
• Read below if you want to find out about Iron Commenters.
• The commenting ends on the 28th. We catch out breath and the whole thing starts again the next month on the 1st. Drop in and out according to what is happening in your life between the 21st and the 28th.

1. Stirrup Queens (infertility, twins, books)
2. Not The Path I Chose (secondary infertility, RPL)
3. Musings of a Teacher (faith, ttc, life)
4. Who shot my stork? (waiting, whining, being poor)
5. Building Heavenly Bridges (stillbirth, grieving, books)
6. Elana’s Musings (pregnancy, twins, randomness)
7. Dancing with Gaia (male factor, IVF, hope)
8. The Unfair Struggle (male-factor, life, friendship)
9. Vintage Mommy (adoption, midlife mommying)
10. To Baby and Beyond (PCOS, miscarriage, infertility)
11. Just Me (infertility, life)
12. Portraits in Sepia (adoption, infertility, life)
13. Mrs Spock (parenting, infertility, health care)
14. Sticky Feet (infertility, parenting, baking)
15. The Life and Times of Me (anything goes!)
16. Conceive This! (male-factor, waiting, ICSI)
17. Communique (infertility, life)
18. The Binky Diaries (parenting after infertility, pregnancy, twins)
19. Our Own Creation (life, infertility, neonatal loss)
20. Birds and Squirrell (infertility, pcos, male factor)
21. Unquestionable Love (injectables, IUI #5, holiday planning)
22. Get Pregnant (infertility, loss, life)
23. Meepit On Parade (life, infertility, loss)
24. Kicking You From the Inside (parenting, infertility, life)
25. emilythehopeless (FET, vegan, dogs)
26. Bella And Her Fella (POF, high FSH, donor eggs)
27. Between the Lines (newly pregnant, IVF)
28. Woman Anyone (IVF, frustration, primary sub-fertility)
29. Noemi (pcos, life, faith)
30. The Fertile Infertile (family, crafts, secondary infertility)
31. The Maniacal Mommy (infertility, life)
32. The New Life of Nancy (pregnancy, infertility, opinionated opinions)
33. Baby Smiling In Back Seat (infertility, IVF, pottery)
34. The Saga of Becoming Fruitful (infertility, IVF, finances)
35. Our Box of Rain (parenting, life)
36. Life In A Holding Pattern (miscarriage, pregnancy, uterine anomaly)
37. Rachel’s Scrambled Eggs (secondary infertility, writing, randomness)
38. Hello Jello (college, animals, me)
39. Helping Make Sense (infertility, multiple IVF’s, life)
40. Elusive BFP (IVF, infertility)
41. Falling or Flying (IVF, donor eggs, generalized bitching)
42. Our Surrogacy Adventure (surrogacy, infertility, life)
43. Broken Bits (PCOS, IVF, molar preg/cancer)
44. Ronda’s Rants (faith, family, environment)
45. The Daily Doings of Mr Silly and Little Miss Trouble (parenting, infertility, surrogacy)
46. Mom of 2 Dancers (daughters, parenting, product reviews)
47. Heeeeere Storkey, Storkey! (twins, ttc, life)
48. MusicMakerMomma (DE, IVF, parenting)
49. Hope Springs Infertile (IVF, donor egg, pets)
50. Maybe I will have a glass (male factor, IUI, life)
51. The Infertile Mermaid (infertility, ttc, life)
52. My Life Crazy As It May Seem (loss of a child, grief, new life)
53. Life Induces Thoughts, Mostly Random (randomness, friends, family)
54. The Not So Secret Life Of Us (recurrent miscarriages, infertility, emigration)
55. Our Life in a Nutchell (FET, POAS, life)
56. Alicia Pieces of Me (1st pregnancy, shoes)
57. Naturally Knocked Up (pcos, nutrition, adoption)
58. Our Way To Happily Ever After (life, love, new job)
59. Mustard Seed Baby (faith, endo, IVF)
60. Waiting on Life (adoption, infertility, life)
61. Chronicles of… (IVF-FET, unexplained infertility)
62. Wheresmy2lines (PCOS, IVF/ICSI, varicocele)
63. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Pregnancy (first trimester, military life, ramblings)
64. Offmymind.But From My Heart (adoption, kids)
65. Blogfight (entertainment, advice, debate)
66. theworms (IF, NOA, life)
67. Breeder Beware (infertility, PCOS, budgeting)
68. Ordinary Exultation (life, parenting, natural living)
69. Along Life’s Little Journey (endometriosis, daily struggles, infertility)
70. Loving Thee… and More (parenting after loss, random bits of life)
71. Bloorb (infertility, marriage, life)
72. That’s My Answer (fun, questions, you)
73. DreamsComeTrueSometimes (TTC, life, infertility)
74. It Is Tuesday, Right? (new motherhood, life, breastfeeding)
75. An Equation of Hope (secondary infertility, parenting, life)
76. Life With the Georgia Reiniches (comedy, kids, general ramblings)
77. Such Great Heights (infertility, decisions, identity)
78. The Great Big If (infertility, loss, life)
79. Mommy Confessions (kids, life, drama)
80. In Pursuit of Parenthood (infertility, waiting, faith)
81. Infertility Podcast and Blog (secondary infertility, pregnancy loss, infertility news)
82. Junebug’s Musings (infertility, life, general junk)
83. Preheatedoven (infertility, MFI, furry babies)
84. One Small Wish (infertility, IVF, elevated FSH)
85. The Idle Mind Of Beth (infertility, grief, distractions)
86. Fighting Infertility (infertility, trying to conceive)
87. Nervous Breakdowns Are Highly Underrated (parenting after IF, WAHM, life)
88. Vikki Press (infertility, my dog, life in general)
89. Getting There (infertility, where next, life)
90. Our Journey to Baby (IVF#5, life, pregnancy)
91. Letting It Out (parenting after IF, twins, life)
92. Sippy Cups are Not for Starbucks (sarcasm, motherhood, newborn)
93. Blissful Body Yoga Blog (yoga, meditation, healthy living)
94. The Long Journey (infertility, marriage, parenting)
95. Tales from Kiddyland (mothering, triplets, special needs)
96. Tales of the Phoenix (IVF, prenatal depression, confused about next steps)
97. Be Still and Know… (infertility, adoption, the journey)
98. Seriously? (pregnancy, life, riley)
99. ISO the Golden Egg (TTC over 40, 2WW!, embryo donation)
100. Trying to Make 3 (miscarriage, newly married, TTC)
101. Journey of Faith (fibroids, recurrent miscarriage, faith)
102. Stop the Train, I Wanna Get Off (secondary IF, parenting, school)
103. Gas Passer aka UUer (unicornuate uterus, IVF, anesthesia)
104. My Little Drummer Boys (IVF twins, parenting, pregnancy loss)
105. In Due Time (infertility, PCOS, life)
106. Life and Love in the Petri Dish (IVF, recurrent miscarriage, marriage)
107. Peachy (IVF, life)
108. BarrenAlbion (parenting after IVF, music, miscellanea)
109. White Picket Fences (secondary infertility, healthcare, recurrent loss)
110. Infertile Myrtle (infertility, IUI, ttc)
111. Add yourself…

Q: What i
f I miss a day?
A: Catch up the next day by doubling your comments–12 comments instead of 6.

Q: What is an Iron Commenter?
A: Not for the faint-of-heart. People who wish to be an Iron Commenter and be entered on the Iron Commenter honour roll need to leave a comment on every blog on the participants list (exceptions are blogs that require you to have a special log-in, such as some LiveJournal accounts or other similar situations). You can spread out this commenting any way you wish over the whole week, but the final comment needs to be left by midnight on the 28th (EST). Reaching Iron Commenter status is done on an honour system. Please email me if you earn Iron Commenter status so I can add you to the wall of honour.

Q: Why do I have to add that bit of code to my sidebar?
A: The code is the latest icon (the icon changes colour every month so you know that you’re on the right list). This month, the icon is green, the next month it will be purple, etc. The reason is two-fold: (1) it enables more people to find out about IComLeavWe and (2) it gives you easy access to the current list once the commenting week actually begins and better ensures that you’ll use it. Too many times, people sign up and forget to actually do IComLeavWe and this icon gives you a daily reminder (with the dates on it) every time you open your own blog. The icon is linked back to the current list. On the 28th, remove the icon from your blog. A new one will be created for the next month.

Q: It’s the 23rd and I just saw this for the first time on my friend’s blog! I want to join the list–why can’t I?
A: Because IComLeavWe happens every month, once the list is closed, it’s closed. If you’re finding out about this on the 23rd, you can’t join the current month. But leave yourself a note to check back in a week on the 1st and you can sign up for the next month.

Q: You said the list closes on the 21st. Well, it’s still the 21st where I am. Why aren’t you moving my information onto the list?
A: All dates and times are U.S. Eastern Standard Time (UTC/GMT -5 hours).

Q: What if no one comments on my blog and I have no comments to return?
A: Well, that really doesn’t happen for the most part, but in that case, simply choose another blog and add an additional comment. The goal is to hit 6 comments daily as a minimum. Going over that is fantastic and encouraged.

Q: Mel, my question wasn’t covered at all. What do I do?
A: Email me; I’m quite friendly. It helps to place “IComLeavWe” in the subject line. You could also check this post which contains the history of IComLeavWe and see if you can glean anything there.

I know this is ten kinds of confusing, but I’m writing and posting the Friday Blog Roundup a day early as well as the latest IComLeavWe list (later tonight) because…well…tomorrow is Halloween and I intend to spend the entire day consuming candy. I will have some Snickers bars by the bedside for when I awake and then I’ll roll downstairs to grab some Kit Kats and finally, I’ll have a bowl of M&Ms for breakfast.

Oh–and then I’ll have a nervous breakdown at around 5 p.m. when I realize we are now out of candy and trick-or-treaters are on their way.

I am a big fan of Halloween and I know tomorrow will be a strange mish-mash of preparing for Shabbat, painting clothespin dolls (please don’t ask), and getting ready for Halloween. Something had to give so the posts are going up early so I can use my one post-writing time tomorrow to put up the Lost and Found. See, priorities.