The big girl bed has arrived!

Finally, no more crib. Wait, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Lauren's always been perfectly content in her crib. She's never tried any daring escape maneuvers, so we've just left her there. But now, she's just getting too big. And we need to buy a new crib for her little brother with the voucher we'll get (hopefully) from the manufacturer of her crib (see here if you don't remember this whole ordeal).

So, we went to the Bunk and Loft Factory , a store here that specializes in custom made bedroom furniture. Every piece is made to order, so it ends up taking about 2 weeks to get it. We decided early on that we were going to buy Lauren one bed for her entire lifetime, so we settled on a full-size platform bed that should definitely last. We also opted for two rolling storage drawers to go underneath it, given our complete lack of storage in our ever-shrinking home.


The bed arrived on Monday, and Lauren loves it! We were initially nervous about how well she'd sleep there, but so far she's gone to sleep right away at night without getting up or anything. Mornings are a little bit of a different story. Without the crib to keep her confined, she's up and out of bed as soon as she wakes up at 6:30. That's about an hour earlier than we'd like her to get up. We're keeping the baby gate on the outside of her bedroom door for now, which at least keeps her from coming into the bedroom to wake us up. Instead, she stands there, peeking over the gate at our room, saying, "Help, Daddy! I'm awake, Daddy!" Over and over and over again. The kid is persistent!


She also loves playing in her new big girl room. We end up sititng on her bed playing with all her older toys, which seem new now that she hasn't seen them for several months. It's a welcome change from watching Finding Nemo 14 times a day. Of course, Disney/Pixar sucked her in with advertising for WALL-E, so we've now watched that several times. (It's actually a really good movie...go rent it!)

We also switched out her car seat to a booster. It's great because it's easier for her to get in and out, and she can reach her toys, juice, etc. without one of us having to reach around from the front seat.

It does all make me a little sad. My little baby is growing up so fast. When she got on her bed for the first time, I had visions of her sitting there doing homework, chatting on the phone with her high school friends. I know it's still many years away, but I can't help but feel like it'll be here before I know it.

Alright, enough sappiness :) I think the pregnancy hormones are getting to me...

Halloween.

How horrible. I got so preoccupied with this little election thing that I totally forgot to post pictures of my little kitty on Halloween. She looked like such a big girl.


Chris took her out while I stayed home to hand out the candy. As they started walking down the street, she turned around and yelled, "Bye, Mama!" It was one of those moments when I realized how quickly she's growing up. I felt that tinge of sadness that my baby girl isn't a baby anymore, but also happiness that she's such a happy, healthy big girl now.


After an hour of trick or treating, Lauren had enough. Chris and I actually ate the majority of her candy, but you can see the effects of the sugar crash she experienced that night.


Chris and I also became amateur pumpkin carvers. I think we did a pretty good job!

Wow.

I sat on my couch last Tuesday night, glued to the election results, watching with baited breath as each state's results trickled in. I also tracked real-time results on the internet, so I could see the percentages shift within a state in real-time. Pretty cool stuff. Then the moment I'd been waiting for: Obama had won Ohio. I knew this was a good sign...no Republican has won the presidency without taking Ohio. As 11pm approached, I could see the newspeople begin to shift their tone. Something big was about to happen. And then, as the polls closed in California, Washington and Oregon, they made the offical call: Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States of America.

I can't describe the emotions I felt at that moment in time. Relief, awe, joy, and most importantly, pride in my country for showing that we can rise above the negativity and exclusion of the last eight years. I sat on my couch with tears in my eyes, then leapt up and did a happy dance around my living room. I felt like running out into the streets and hugging my neighbors, Obama and McCain supporters alike.


McCain's concession speech was gracious, and proved that he is the man I thought he was. If only he had been that man the entire campaign (and not picked such a horrid running mate), he might have had my support.


I stayed awake for President Obama's speech, and couldn't help but worry whether some catastrophe would take this man down. But on the country's biggest night, in a sea of people in Grant Park, Obama appeared and made one heck of a speech. He set the tone perfectly: we may have won, but the hard work has just begun. I could see the enormity of it all on his face, and I trusted in his ability to motivate others to change.

I mentioned to several family members that I feel like this election, more than any other, power has shifted: from the baby boomers, to the dreaded Generation X (that's me). We're all grown up now, and it's time that we started setting the policy for this country. I made deliberate choices in the election booth, at the state and local level, to support candidates more in my age demographic. The vast majority of these candidates were in their 30s, not their 50s or 60s. These people are living my life, and will represent me better than someone who went through their 30s in the 1960s or '70s. Interestingly enough, many of these candidates won. I echo Obama's thoughts: the hard work has just begun.

Time to wait and see.

I did my civic duty this morning, voting the old-fashioned way by going to my local polling location on election day. Ohio saw unprecedented numbers of early voters, including almost 3800 yesterday alone. But no, I waited until today. I arrived at my polling place at 6:25 am, the doors opened at 6:30, and I was in my car at 7:30. Not too bad, but still an inconvenience. I didn't see any issues where I was, other than the fact the poll workers are older than dirt and really slow. Every year I say I'm going to take the day off and work the polls, but I never do it. I guess I shouldn't complain.

And really, is having too many people vote a bad thing? I say no. But I think it does point to the fact that there's got to be a better way to vote given today's technology. I still say if the internet is secure enough for me to file my taxes there, I should be able to vote there as well. If I choose to. We're in the era of choice, so let's give that choice to voters.

I'm not planning on watching much political coverage tonight. I get sick of the pundits arguing over top of each other and making speculations based on extremely early polling results. I just hope there aren't any "hanging chads" to worry about, and that some state other than Ohio is the pivotal state. Maybe it's Pennsylvania's turn.