I'm Still Here!

I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging lately. The bottom line is that Ethan stopped taking two naps so much of my free time during the day, for now, is lost. Until his one nap extends a little longer, it will be difficult to find the time to blog. The little time I do have these days is spent cleaning up all the messes my boys make. But here are some life highlights in pictures:

The story behind these first two pictures is that I had just said to Will, "Well, I think Ethan's getting out of his Pat the Bunny phase. No sooner had I said this then Ethan beelined it for his room and emerged triumphantly carrying the book. He's so smart! Then, of course, we had to read it 47 times.

A couple days before Will's sister's wedding, I had to try Ethan's suit on. Doesn't he look dapper?
Here are Chris and Laura at their rehearsal dinner.
Will and I pose for a picture in the bowling alley. The rehearsal dinner was held at Pinstripes, a Bowling and Bocce Bistro. It was such a fun venue!


Here's me and Courtney. I think she just said, "Yes, in fact, you are the best bowler, Michelle."
Here's Ethan with cousin Sarah Craft. And, yes, he does have his hand down her dress, it seems. Yikes!

The happy couple at their sweetheart table.

Here are Chris and Laura during their first dance...pictures are dark, sorry!

Lisa and Brian really took advantage of a rare night out and danced with us a lot.

Will and I literally danced all night. My feet hurt, but we had a blast!

Me and my mom, who I was so grateful to for watching Ethan from 1pm on Friday through the wedding on Saturday. Ethan was such a good boy for her, so that's good.

Chris and Laura share another dance later in the night.

On the dance floor still! This is at our house the next day. We had Bill, Betsy, and Grandma Meuer (all 101 years of her!) over for dinner. It was a lot of fun.

Now it's back to real life, which is just fine with me. The weather continues to awe us all, getting into the 80's all week. Truth be told, though, I'm ready for some typical fall weather. I love brisk fall weather, as long as it's not too cold and the sun is still shining. I'm looking forward to walks and playtime at the park when the weather is not so warm.

Am I a sexist?

So...politics have consumed many of my thoughts lately an peppered many conversations of late as well. My best friend and I speak almost daily about the presidential campaign, and our conversations are deeply satisfying, too, since we feel the same way about almost everything. (We're so smart, aren't we bud?) Much of our convos lately have been about McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. Last Friday, as soon as I saw the news online that McCain had chosen his VP, I looked her up and started reading up on her. A lot of it sounded good (which made me nervous, of course), but then I reread a line of her bio: "five children, the youngest born in April." Back up. Wait a minute. April? Let's see, that would make that child four months old! A woman with four other kids and a four month old (with special needs, no less) actually wants to be Vice President of the United States? I'm sorry. But that really bothers me.

And I'm trying to be fair about it, I really am. As I told my mom, I'd like to think my feelings are bipartisan and that if a Obama had picked a Palinesque running mate I'd feel the same way. And I really think I would. The problem is, I would not be nearly as hard on a male candidate with an infant and four other children. Clearly, a male candidate would not get to spend as much time with those children just like a female. So why am I being so hard on Palin about it as a woman?

It's difficult to explain, I guess. Obviously, gender roles in our society play a huge part of my feelings. Women are the traditional caretakers of children, after all, and those stereotypes are hard to get over. But I also think my new role as mother is playing into my feelings. I see what I am doing as so important and wonder why Palin would give that up for such a time consuming job. Bear in mind I am certainly not saying that mothers should not work, but I cannot imagine working the hours Palin will as VP with an infant or other young children at home and being able to balance well. Women are capable of amazing things, no doubt, but let's be realistic. She is not going to take her baby (or other children) with her on trips to Georgia or the Middle East, is she? And her trying to be Supermom and Vice President just to prove she can do it (but I dont' think she, or anyone, can) seems very unfair to me. Her older daughter, the pregnant one, is already suffering with the media storm that has hit.

And I guess it makes me really angry that she's running on this conservative, family values ticket. What about taking a HUGE job with a special needs infant screams family values?

And as long as I'm ranting, why is it that every conservative Republican is using her Downs Syndrome baby to say how wonderful Palin is because she chose not to abort her child? Come on! Just because you're pro-choice doesn't mean you would always choose abortion! Pro-choice does not equal pro-abortion, and to insinuate that all or most pro-choicers would have chosen to abort a child with DS is just plain ridiculous...and insulting.

I don't love that I feel this way. I know it's a sexist opinion, and I really hope (if elected - grrrr) she proves me wrong.

Off to watch her speech...