New Beginnings

Noella has started her new school and so far so good. She's grown so much... Now I know what they mean when people say "...children don't come with manuals". You really fumble around and try to do what's right the best you can, and then one day you realize, "Oh crap, I should have been doing this!" Everything from her teeth, to her hearing loss, to her socio-emotional development have been interesting "lessons" in responsible parenthood. Hopefully if we ever have a next one we'll screw up less...or perhaps we'll just screw up differently.

Second guessing aside, I'm happy to see Noella gaining confidence. She's finally able to do the monkey-bars after years of wanting to do so. I recorded her on my phone at her school playground. Man, time to wake up and see her growing. It's slipping by so fast and won't come again.

Mommy & Noella

They say that there is nothing like the bond between a mother and her child. They say a mother's love is unique. I am getting too long in tooth to remember how I felt as a child in my mother's arms, but when I look at Christine and Noella a little part of me begins to feel all warm and fuzzy. I see them and I can almost remember how special that bond can be. Noella loves me and I her, but who can top this picture? Not I. To quote a song by David Gilmour, "This kind of love is hard to find....."

Noella is sleeping beside me. She looks just like her mother, and she loves just as passionately...

Phase Three

So Noella gets into Fieldston Lower School... It's been a month since Christine and I found out Noella will have the educational opportunity of her young lifetime, and, as always, I can't help being in a pensive mood. Christine deserves all the credit for being proactive and placing our daughter on the right "pre-school path" to even have the chance at Fieldston. I'm pinching myself, and we're tightening up for the financial changes to come. It's a significant investment in the "American Dream" our parents and grandparents sacrificed so much for. Now it's our turn, and I feel blessed.

And now that Noella is five and gearing up for Kidergarten I'm also thinking about the passage of time. I remember bringing her home in her first car seat and those first couple of years before school: the breastfeeding challenges, the hearing loss, the "swing set" addiction, the learning to walk, and the newness of everything. Then there was her first introduction into pre-school, her separation anxiety and selective mutism. Now begins Phase Three and her introduction to elementary school.

Well, at least it feels like a "Phase Three". Keeping one eye on family and the other on national/global events, I scan ahead for the lay of the land, prepare for whatever I can anticipate, and hope for the best...

The State of Our Union is Wrong

Tonight is President Bush's State of the Union Address, and I can't help but sense how wrong the state of things feel. Domestically and internationally, our politics has been divisive and polarizing. We have been coming up short in setting and example for the world to follow. They say our economy is in good shape, but I can't help but feel at the mercy of a debt-based economy fueled by foreign investments (e.g. China).

Here at home we have another plan to strengthen our financial footing (yet again). Noella will needs us to get our financial act together, and I'm proud we're finally pulling this off. However, as I watch Bush declare our country as strong tonight, all I'll see is how the state of our union is wrong. Priority number one: Become Debt Free. In the next few years it will be the debt free citizens who will become the rarest of species with the strongest of financial positions.....