Grandpa Louis will give that a thumbs-up.
At supper tonight, Sid and I were talking about the election. We have not said a whole lot to the boys about the presidential race. Every time Sidney asked his dad who he was voting for, Sid told him that he had not made up his mind yet. I don’t think I have shown much favor for either candidate in front of the boys.
So it came as a complete surprise when both Sidney and Lincoln voiced with confidence that each of them would have voted for McCain. Neither boy could articulate exactly why they preferred McCain, other than some generalized discomfort with Obama.
While clearing the table, Sidney shook his head and sighed saying, “This is the craziest election I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen it this weird. . . . . . .but in other countries, it is much worse — they’ve got people with guns.” I refrained from pointing out that he was only 9 years old. I thought he had valid points even if his election experience is limited.
We decided to recognize the significance of this Election Day with cookies while we watched the internet for the latest election reportings. I designated Sidney as the official cookie chef. He chose Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.
While he got to work, I did something unusual. I tried to stay out of his way and not interfere. After so many years of tending to little ones, instructing them, teaching and guiding them seemingly every minute of the day, it is a strange and uncomfortable feeling to “release” them and let them just DO. It is also freeing and exhilerating and completely unnatural to my somewhat uptight personality.
Sidney has helped me cook many times and even made a few simple things, like fried eggs, independently. But tonight was the first time I had given him a fairly complicated recipe and let him have at it. He even put the cookie sheets in the hot oven and pulled them when done. And I didn’t hover, wince, or cringe once. Really. (I was too busy trying to snitch pieces of warm cookie while 4 pairs of little eyes weren’t looking).
And the cookies were scrumptious, as good as when I make them.
While we munched on cookies and talked politics, I gave the boys printouts to help them follow the election results. One sheet let us mark down the number of electoral votes as each state reported. the other sheet was a U.S. map with the electoral counts written for each state. The boys colored Obama’s states in blue and McCain’s states in red. Lincoln followed for a little while, then got restless and went off to do his own thing, but Sidney stuck with it, even after Sid and I got tired and went to bed.
Prairie Sings 