Individual Choices

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of the government- far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

James Madison, 1778

Freedom

"Look back in retrospect on almost six-thousand years of human history! Freedom's moments have been infrequent and exceptional: we must appreciate that we live in one of the history's most exceptional moments- in a nation and a time of unprecedented freedom. Freedom as we know it has been experienced by perhaps less than 1% of the human family." 

“The Constitution—A Glorious Standard,”

America, America!

"It is a marvelous thing when you stop to think that this country and this government were set up under the inspiration of our Father in heaven."

Mark E. Petersen, 1976

My Ol' Laptop and Father's Day

Ever since Michael was a little boy (yes, you may laugh at that statement) he has loved cords, phones, computers, and anything that lights up. When he started crawling (backwards), he would scoot himself to the nearby laptop cord and suck on it. When we'd move it, he'd find his way to it again. He actually ended up destroying my phone charger one day. And another day, he wore out the laptop cord so it wouldn't charge anymore. Looking back, maybe it wasn't the safest thing to let the gummy mouth get to those cords.

Anyway, we have a rule in our house. Michael can not touch the computer. Occassionally, we'll let him bang on the laptop keys, but eventually I just pulled out the ol' laptop of mine, that is quite pathetic really (yes, it's a PC), and I gave it to Michael announcing, "It's all yours."

He loves it.


Then he learned that he can rip the keys off. One by one, he'd rip one off, bring it to Mommy and go back for the next one.


He's very sad when he shuts the laptop and we don't open it back up again. He also demonstrates biting nearby objects when he gets upset.

Well, now, what am I supposed to do with all these ripped off keys? The whole week I had been trying to scrounge up a creative Father's Day card for my dad, and this was just the thing. It was very simple, but here is the card that I sent to my dad.


(It says: I Heart You, if you can't tell)

Looking back

I know it's not  very flattering pictures, but I can't believe I let him grow his hair out this much. No wonder people started confusing him as a girl, sometimes. (Prolly didn't help I dress him in pink.)

Just kidding.  

In no particular order

Here are some recent happenings in the Anderson Household:

The movie I am watching right now.
A visit to the Zoo. I didn't really take any pictures. Michael was sort of interested in looking at animals through the window, but mostly just wanted to walk around and touch the leaves, rocks, and other kids. 
Sitting on a Komodo Dragon. 
A somewhat, bad picture of Michael's first bee sting. We were in the backyard when he started screaming ferociously. There was a bee in his pants that had first stung the back of his leg, but obviously, the needle didn't stick, because the bee stung again on the front (probably because I irritated it.) 
A veggie burger. First, one I ever ate. And, I thought it looked pretty darn good, so I took a picture of it. It was tasty. I tricked Richard into eating one, he didn't know the difference, from the looks of it, but he definitely knew it wasn't meat as he started eating it. But, he ate it anyway. Good boy. 

And last but not LEAST--Richard was just accepted to do an internship for the next few months! We are very excited for him. He visited the company a couple months back for an informational interview with the company, just getting to know what they do. Unexpectedly, he was able to sit in a meeting with the designers, which was awesome for him. When he came home, he said to me, "I really want to work there!" So of course, he hopped on the chance when he found out they were offering an internship. Now, he gets the chance (for a little while, at least).

And that concludes this episode of happenings in the Anderson family. Tune in next time for the story of Michael and his biting fetish. 

What Does Your Underwear Say About You?

The newest comic hanging on my fridge.
For most of my readers, you know exactly why I chuckled when I read this.

Too Cool for You

I went to the store this morning with Michael, and let him walk with me, instead of sitting in a cart. He immediately gravitated to the stand that holds a bunch of children's sunglasses. He liked the Princess Aurora ones the best, and surprisingly he actually wore them. I let him hold them the rest of the shopping trip, but at the checkout stand he had to let them go.

Fortunately, I gave him his sippy cup of milk. He took one sip, and then chucked the cup at the checker, some excess milk dripping out of the sippy-part. Fortunately, this checker has two young boys this age, and knew exactly how to respond. Michael was cracking up! But then the checker handed the cup right back to Michael. He took a quick sip, and threw the cup right back. *More laughter* Michael's had found his next culprit to play the throwing game. Silly goose.

Michael is starting to realize getting into the car, means being buckled into the carseat. He doesn't really like that anymore, although generally he is pretty good. Lately, it's been massively hot in the car, so he doesn't like it as much. But, whatdya' know. There are baby sunglasses in the back seat! Our neighbors had given them to us months ago as we were driving off. Michael didn't care for them then, but he sure does now. These ones are spiderman. (A much better choice than princess Aurora, I think.)

Bring on the sun! Oh wait, did I just say that?