didionville

i am sure you all will be happy to know the constipation issue of last night resolved itself about an hour ago. and believe me, it resolved in a b-i-g way.

the spring in didion’s figurative step has returned.

lots going on over here, and as usual, the blog suffers … but if you think sir charles has got problems, check this out: poor little didion was super-duper uncomfortable yesterday. the best we could diagnose was a really bad episode of gas and constipation. the last time we saw him so uncomfortable and upset was when he ate jalapeno-flavored breastmilk (my bad). we finally got him calmed down last night, but the intermittent sobbing was long lasting and absolutely heart wrenching …

beyond our decidedly inexpert diagnosis, i also think we are — finally — seeing teeth in his bottom gum. just now i saw two tiny white circles. his teething episodes really have never staved, but the teeth have been slow to show. let’s hope that we have breakthrough soon. i suspect that tummy discomfort and general displeasure are more than loosely related to those damn teeth.

poor little guy.

in the meantime, our new hero, ames, has a great write up about yesterday’s ruling by the california supreme court on the legality of gay marriage. at first i thought, “crap! the timing is horrible! why couldn’t they wait until AFTER the election to bring this up!” i was sure the evangelicals would finally circle their wagons around mccain, assuming mccain adopted the same scare tactics karl rove so very much favored in 2004, but like me, ames is surprised and heartened (???) by mccain’s subdued response to the ruling.

boy, am i lovin’ this holiday! it helps that didion and his daddy are so smart … they were well prepared to pamper mommy … mimosas, bacon and eggs, lots of laughs and hugs …

but bliss, at least for me, never comes without some reflection. jenna bush got married yesterday at her daddy’s “ranch” in crawford, texas. i certainly would never deny a parent’s right to feel happy and proud at his or her son’s or daughter’s marriage. i cannot help but be reminded, though, of another time the crawford ranch was front-and-center on the news front … cindy sheehan will never be able to beam with pride and love at her eldest child’s wedding … her son, casey, is, simply, no more.

so as “spectacular” as jenna’s wedding might have been, i want to hope that somewhere deep in our president’s heart or — dare i hope — brain there is some consideration for the american mothers who have lost sons and daughters in our war in iraq (and in our — more justified, yet often ignored — fighting in afghanistan). i also hope there is even one iota of consideration for the iraqi and afghani mothers whose families are innocent casualties. i suspect, though, there is no such consideration, no hope for empathy … or sympathy … or any other sort of “pathy” (excepting “sociopathy”, that is) …

i deeply support our troops. i deeply support their families. i deeply support anyone willing to sacrifice so much to serve his or her country. i will certainly and fervently support my son should he choose to build a career in the military. BUT I PUT ALL FUTURE PRESIDENTS ON NOTICE: while i support our soldiers, i do not support vanity wars, and i dare any one government leader to try to send my son on any ill-conceived mission.

that said, i am having a wonderful mother’s day. being a mom is an incredibly complicated, bittersweet vocation, but as complicated and as bittersweet as it is, it is also the most beautiful and rewarding adventure imaginable.

so as i am posting video and pictures of didion and marveling about what an amazing adventure life is, steven and i are watching bill moyers’ journal (episode airing friday, may 9, 2008). bill moyers and phillipe sands are discussing sands’ most recent book (Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values).

one of sands’ points is how incredulous he is that lawyers with all of their training and education and their duty to uphold constitutional protections have been able to rationalize extreme methods of interrogation as acceptable and lawful and well within the rights of the executive branch of our government to authorize. unsurprising, he discusses the deep involvement of dick cheney’s attorney, david addington, in crafting the argument rationalizing torture of prisoners at guantanamo and other sunny locales in the war on terror. (remember: attorneys represent the interests of their clients.)

sands also talks about the rebellions within the military, launched by officers who are adamantly opposed to harsh interrogation techniques: they don’t work; they endanger american military personnel worldwide; they deeply undermine american values and law.

speaking of military officers fighting most ferociously on the front lines against the bush administration to protect the rights of prisoners, i want to direct you to the story of matthew diaz, a distinguished naval officer who released the names of all of the detainees at guantanamo when it became clear the bush administration had no intention of doing same in spite of a court order requiring it. diaz got in a lot of trouble doing the right thing, but he also was awarded the 2008 ridenhour truth-telling prize. (i want to advise you, reader, against holding your breath that bush will offer a last-minute pardon to diaz.)

interestingly, bill moyers won the 2008 ridenhour courage prize, thus bringing this post full circle.

one more point: the world is a better place for people like philippe sands and bill moyers and matthew diaz. i am sorry that they are currently having to use their talents to bring to light critical issues that threaten to indelibly stain the american character, but thank god they are.

today was didion’s first bath in the regular bathtub. it seems like overnight didion grew out of his duckie tub. as with everything, didion conquered the tub with great aplomb, and he enjoyed playing with his squirt toys; though, i use “play” loosely … “chew” and “drool on” are more accurate.

yesterday evening it was family time in the pok … we were all on the couch watching sportscenter repeat itself, like, six times in one hour, when steven and i hear lips smacking. we knew it wasn’t either of us, so that left only one suspect: d-man.

and smack he did. it was pretty funny, and being the textbook first-time parents that we are, we hurriedly grabbed the video camera and oohed and ahhed as if our kid had just discovered fire.

enjoy.

i thought it worthwhile to post the follow up to yesterday’s lesson …

pure genius. (of course, original stuff here.)

***

on another front … i have been writing comments here and there on a few blogs and have realized that i am making typos all over the place. YIKES! anyone who knows me knows what a grammar freak i am (yes, in spite of the fact i write in all lowercase, except for those random intervals when i binge on all caps and exclamation points). i’m afraid people are going to think i or — worse — didion is illiterate.

enough whining … back to cleaning the bathroom and doing laundry …

lordy, do we love us some scott adams over here. his seemingly limitless ability to identify and isolate the inanity of bureaucracy and corporate operations is truly a gift to anyone living in a post-industrial world. when i saw today’s strip, i thought, “yep. that’s how it is.” but then i also had the jarring realization that dilbert’s new m.o. is exactly what dick cheney has operationalized effortlessly and unfailingly in the bush administration for the last eight years …

it’s simple. you really can make your own truth. and then you can expand deficit spending by several orders of magnitude … and launch wars that are fun for your business friends to play … and ignore with hatred and disgust any living organism that dares disagree with you …

(if this site actually got any traffic, i would likely get in trouble for posting today’s dilbert without permission. you can visit scott adams and his pantheon here; though, we at didionville sure are unhappy with the dilbert site’s new interface.)

lately, didion has had turned it up to eleven all day, every day … during business hours, that is. when steven comes home, didion has usually calmed down from his busy, frenetic day, and i suspected steven didn’t fully understand how exhausting it is to entertain and feed and change and soothe and entertain and feed … yadda-yadda … a baby 8-10 hours straight. last weekend, i thought steven would finally get to see our tasmanian-devil spawn in action and would, therefore, find “frazzled mommy” an entirely appropriate persona. but last weekend, didion outsmarted me by taking naps on both saturday and sunday … and not short naps, mind you … they were three-hour naps.

but today, didion was even extra on fire, and he didn’t slow down when steven got home. steven finally had the opportunity to fully experience “didion as supernova” … bouncing, kicking, singing, howling, jabbering, eating, peeing, lookin’ around … doing all of it over and over, and — i swear — a couple of times, all at once …

steven asked me with innocent wonder in the inflection of his voice, “has he been like this all day?”

…

i can happily attest that steven, right at this moment, looks as beat down as i do.

a kid … i say that because he is, like, 24 (???) or certainly not much older … has an amazing, amazing, amazing blog … (click on image) …

he’s an nyu law student and — as we found out on facebook — a rice alum (go owls) … his intelligence and analytical skills and writing style are all impressive … grandpas jer and chuck, i think, will really appreciate ames‘ writing. apparently, he just started the blog — seriously, like in late april — and already he is tackling the big philosophical, political, and legal issues that mainstream media won’t dare blink at …

i only hope he is able to keep up with the blog. i can’t imagine he doesn’t have a lot on his plate. in fact, i’ll be surprised if we don’t see a lot more of him in the future in non-blog arenas … he has “going places” written all over him.