Who's Your Daddy?

Collin and I watched history together this morning. For him, it was just a treat; he got to watch t.v. of any kind, so he was pretty geeked. He was convinced that anyone wearing a hat (but not a uniform hat) was Santa and anyone wearing a uniform and hat was Daddy. Oh, and the shots of the moving men at the White House were especially stirring as trucks get him in that special spot. Then, I tried to explain the whole "president" concept to him. What? It's never too early to prepare him for his future job, right?

First, I tried to explain to him that the President is like Daddy's boss, kind of like I'm Daddy's boss. But that didn't make a lot of sense. Then, I tried to explain that Mr. Obama is very important and takes care of everyone in the country. That made a lot of sense, until he looked at the guy and said, "Mama!" Which, of course, made all the sense in the world: think about it, important, takes care of everyone and has a name that sounds like Mama. Hmmmmm, smart kid.

So, I took a different tack. I told him, that Mr. Obama is like the country's new Daddy since he's a man. Yep, I took the easy way out. He takes care of us like Daddy takes care of us. Daddy! I clapped and yelled every time I saw him and Collin got really into it too. He screamed and yelled, clapped and jumped....and....yelled DADDY every time Obama came on. Yep, I think we'd have some 'splainin' to do to the tabloids if they ever came sniffing around here.

Anyway, for a kid who's approaching two, he managed to sit and watch the thing for an entire hour with relative peacefulness. He loved Aretha's hat and he actually called it a pigeon. He though that the cannons were way too hot when they shot their rounds and got up to blow the smoke off the end of the barrels and he danced to EVERY bit of music played. Heck, he watched so long, that halfway through, I snuck upstairs and got him some clothes to put on him.

All in all, it was the greatest inauguration that I think I'll ever see and it brought tears to my eyes when he chose the moment of his swearing in to climb onto my lap. Yes, the future is always in our hands, (or laps) isn't it? I'm so glad I voted!