Lets Go Kiddo

It rained the other night and the night after that, even earlier.  The second night, Kiddo got up and “had a problem”.  The problem was that she had her white noise sounds on and you could hear the rain.  She came out and J and I just looked at her as she explained.  “There’s two sounds, the rain and my birds, and I’m just not havin’ it.”  She’s six.  We try to give her understanding and not punish her for getting out of bed, but also set boundaries and let her know it’s sleep time and rest is important.  In that, however, we do laugh.  Coloring herself blue at 2200, the koala ear night, two sounds and she ain’t havin it.  LOL.  She wants agency and autonomy, however.  She’s been pushing, more and more, to pick out her outfits, how we do her hair, etc.  In fact, she talked to me today after I did her hair (more on that later) and I found she moved the bins that held her socks and her hair stuff.  No big deal, maybe in tidy...

Bosnia has had some mass shootings.  Two of them to be exact.  The last one was 9 days ago.  The country passed swift and serious reform laws and a governmental buy-back program.  IN 9 DAYS! Meanwhile, in MuriKKKa, half the country is screaming for reforms and Congress just seems to ignore that.  200+ mass shootings in 132 days.  Also, though, in those 132 days, 67 laws have been passed denying rights to LGBTQ folks with another 322 pending across state houses, 14 laws restricting abortion with another 6 pending, 2 states have decided that it’s cool if 14 year olds work manual labor jobs until 9 or 10pm and 11pm on weekends, and Congress decided that… Since inflation is bad, that should reflect in campaign contributions.  Oh, this was right after they voted that minimum wage shouldn’t increase because “inflation doesn’t affect every day Americans”. How can everyone not see this for what it is and how dangerous it is?  I no longer have patie...

With all apologies to the movie Forrest Gump I’m here today to write about Viet-Fu<microphone feedback>- Nam!  (The rally at the Washington Monument Pool scene). Yesterday, after the pool and a hair trim, we all sat and watched the Somebody Feed Phil episode on Netflix of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).  Kiddo was super excited after seeing it and she is thrilled to get a chance to see another country and also to see Vietnam.   We are leaving a few days after school gets out and we’ll be gone most of July.  We decided, however, to keep plans loose.  To go with the flow of it and just take it in.  There a a few places we want to eat, but mostly, it’s that we want to explore and experience (there’s that word again) the people and culture of HCMC, Hanoi, and Da Nang/Hoi An while we travel and take it all in.   Kiddo is starting to ask questions and put it together in her mind that we are taking a vacation, but it’s not to Thailand or a different ...