Every day for past few weeks my 4 year old has thrown a mini or major tantrum that starts with the question “Are we getting on an airplane to go see Barack Obama today?” When the answer is “No, we’re going in __ days” then there’s yelling and sometimes kicking/flailing accompanied by “I want to go see Barack Obama NOW! RIGHT NOW!”
It doesn’t help to point out date on airplane ticket or look at a calendar and count the days because, as the preschooler wails, “That’s too LOOOOOOONG to wait!!”
I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re going on a playdate with a man she’s seen all over the media – he has daughters, after all, who are just the right age to be complete idols for a 4 year old. (Speaking of idolizing “older girls” we have a new neighbor who has a 7 year old daughter and my kid is already planning sleepovers with her – if you’re 4, then a 7 year old causes heroine worship)
Also, it’s not Obama or Barack, it’s BarackObama (all one quickly spoken string) as far as my kid’s concerned. She regularly corrects me when I refer to him as Obama.
I’m heading to DC early tomorrow morning for the inauguration along with my 4-year-old daughter Lucy, her friend Olivia, and Olivia’s parents Greg and Christine. My wife’s not going due to work and other things and we’ll all miss her and will do plenty of iChatting (and Twitter DM’ing and txt’ing) with her.
I am BEYOND excited about this trip – tickled that my kid will “see” the inauguration, thrilled that we’ll be there (in the freezing cold) for it, excited to have finally voted for a candidate who won, and hopeful that there’s a smidgen of a chance that this president will do something to give my family some federal legal rights.
I haven’t been to DC since I was 16 years old (in 1987) and that was on a trip with 40+ other 16-year-olds. I don’t remember much about DC except the Vietnam Memorial and eating lots of greasy fast food and staring at the White House. I’m sure I went to lots of other places in DC. I was more interested in having fun with the other kids – some of whom are still my friends today.
We probably won’t get much opportunity to go in any museums, what with the other millions of people in DC next week, and we’ll likely be a very well-packed sardine in the Metro sardine can on Tuesday.
Still. I. Cannot. Wait.
If I felt comfortable enough to throw myself on the ground and yell and kick like my kid, well, I might just copy her. Sometimes she’s my heroine.
