Yes he can
Hey what an exciting day! Jaibird, who our new President had from the word “change,” is practically peeing his pants with excitement. Oh wait, he is peeing his pants with excitement. Excuse me for one moment…
… sorry about that. We’re also happy that our little boy gets to grow up in a world that finally, at long last, looks like this:
Having lived through eight of the vanilla-flavored variety of president myself, I’m thrilled my little boy can now grow up in a world where he feels no particular pressure to seek positions of leadership based solely on the color of his skin. Maybe he can end up doing something that’s actually fun. :-)
Jai’s granddaddy Lapp, whose memories go all the way to the fireside chats (which by my count makes for an even dozen) was so thrilled to finally get a little chocolate thrown into the mix he took off this morning at 5 a.m. to see how close he could get to the festivities.
Having joined several tens of thousands of fellow West Philly residents to greet the then-candidate back in October, Jai has some sense of what kinds of crowds Grandpop will be facing.
And even though his mean parents wouldn’t let him attend, Jai heard stories and saw pictures of election night in our neighborhood, when the drums and pots came out and our neighbors literally danced in the streets.
Yes, that is indeed a guy standing through his sunroof, high-fiving the crowd. Good times.
More pictures from election night in West Philly.
Speaking of good times, a short Obama-related vignette:
Several nights after the election we joined a group of friends at a small local Vietnamese restaurant. Several people had November birthdays, so at a certain point we pulled out a bottle of champagne to make a toast. As we did, someone in the group said in what I thought was a non-projecting, conversation-with-the-table tone, “Should we toast Obama?”
A rustling noise rippled through the restaurant, and we looked up to see every … single … person in the restaurant beaming at us, with glasses raised. “Obama!” rang out as the whole placed cheered.
With amazing moments like that here in a little backwater like West Philadelphia, the Boy’s expecting today’s party in the nation’s capitol to be, in the common parlance of his crib, off the hook.
So today we celebrate. Tomorrow begins the daunting task of governing in this challenging moment in time. If you’re interested, I thought this article by Andrew Sullivan captured well both the many difficulties ahead as well as some of the qualities particular to Obama that make me hopeful.
Can Barack Obama fix it? Yes he can.
In recognition of the historic nature of the inauguration of our first President of color, as well as encouragement in the months to come, Jai has two words for our new boss man:
Now let me go see if a very wired little boy can be put down for a nap.
Yes he can.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
So glad to see you’re back in action. And wow, little kiddo has really grown! Thanks for sharing all the adorable pictures and insights into…whatever. Very entertaining! We hope the sleep fairy is visiting more often as the days go by (you listening Jai?)…take care..