We are at the playground today, and on the way there my 8yo saw folks with anti-ICE signs so he said “I think there’s a protest, I want to go.” There was also an astroturfed MAGA/Invade Iran protest going on. We walked through that then found a handful of retirees across the street with ICE signs. We went over there and sat in a bench behind them. Not five minutes pass and some guy at a red light started screaming at them.

You saw the protesters visibly shrink into themselves. I couldn’t help it, I shouted back at him. No cursing no slurs. (Bootlicker isn’t a slur.)

Talked to the folks after. It turns out there was a larger protest against ICE scheduled today, but they canceled it because of the chuds and their protest. I repped the local immigrant rights group (I volunteer accompanying people to immigration court) and suggested they look at what DSA has organized (I’m a lib); they talked about how they’ve been organizing corner protests near to retirement homes because the residents want to turn out but can’t go too far.

They went home (I think shaken up by the chud still), my kid and I left. He was all wound up but was channeling it into wanting to demonstrate more. I was planning to go to the corner store to get some advil but lo and behold who should we see going in there doing a DoorDash run but the chud that called us removeds. So I didn’t get my advil.

Anyway. That was this afternoon.

My toddler is big on counterfactuals. They will very often ask something like “is it raining?” And if I answer ‘no’ the response will almost certainly be “what happens it is raining?”

For anyone wondering, things outside would get wet if it were raining.

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We had a genuinely great day. I have always wanted to check out this one park that has a firepit and I brought firewood and we made a fire. We played by a creek and our dog was able to run around because no one was there.

Then we went bowling and it was the kiddos first time. I feel like I haven’t had a day like this where things just work out well in…maybe ever?

Took the family to a pub nearby for my girlfriend’s birthday and it had a kids’ room and a play equipment outside. The kids room was actually pretty shit but it had a ball pit!

We’re also in that between stage where if they don’t sleep they’re in a terrible mood in the afternoon, but if they do they won’t fall asleep for ages. We just need to balance it out if they really need it and understand what we’re getting ourselves into either way

We had the family Christmas this last weekend, and Baby Beaver was soooo excited to play with her cousins. She’s an early walker, and so is able to follow them all around the house.

We got her a small chair and table to eat at, so that she can practice sitting down and eating with us. I’m usually sitting on the floor with her and eating too (just so I can keep her in her chair). Our daycare uses this method, so we want to stay consistent.

Bad sleep regressions this week. She’s been such a good sleeper that it’s tough to know what to do. Teething - maybe? Separation anxiety - maybe? Hungry - definitely, she’s been eager for a bottle at around 2am. She’s in the process of self-weening, usually rejecting the last bit of milk in her bottles, but then she doesn’t want eat enough regular food to satisfy herself overnight. Oh well, I expected the weaning process to be kind of complicated.

It’s just blowout after blowout for this baby as of late. But they’re really starting to dig solids at daycare so that’s awesome! Need to pick up the slack at home and feed them with us at dinner, just been kinda crazy with some family drama. It’s stressful, but being able to isolate them from all that ugliness when me and my partner weren’t as kids keeps me going.

Grabbed some baby sunglasses for cheap and it’s made our walks a lot less squinty for them lol. Also makes them look cool as heck.

Back on schedule!