Hail to the Chief

This insanely incredible day in our nation's -- our world's -- history started off on a less than incredible note. It started with a trip for Anna and me to the pediatrician's office. With three visits in the last week, I think that I deserve my own reserved parking space. At least parking is free; one of the benefits of suburban living for all you urbanites who claim you could never move across the river!

I knew that Anna was sick, but I didn't realize just how sick she was. With a raging infection in her left ear, and oxygen levels below 90% thanks to her wicked cough and awful wheezing, we narrowly missed a trip to our local emergency room. 2 hours, 2 nebulizer treatments and 1 teaspoon of oral steroids later, we were released with strict instructions to neb her every 4 hours. And to drive home quickly so that we didn't miss any more of the pre-swearing in live coverage!

With Lily clad in her "Obama is My President" shirt, and Anna sporting her "I drool for Obama" bib, we were all set to experience this moment in history from the comfort of our living room. Hey, we might be a mere 6 miles from the swearing in ceremony, but we were warm AND had some of the best seats in town thanks to MSNBC. Unfortunately, high definition TV isn't kind to some people, including several who jumped out at us from the TV screen today.

Since we weren't heading down to the Mall to experience Obama-mania live, I decided to make our home-based celebration a bit more festive by buying an Obama cookie for Lily. Which she could eat right after the word "elect" had been officially removed from after HIS name. But I apparently forgot to mention that part to Noah. So this is what I discovered at 11 a.m. when I got back from the post-pediatrician's office pharmacy run... (Um, cookies for breakfast??)

And this is what I discovered on the kitchen counter after Noah ran a few post-swearing in ceremony errands. A box of three fresh gigantic Obama treats!

Official counts are not yet in, but guesstimates have the crowd numbers just south of 2 million. Which is mind-boggling. Even for a city as large as ours.

Today was an indescribable day. It was an amazing day. A day that has changed our historical landscape worldwide. Today is a day that while Lily and Anna may not remember in detail (or at all -- hence no overwhelming guilt at not making the FREEZING trek to the Mall), it is a day that they experienced. A day that they celebrated. And a day that they'll learn about in their high school history class. And for my girls, hopefully today means that the thick glass ceiling that hangs above our heads just got a little bit higher.

PS -- we got our party started on Sunday, "gettin' jiggy" during the amazing Lincoln Memorial concert!