I’m happy to report that April 2nd was 2010′s Chacos’ Day.

Technically, it wasn’t really the 1st day the Chacos have gone on the feet. Our adventures in Colombia were done mostly in a ripped up pair of Levi’s and the ever cool Chacos. But today was the first day in Cincinnati, so it counts, particularly after a super snowy February. The temperature hit 80 today. Lots of sun. And it was time for the sandals.

2010 also is the 10 year anniversary of the Chacos. During spring of my senior year of college Renee gave them to me as a present. I pretty much wear them 3 months out of the year (if not more) every year. I’m absolutely amazed that they’re still in good shape. Definitely one of the best products I’ve ever owned.

This day had a lot of fun moments. It was also the first day of 2010 for hanging laundry outside. Some might find this to be one of the more mundane tasks of life, but I find it calming. Monica, my eldest, loved it – finding a step stool and insisting that she hang shirts “solita”. I had to drill another line into the Maple and Gum trees, now that our laundry had doubled, so we made a trip to the Home Depot to find a retractable line.

Monica loves to help. I find that one of the more enjoyable things in life is doing tasks with my daughters. The tasks always take twice (or thrice) the time, but it’s good bonding. Good self-esteem building.

Chacos’s Day also happened to be vaccination day for the girls. Monica got two, Kelly five. I got to practice some wrestling moves as I (tried) to keep them still as the needles came for them. Thankfully the nurse was quick. But they screamed. Really loud.

Speckled with neon band aids, they got to eat Popsicles as a treat.

The family played and worked outside from when the sun came up to when it went down. Monica fell asleep in – no joke – 2 minutes. We’re all happy and exhausted.

Summer’s coming.

In the paper today was an article about anti-enlightment folks co-opting the global warming debate with their stance against evolution. These types of reports tend to annoy me in general (I’m always reminded of the MLK quote “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”), and the older I get the more I feel compelled to defend common, liberal values that have their roots in the enlightnment.

Anyway, one of the comments in the NYTimes had such an interesting response to the article that it’s worth sharing. He/she quoted “Inherit the Wind”:

“Can’t you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers.

And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other.

Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!”

By Diane Ravitch, who used to think NCLB was a good thing (but changed her mind after evidence – and how many people do that today – showed that it wasn’t working).

“There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition,” Ravitch says. “Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what’s [been successful] for them. They’re not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block.”

This deserves a cross post.

This process was supposed to take a very long time (4-6 weeks), but it’s flown by for us! It only took 3 days to get our sentencia (where the courts legally assign permanent custody of Monica and Kelly to us). Now we’ve a few more things to wrap up (passports, visas, etc) but it looks like we’ll be back in the states before the end of January!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are so happy to introduce Monica and Kelly…

From 2010-01-21

We’ve been blogging about our experience over at ardenlane, but I wanted to make a fun cross post here on some interesting things I’ve noticed about becoming a father. Nothing particular to adoption – and certainly noted by many before me – but (slightly) comical (at least I think so).

There’s nothing better than the laughter of my daughters. This doesn’t surprise me too much because before having daughters I would say there’s nothing better than the laughter of my wife. I love my family’s laughter.

Things just don’t gross me out as much. This has to be a survival strategy. Poop, snot, you name it you got to get over it. When they’re yours, you can.

On a similar note, I never knew how much fatherhood revolves around a toilet.

You have to eat fast. In fact, eating is an adventure. Our first eating experiences with Monica and Kelly were a whirlwind. We’ve now learned to tell them ahead of time “you have to give mami and papi some time to actually chew their food.” We’ve added a full 90 seconds to our dinning time!

Backrubs and head massages go a long way in helping to calm freak out moments.

I love incessant chattering. Both Monica and Kelly will have massive conversations with the air. Very fast, very light, and I really can’t understand a word of it (but I get the tone). It makes me happy.

Oh my gosh I am sore. Before getting on the plane my sister-in-law made a comment about coming home with some “guns” for arms. I thought she was joking. Nope. From the very first moment of waking up to an hour before bed I am holding, playing, hugging, swinging, piggyback hosting, dancing, jumping, chasing, diving, and running. For the first 3 days my muscles were screaming.

As this picture no doubt demonstrates. This is Papi trying to give a piggyback and piggyfront ride.

From January 16