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Big news! Peanut slept last night with her arms completely free of the swaddle. Sure, her bottom half is still in the swaddle, but it really serves more as a blanket for her. And see, I was afraid her college roommate would have to swaddle her before bed. :) We followed a slow course of allowing her to have an arm each night - switching it up. For the past week, she's spent nap times with her arms free. And now, voila! All night. I'm so proud of her. She totally rocks. If fact, I've noticed a huge change in her this week. She just seems more okay with the world. More used to things. It's amazing to watch her develop. The best is hearing her laugh, though. She will play in her gym and just laugh at Monsieur Monkey and Ellie Elephant. It makes me laugh to watch her. She's not protesting things as much, either. I plunked her in the Ergo carrier and walked down to meet Bob at the trolley stop. Not a peep. The stroller, too. As long as she can sit straight up and see out. Another cool thing is that she recognizes Bob and gives him the biggest smile when he returns home from work - like she's so excited to see him. And now I think she'll be ready to roll over any day now (from front to back).

Okay, enough about the Mommy stuff. I need to get some other stuff off of my mind. This election is really starting to eat at me. Granted, I have a certain amount of cynicism toward politics in general. Six years "inside the Beltway" can do that to you. But this is starting to get ridiculous. No one is debating REAL ISSUES. It's all that stupid pointless personality crap. Can we please move past the Bridge to Nowhere? What are you going to do to fix healthcare? How are you going to stimulate the economy? It's almost like issues we face today have gotten too complex and no one is able to sit down and focus on it. It's all about the soundbite or talking point. Whether true or untrue. Grab and go. What pithy saying can you drill into the minds of voters so they forget what's really at stake? What I want to know is which came first: the political rhetoric of saying nothing or that the public doesn't want to listen? I know eight years of Bush has dumbed us all down. His "decisiveness" is just a ploy at not dealing with things in a deep and real way. Issues are not black and white. They are so many shades of gray here that get ignored.

Oh and this is scary... I heard yesterday that McCain has been consulting with Karl Rove. Ugh! ACCKKK! I thought I could live begrudgingly with a McCain presidency because basically anything is better than what we have now (and, again, Bush taught us all to aim low). But this is clearly more of the same. How can he tout himself as a "maverick" and a bringer of change to Washington if he's enlisting the help of Rove? That seems like politics as usual to me.

I have to admit that I am resigned to living through a McCain-Palin administration. I just get a bad feeling about the whole thing. This is the cynicism thing again, but a population who could re-elect Bush in 2004... well, I guess I just don't expect that much from. It makes me sad to feel this way about my fellow Americans. But there you have it. I mean, this is the country that also brought you the search for the next Pussycat Doll show.

PS I'm so sick of that "I Kissed a Girl" song.