Maggie's Farm

The thing that saved us was how exceptionally lazy Obama was. I used to regularly check the official White House calendar to see what his agenda was. His normal day was he would come into the Oval Office around 10:30-11:00, then he would have lunch with Biden around noon, and then after lunch he would go jump on Air Force 1 to go fundraising and partying around the country. He would usually get back late in the night, and would repeat the pattern the next day. The fact is Obama could make speeches, but was pretty clueless and incompetent about everything else. Most of the stuff he claimed he did was invalid, like signing fake treaties with Iran where he had no legal authority to do so. It had his signature on it but was not legally binding--Iran disavowed that it was binding on Iran right off the bat (but then took the position it was binding on the other signatories).

Contrast this with Trump who is pretty much working 24-7.

I remember in the old days when the press would criticize Reagan for coming into work at 7:30 in the morning and leave around 5 or so, that he was treating the presidency lke a 9-5 job. But Reagan was a workaholic compared to Obama.

My kids loved Goodnight Moon, we read it to them hundreds of times. Other favorites were "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," "Runaway Bunny," "The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" and "I'll Love you Forever." (I really liked "Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" too, because the wonderful illustrations brought back fond memories of where I went to college in New England.)

And we would always say to our kids when we put them to bed: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as you're living, my [child's name] you'll be." We would add at the end, "good night, don't let the bedbugs bite," and then in Japanese "Oyasuminasai" (goodnight) and they would answer "Oyasuminasai."

And when I was a kid, I loved Paddle to the Sea.