Over the weekend, Husband and I set up this “big”week for Son: On Tuesday, Barack Obama becomes President and on Thursday, you turn five! He was very excited and somehow (being four) managed to combine the two, believing that when Barack Obama becomes President, he’ll be five.

Well, we managed to separate the two events yesterday, what with the general hoopla and excitement over the inauguration (hard word to say when you’re four). I made my little speech over dinner, setting up our viewing of the (Tivo’d) ceremony.

“You know how you have a teacher who leads your class? And makes decisions about what to do and keeps you safe? Well, that’s like the President of our country. He’s going to lead all the people in our country – over 300 million!! – from California to Colorado and Florida and Connecticut (I tried to name every state they’d visited.)

“And Israel!” Two-year old Daughter piped up.

“No, dear. Israel has it’s own president.” (Whole other matter there.)

They became very enamored with the idea of the oath taking – one hand in air, the other on the “book” as they called it.

“Bible,” I asserted.

We fast forwarded through the entrances of important people, the kids and I snuggled up and alert on the sofa, waiting for the moment.

“When does he put his hand up?!” they asked repeatedly.

We finally found the brief, stumbling moment and had to pause the TV and take a hard look at blurred pixels to find the book.

After that, they were pretty much gone – back to the usual jabbing, poking and whatnot.

But this morning, Son declared that he was off to Africa on vacation, then to visit President Obama and go to the cafeteria. Then he he’d go to the lighthouse.

“The what?”

“The lighthouse!”

“Oh, you mean the White House, honey. They call it that because it’s big and white and blah, blah, blah….”

Well, at least he’ll keep busy as he turns five. Big times.