Update

Lil' Genghis is enjoying her last mini-birthday today, because she just turned 11 months old. She learned to stand on her own today, stole some French fries, discovered chicken nuggets, and generally had a good time with Cousin Marcus.

Today is also the eve of an American event known as "Valentine's Day," which is a day many people in Chicago recall fully without nostalgia. For most American men, however, Valentine's Day is a time to honor a loved spouse, girlfriend or carbon-based life form by showing just how guilty the man feels.

There's really nothing guys can do to make the holiday right. If guys plan something sweet and intricate, the women make the guys feel guilty because the women don't want to feel demanding, high maintenance, needy. If guys don't do a good job, they'll feel guilty for scorning a beloved one. And if they take a middle ground, they'll still be made to feel guilty for simultaneously not planning well enough and not being spontaneous enough.

There's really no way for a guy to win.

That is, unless he's alone for the day, as dad is going to be. So maybe he'll buy a nice bone for girldog, the closest beloved lady remaining in the home. And for mom and Lil' Genghis? Well, they decided to be on their own, so that's enough of that. Together, as a family, we'll all celebrate President's Day together, in which dad can teach Lil' Genghis about George Washington's oft-ignored hesitancies toward foreign involvements:

My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, ... to comply strictly with all our engagements, foreign and domestic; but to keep the United States free from political connexions with every other country, to see them independent of all and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home; and not, by becoming the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions, disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps for ever, the
cement which binds the union.

After that, we can move on to discussing Abraham Lincoln's decision to violate the U.S. Constitution and bypass the court system by suspending habeas corpus.

And if all that isn't enough to inspire and/or put to sleep Lil' Genghis, we'll turn on some C-SPAN, damnit, and let her breathe in the majesty of deeply held values and the perceived necessities of compromises.

And if she's still awake after that, we'll entertain her with a tale from her family's history, in which a small bit of compromise or showing of weakness can go along way to achieving the desired ends.

Because if global conquest can't unite a family in purpose, then why do it?

Anyway, you only come here for the pictures.