I'm Cute As A Button ~ Vote For Me

I guess my daughter Elena was just about learning to walk when I took this picture. You couldn't convince her to sit. She was always using her newfound ability to stand on two feet even when she should have been sitting down to eat. She wasn't all that steady on her feet, always trying to hold on to something, but she sure did want to stand.

When Elena was born in 1971 there had been big changes in baby accessories. Disposeable Pampers had hit the market a few years before, although the built in sticky tapes had yet to displace diaper pins, and glass bottles had been replaced by Playtex plastic bottles with replaceable plastic liners. A few years later, by the time my son Jonathan was born, the ecology movement was in full bloom. We all started to cut back on overloading the landfills with discarded plastics, or sending it into the atmosphere via the county incinerator. Besides, it turned out that real cloth diapers were better for baby ~ less diaper rash.

When Elena ran for state rep in the recent Georgia election she said that her political interest stemmed from my taking her with me to North Miami city council meetings when she was four or five years old. Looking at this photograph, the expression on her face, the gesture of the outstretched arm, the pointing finger, I think it was in her genes from the beginning. Hopefully next time around she'll win a seat. Then her biggest problem will be learning to sit down.