It was going to be cold and crowded. There would be no heated areas, no changing tables. The ticketed areas banned strollers and food. Some commenters over at BabyCenter insisted it was “child abuse” to even consider taking a toddler (ah, the “everything is child abuse” gambit). One writer told me he was going to leave his infant daughter with her grandparents, but tell her later she had been there — maybe even that “Obama had brought her up on stage, Courtney-Cox-style.” NPR cautioned, “Think Twice Before Bringing Kids to Inaugural.”

I wondered if we should cancel the trip.

But my best friend and her kids were expecting us, and we couldn’t exchange the train tickets. Besides, we wanted our son to be a witness to history, even if he wouldn’t necessarily remember it. “I just wanted to be here” was the title of the CNN homepage the morning of the inauguration, and that’s exactly how I felt. I liked the spirit of this SD commenter: “TAKING the kids to the Inauguration. TAKING. For God’s sake.”

So we packed a bunch of warm clothes, decided we’d try to watch from back of the Mall, near the Lincoln Memorial, where it wouldn’t be so crowded, and bring a tonne of snacks.

We were cold, yes, in spite of our many layers. I had to hand-feed my son a sandwich because he couldn’t concentrate on eating. I had to walk him around for the hour leading up to the oath, while he complained about the wind. “It is magical here,” I quasi-ironically texted my coworkers while standing inside a Port-a-Loo while my son repeatedly opened and closed the lock for entertainment.

And there were definite hassles: When we got off the train in D.C., we faced a two-hundred-person-long taxi line with no cabs in sight (who knew there would be a black-tie party at the train station the very night we were arriving?). If we’d been alone, my husband and I could have just walked across town in the cold and dark without worrying about our son freezing or about what we would do with the car seat. (Thank goodness his well-chosen Godmother drove into the swarm of tuxedoed humanity and rescued us.)

But once we were there at the event itself, actually on the Mall watching Obama take the oath and deliver his Inaugural Address, every annoyance seemed utterly insignificant. I’ve never experienced anything like being in a crowd of almost two million silent, rapt people, nor will I probably ever again. I looked down at my son, sitting on my lap under a sleeping bag, staring at the Jumbotron, hypnotized by Obama’s face and voice, and the speech hit home in a way it might not have had I been unencumbered.

Obama said: For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Showing up, toddler in tow, was a product of faith and determination. I looked around us at our fellow American people on the Mall and I just liked them. All of them. There were two people in wheelchairs in front of us, a little girl and her mother to our side. There were people from every state and from abroad. No one had an easy time getting there, but once in the crowd together, we became one mass of joy. When Obama was proclaimed president, it was like a cork coming out of a bottle, everyone crying and laughing and hugging each other. An old white woman and old black man linked arms next to us and spun each other in a circle. I’ve never felt prouder to be an American or more hopeful for our future.

One woman on the news said she had been there for the March on Washington, but that this was different, because we had all gathered not to protest, but to give thanks. There were high-fivers lining the pathways when we entered the Mall, and everyone on the grounds smiled at each other. When my son said, “Barack Obama!” the people standing around us rushed to give him fist bumps.

It’s funny what my son remembers of that day on the Mall. He tells people that it was cold, that the pool was made of ice, that he saw “Barack Obama’s car” (the motorcade made a big impression). He fondly remembers the Port-a-Loos. He wishes he could have given Obama cookies like he did the neighborhood firefighters at Christmas. And he recalls “a lot of people standing.” When he gets older and realises why they were standing, and laughing and crying all around us, I hope he will be as grateful as I am that he was there.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama took center stage as they danced at the Inaugural Ball. Michelle wore an-off-the-shoulder white Jason Wu gown. Beyonce serenaded the crowd with a beautiful rendition of Etta James’ At Last.

Watch the video after the jump!

President Obama was dressed in a black tuxedo with a white bow tie, and the First Lady was beautiful in her Jason Wu full-length white gown.

Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who’s written about first ladies said of Michelle’s dress choice: It’s “a balancing act between a queen and a commoner. The inaugural gown is a metaphor for the first lady role.

“They reflect around the world an image of our country.”

Video:

[Source|Source]

So they can celebrate together? Nope, these parents are calling foul on the schools for promoting a “biased, politically motivated hoopla.”

Huh?

The inauguration of the president is biased? Why? Because there’s just one guy up there with his hand on the Bible? Let me explain something to those of you who have cooked up this cockamamie idea: we have a two-party system, but in the end, only one person can win. You voted – let’s hope – and if your guy didn’t win, well, better luck next time. But you can’t turn back the hands of time by convincing your kids that everything that happens for the next four years is just “biased and politically motivated.” That’s teaching them the lesson not of moving forward but of being a sore loser.

Inauguration day happens only every four years. For kids who spend the traditional thirteen years in school, there will likely only be three chances to experience an inauguration. Once they’re out of school, if they’re like the rest of us working stiffs (let’s hope), they’ll have to live vicariously like the rest of us when January 20 falls on a weekday.

Regardless of who is taking the oath, it’s an incredible moment. It’s historical. It’s part of what makes our country… our country. There is nothing biased about celebrating President Barack Obama; no more so than teachers requiring their charges to watch the proceedings in Washington four years ago when a Republican president took his oath of office. I wasn’t a parent at that time, but I would likely have made my daughter watch then if she had been – much as I’ll be having her watch with me this year. In four years, I hope she’ll watch it in school. If not, I can imagine wrangling a day at home, watching it with her.

For some of us, today will have added meaning. For others, it should still be marked as the day when a new president took the helm of the White House, because he will be our president – all of ours. And that includes our kids.

“My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.

They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

“We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Good luck, Mr. President. Now go get that puppy.

Video:

Don’t fancy staying up to 3am to watch the live Presidental inauguration? Don’t worry, you can watch a special pre-enactment from Legoland, replete with 4″ Barack and Michelle in a motorcade.

Watch the video after the jump

All hail the Lego in Chief!

[Via Jezebel]