WASHINGTON — Moments after President Obama got the news about winning the Nobel Peace Prize, his excited daughters came to congratulate him — and put things in perspective.
Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, came to see their dad not long after White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs telephoned Obama with the news, awakening him in the early morning hours.
Appearing later in the Rose Garden, Obama said it wasn’t “how I expected to wake up this morning.”
He said that after he heard about the award, “Malia walked in and said, ‘Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo’s birthday.’ And then Sasha added, ‘Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.’ So it’s — it’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective.”
Bo is the family’s Portuguese water dog, a breed that was recommended to the Obamas by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The first daughters, who spent the summer globe-trotting with their father, attend the prestigious Sidwell Friends private school in Washington. Malia recently started sixth grade, and Sasha is in third.