and candy for breakfast!

Am I a permissive parent? According to my child's tricycle, which slept in bed with him last night, YES.

What To Read And Why

The blogroll just sits there, and no one clicks.I cleaned it up, and below are reasonswhy I read (or don’t) each of them. Go on, click something new!

 

A little pregnant

-This was the one that led me to all the others.She used to maintain an incredible collection of parenting blog links, including a category devoted to adoption.  This is where it all started.  I even remember how I found her blog: it was a link off LOD’s blog, which was a link off Defective Yeti. PS she is hilarious

AfrIndie Mum

No longer active, but for a time very informative on adoption. Where’d she go? I don’t know!

American Family

Your basic slice of life/adoption blog.For a (short) time she ran another blog about induced lactation that was interesting.  But she changed her mind about doing it herself and the blog went dark.  But she’s still got this one.

and I wasted all that birth control...

I’ve read this one since her first tragic pregnancy.

Anti-Racist Parent - for parents committed to raising children

Lots of blogs get lamer over time  as people lose interest.This one is professional and has improved over time IMO.

baggageandbug.com

Read her since she was Cubbiegirl.

Bigger Than a Breadbox

I have the good fortune to know this one in real life.

clueless in carolina

Funny and sharp, great stories. She’s living through her mom’s alzheimer’s disease now,which is tragic but she remains interesting and determined throughout.

The Comics Curmudgeon

Hi-liarious, and don’t miss the comment of the week, one ofthe best bits.

The Commuter Blues

Another I know for reals!

Daddy, Papa and Me

The first gay adoptive parent blog I found.Check out his elaborate (to put it mildly) Harry-Potter-themed summer activity with his daughter (involves flying to London, holy crap)

Daily Fiber

Was a prospective adoption blog, went dark.

defective yeti

Funny dude, one of the first I read. I like the Bad Review Revue—the most scathing movie reviews collected in once place.

Do They Have Salsa in China?

Tons of cute photos and stories.Where does she find time? And the lunches! Gah! I hang myhead in shame.

DoctorMama

One of the most level-headed, with-it bloggers I read.Full of great, sensible doctor bits of information.  She recommends an approach to beginning running. Maybe someday when I feel less exhausted.

dooce

Who doesn’t read dooce? Come on.  I can say I read it before it was a shopping/photo blog though.  I’m Old School.

Evil Mommy

Another smaller, down to earth adoption related blog.

finslippy

One of the funniest out there.  Alum of my college (where the funny ladies go)

Fluid Pudding

Also funny, and I think a unique style.She knits too, and I don’t really understand those posts.

Fussy

A big shot in blogland.

Geese Aplenty

One of the few dudes on the list.  So funny.

Gwen's Petty, Judgmental, Evil Thoughts

Read her since it was Gwentown.  It’s nice to watch someone’s life really unfold before you.

I Blame The Patriarchy

Is there any funnier writer on the subject of feminism?I think not.

Julia

Read this for years. She’s the jolliest of bloggers in spite of some real crappy times overthe years.  Impossibly smart older child, impossibly cute younger children. 

Laid-Off Dad

One of the originals. 

The Land of Milk and Poo

FKA Cheek, FKA Naked Ovary.  Was once an adoption blog.  Then a pregnancy blog. Now I suppose it will be a parenting blog in general.

Leery Polyp

Defunct I guess. Hey, you know how it is when you read blogs, it only takes a couple of little tiny things for you to form a total opinion of someone? Well, I’m afraid that tendency got thebetter of me in this case.  Shepraised Dr. Sears once too often for my taste and I guess I quit reading.Dr. Damn Sears and his Gender Roles.  Jeepers.

Moxie

Most of her efforts now on her advice blog, but this was her original deal.

Paleo-Future

Find this fascinating, it’s about images of the future…from the past!  My mind…she is blown!

Pam's House Blend

You know me. I’m a hippie liberal pinko. And here’s the blog links to prove it.

Pandagon

See above.

Parent Hacks

Once one of my hacks got published. I’m a celebrity!

passive-aggressive (and just plain aggressive) notes

The comments are as funny as the (batshit insane) notes themselves.

Round is funny

Quitter ! ha!

Shakesville

See above about liberal hippie pinkos

smartypants's diary

this is not even a proper blog.  It has an old school look and feel (remember “online diaries”?) and no comments.  It is killer funny, but caution when recommending it to your mom. She works blue.  

The Sneeze

Another guy. Steve, Don’t Eat It!  Is upthere with cockeyed for “hilarious web stunts”

Spamusement

The late, the great, spamusement.  Burned so bright for so short a time.

Suburban Bliss:: Birth Control Via The Written Word

Melissa just gets me, OK?

the underwear drawer

A slice of life blog by a doctor/parent.Was NYC but just moved to Atlanta.

Velcrometer

From TWOP (which, to up my old-school cred, I read when it was MBTV so there), a humor writer and adoptive parent.

needed

for work: personal motto
funny, not too serious
probably not latin because I won't understand it
where can I find????

Bugaboo Creek Traumatized my Child

Warning! Apparently child-friendly restaurants with crayons, french fries, and sippy cups may in fact have WILD ANIMALS inside which, although non-alive, will scare the bejeezus out of your child and force you to endure YET ANOTHER meal with someone sitting on your lap, this time whimpering "mooose.....moooooooose....."

also, we drove past two days later and he wails "MOOOOOOOSE". The "will eat me" is implied, I guess.

public service

I share with you, internet, my new favorite TV show that we've been watching online. Torchwood! It's like Buffy plus X Files, if everyone were Welsh and a little gay. Hottness!

Watch episodes here

Dr Foster Went to Gloucester

Here's what I would tell teenagers about avoiding pregnancy (the why, not the how).


When we became parents, my grandmother sent a card, and it was a little different from all the "Congratulations!" cards. She said,

"Welcome to the constant worry, sleepless nights, and never ending fear."

I know it doesn't sound nice, but it was intended in love and that's how I took it. I was actually very grateful for it, because it validated a lot of the feelings I was having at the time, which the usual "babies are so fun and cute!" didn't.

When you have a child, you worry every second of every day, at some level. You fear accidents and disease; you fear you're doing SOMEthing wrong; you fear the future. When they cry, it breaks your heart a little every time. You may have had a stressful life before, but it will seem carefree compared to waking up six times a night listening for breathing just to make sure he isn't dead. Every child, in every horrible news story, takes on the face of your child, and scares the bejeezus out of you.

The emotional weight of parenting is far greater than the physical and logistical problems and annoyances. I am sure that message is not getting across with egg babies or abstinence lectures or even birth-control demonstrations.
Being a parent can make you very scared and very worried and very sad sometimes, too.

Things The Geneva Convention Would Explicitly Ban, If My Child Were In Charge

-putting on shirts
-taking off shirts
-putting on pants
-sandals
-baths
-leaving the park
-sharing toys

chow

I was a moderately picky eater child. My parents felt that this was both a character flaw of mine and a terrible indictment of their parenting, and gave me a hell of a lot of static about it. Because I was also a more-than-moderately stubborn child, this made things a hell of a lot worse and I was quite old before I ate widely. Which I mostly do, although there is a list of things I will not eat.
So my child, who as an under-one ate a tiny bit of everything that crossed our table, is now 18 months old and will eat:

hummus (IF he gets to hold the spoon)
frozen mixed veg
frozen corn
raisins
crackers
rice (IF he gets to scatter rice to the four winds)
applesauce (IF it is made by grandma)
yogurt
soup (SOMEtimes)
peas (IF we are in the field and he can eat them off the plants)
milk

Here is a list of foods often eaten by children which he will take out of his mouth and throw back at me:
chicken (any form, including nugget)
green beans
ok, any kind of meat
bread: regular or pita
bananas
potatoes
all the rest of the vegetables

I'm not going to make a huge deal about what he eats or not but he can't keep filling up on raisins and crackers, can he? and his "acceptable" list is not terrible but I feel like I'm in a rut and I'm not convinced there is enough protein in there. What are some ideas? He is allergic to eggs.

I kind of want to ship him to grandma's to be fattened a little because he eats nearly all of what she makes for some reason. Likes her better I guess!

"at" "work"

The cat seems confused and I don't blame her, as I'm mighty confused myself, since I'm officially at work, yet my ass is in my own desk chair in my own bedroom. wha??? yah, today is a work from home day, so I'm "working" from home. I say that because I have no idea what I'm doing yet.
Also, we communicate with IRC, which is like 1993, and I forget how to use it! I used to be cool, what happened??

cutetastic!

weekend with cousins and grandfather mustache

Q&A

The kid still doesn't carry on real conversations, of course (except with himself, while falling asleep, which is very funny), but he can verbally respond to questions like, "what do you want to eat?"
Sometimes he answers "narsmwiwx" or something like that which means we play guessing game. I say "soup? (mo) milk? (mo) yogurt? (mo) potatoes? (mo) veg? (mo)" until I hit the right one. When I do he does a little explosive movement with his whole body. "YESH!!" he shouts. It's cute enough that I can almost get past the fact that all he wants lately is hummus. This morning he went off with OD to eat breakfast and when she delivered him back to me to be dressed, he smelled like garlic hummus. Should babies smell like garlic?

Survivor: Tantrumtown

McCain to Host Possible Veeps at Ariz. Home

Dear Friends:
Thank you for agreeing to visit my Arizona home on such short notice! We have a big weekend planned, so I'm sending this agenda to better prepare you all for the great things I have planned. Remember your sunscreen!

0800 Arrival at Compound. Blindfolds provided during drive to secondary location.
0900 Division into shirts and skins
0930 Team captains to arm-wrestle for choice of team bunker
0945 First challenge: Paintball!
1100 Second challenge: In this challenge I just scream at you til you cry.
1200 lunchtime!
1230 Third challenge: golf (warning, I am a sore loser)
1330 Fourth challenge: jerky eating contest
1400 Fifth challenge: Senate Tie-breaking contest
1500 Sixth challenge: Build a fire with sticks
1600 Snacktime!
1630 I will give a single red rose to the one I choose


Good luck to all of you and remember, no matter who wins, I'll be the one packing the supreme court with ultracons! So we all win!!

Yours,
John McCain

And where am I today?

Where else?

I'll be under the bed if you need me*

hiding from this


*because I have fragglephobia.

Jenna is the dumb one right? (warning: very whiny post)

Jenna Bush got married, which reminded me that Jenna Bush exists, and also reminded me of my college roommate. Because they look a little bit alike. Also, because I think they act a little bit alike. With the bein' rich and drinkin' a bit too much and so on.
Anyway I'm not a big fan of my college roommate lately to be perfectly honest. She always believed herself to be a few notches better than me in most ways. Like, she was smarter and more stylish and not crippled with naivete. Once she said something super mean that I wasn't supposed to hear but I totally did*. Alas, I continued to give her the benefit of the doubt, though she treated me like a young country cousin with no connections. Which perhaps I was. Anyway the last thing she did to irritate me was after I went out of my way to bring her my kid's baby clothes for her twin sons. She sent me an email afterwards in which she got my kid's name completely wrong. Irritation! Then she never called me again. Call me really shallow and petty but I am ticked off. I feel like she may have wanted to tick me off, so she wouldn't have to deal with someone so low-class as myself, ever again. Well, she gets her wish I guess. I just wish I could steal back those baby clothes.

*I can't believe you read this far! you must be bored. Anyway she just said to OD one time "But you can do so much better!" (than me). Bitch, right?

everyone has a price

how much pay cut would you accept in order to work somewhere where people are smart and funny, where you work at home 50% of the time, versus a place where people are average-smart and a little bit scary, where you get steep travel discounts?

further, both have a certain amount of free food, and both dish out the undeserved praise with a free hand.

not that I have any job offers. I'm just thinkin'.

seriously though I love being praised. I am Lisa Simpson!

yeah, my kid is funny but

this kid will be the funniest person in the universe

very, very self-indulgent post

Conversation:

Me: no.
Babe: NO!
Me: Yes!
Babe: YES!
Me: Copycat.
Babe: KIIIIIIIITTTTTTTYYYYYYYYY!!!

Phrases spoken in my home for which this post might become the only google result:

Mustache is sleeping.*
The cat is not a drum.**


*In the night he gets up and demands "mustache" (grandad) who, if not sleeping, is at least 200 miles away.
**self explanatory

Excuse me, friend, do you like to laugh?

I listen to podcasts while I clean up and fold laundry. Without podcasts, there would be [more] raisins stuck to the floor. So I am very much hoping that Croncast continues after their 500th show. They say that if their audience doubles they will continue 2x a week. If you like to laugh, subscribe to their podcast. Maybe try listening to their Vacation show. That Betsy is very funny. And maybe you will get a little housework done.

I'm calling this one

When 'inconsistencies' are discovered in this book, I get five points.