I’m in a sweet potato coma

So this will be quick pictures and a song d’jour (Creature Fear by Bon Iver). Congrats to Brandi on beautiful baby Harper, Shelly on her wedding tomorrow and Mike and Emily on their engagement! Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Pretty nails on chubby fingers, pre-clean up.

It’s tough to be the redheaded stepchild of the house. He’s so old and cantankerous he can’t even scrounge up the energy to run away, so he just sits and looks grumpy.

I embarrassed my friend by taking pictures of this lady’s car, but.. wow. This doesn’t do it justice, I swear. I don’t know how she compacted the vast amount of crap in there enough to keep her seat clear. It was.. wow. Really.

Requisite adorable kid inclusion, of course.

Every year we host the everyone’s-back-in-town Christmas party, and this one was especially memorable. It meant a lot to see those we did, and we missed those who couldn’t make it.  I’m sorry the quality is poor; I tried to clean it up, but methinks in retrospect our photog possibly wasn’t in a state to do the job successfully, though God love him he tried cheerily enough.

Happy Holidays, friends

Hope you are all safe and happy this season~

xoxo

Find your tobacco pipe and get in your thinking chair.

I want to have a discussion, because I’m curious what people think. My friend Alissa posted this article about the Campbell family who couldn’t get a cake made for them, because the name on the cake would have been.. Adolf Hitler.

The names of their other children are JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie.

Instinctively I am repulsed by the idea and categorically write off the parents as ignorant, racist jackholes – which, let’s be honest, I’m guessing is a safe bet. (I mean, at least super-educated racist jackholes are aware enough to be a bit more secretive about their mind-warping views, right? They find more insidious infiltrative tactics, surely.)

Anyway, obviously my blood pressure rises when I think about what kind of life they are creating for those innocent kids; what kind of lifelong damage they could be creating just by naming them like that. On the other hand, I know how many people feel about me and my views on vaccines, so that’s a flipside I’m on. And this all leads me to wonder where the line is between respecting people’s belief whether you agree with them or not, versus unabashed judgment or disapproval.

[Does that make any sense? I might need more coffee to communicate effectively today..]

Basically, I’m wondering where the societal acceptance/civil liberty line is drawn, solely when discussing PC protection. Should we get to use emotion as a barometer? I mean.. hmm.. Ok: The average ambiguity toward the concept of disciplining children by spanking disappears completely when you can definitively call it child abuse, right? People agree on that. There is an acceptable emotional response to child abuse that no one realistically can dispute.

SO I GUESS I’m just wondering if I should be trying to be mature in acknowledging they have the right to their views, and get over my emotional response (as I ask people to do for my unpopular views), or if I’m validated in my repulsion, because who in the hell would name their child after a bastard like Hitler?!

So yeah. Do you think that’s subjective or impossible to define? Whatchoo think – about this or other issues that press your buttons under the PC umbrella?

PLEASE TO WAX PHILOSOPHICAL OR LEAVE COMMENT BELOW THANK YOU.

For Sammy,

Who would have named Maire Venkman if he could have.

I give up

Lorelei, unwrapping the rest of the paper from a suspiciously short crayon, a serene smile on her face and her jaw moving.

Me:  Mmm.. what are you doing, honey?

Lo:   Eating.

I heart bullet points

• Been digging the song ‘Journey of the Featherless’ by Cloud Cult a lot lately. So, if it’s going to be continuously looped in my head, here’s to hoping it will now be in yours as well. 

• Was introduced to this today. I’d heard about “Prop 8 – The Musical”, but didn’t realize this was out there. 😉

• Some pictures of my halflings as they continue grow. Hot damn but I make cute kids. Have I ever said that?

Rant by proxy

So. I just found out from my parenting board that the KC Star posted an article last Saturday about avoiding holiday faux pas. In it, this gal was the ‘expert’ on the subject, and had the following to say about nursing:

Don’t do things that might make others feel uncomfortable. For example, a woman who didn’t want to miss an event came with her new baby and nursed in sight of all the other guests.

“The men seemed to like it, but a lot of women did not,” Lee says. “Unless you are going to a party with all the La Leche women then this isn’t appropriate.”

Hm. Of course that immediately pisses me off all kinds of ways, but mostly I’m annoyed with the male sexism of the quote more than her discomfort of what really is, I dunno, NUTRITIONAL NORMALCY. It just seems superfluous and snarky, and aside from making me want to flick her on the forehead, leaves me to think she’s defensive. Whatever.

But then it REALLY got ridiculous when one of the moms on my board wrote a letter to the editor to complain, and got this as a reply:

Thank you for sharing your opinion. Lee’s point was strictly limited to “in full view of other guests.” I don’t think the story implied that the nursing mother or her child were inappropriate.

Huh. I gotta disagree with you there, Cindy. That pretty much was the entire point of its inclusion in the story as far as I can tell.  I mean it was about faux pas, right?  And nursing? With words like ‘isn’t appropriate’?  Obviously I’m biased, but COME ON. Maybe reading comprehension is not Cindy’s strong suit as an editor [insert joke about KC Star here] but my anger ain’t nuthin’ compared to others, trust me, so I suggest she at least learn the word retract.

Anyhoodle, this was Karen’s badass reply (used with permission, of course):

Breastfeeding women face enough challenges nursing in public, and the embarrassment factor is a huge reason that women choose not to breastfeed. That article has possibly contributed to some women’s trepidation. I would like to suggest that, to do some damage control, the Mom2Mom could run an article about breastfeeding in public including informing women that there are laws in almost every state (including MO and KS) protecting them and listings ways to feel more comfortable doing so. As I can’t find an email for the mom2mom section at the moment, I hope you will pass on my suggestion.

Now, in reference to “in full view of other guests”. Would it have been appropriate to give the child a bottle “in full view of other guests”? If so, then it is always appropriate to breastfeed. Why is it that we are completely desensitized to images of exposed breasts in everything from lingerie advertisements to NBA cheerleader uniforms, but to expose them actually engaged in their only biological function is uncomfortable?

Many people would say “She could have covered up with a blanket” or “She could have gone to another room,” to which I say, why does feeding one’s child have to be done in hiding? Why should the mother be made to feel like a second class citizen or embarrassed in any way? (And for practicality’s sake, many babies will not nurse while be covered by a blanket, and why even attend an event if you know you will just have to spend most of the time sequestered in another room. Some people even suggest nursing in the bathroom when no private space is available—which is truly just disgusting).

Furthermore, the inclusion of the quote that “the men seemed to like it” is really in poor taste, and, as I said in my original letter, insulting to the guests in attendance. Unless the event in question was the high school prom, I highly doubt the men were getting their kicks from it, as Lee implied.

Unfortunately, I am not surprised to hear sentiments like these regarding breastfeeding in public, but the fact that the writer chose to include them, *and* that they made it through your editorial staff, is extremely disappointing.

To which I say DAMN STRAIGHT. And VERY WELL SAID. And GET OVER IT ALREADY, PEOPLE.

Or something like that.

Annnnnnd…. yes.

I simply cannot hide anymore just how much of a dork I am. The kids get it from me.

I legitimately laughed out loud when I saw this (well the kitten’s face if not the text), and I tried to move on, but half an hour later I’m still giggling thinking about it.

Therefore, I give up. I think I’m going to have to make this a weekly thing.

I’m so sorry.

I’ve basically been twittering lately, haven’t I.

Without actually having the capabilities to do so. I just don’t have very much I can talk about right now, but I know that’ll change soon, so uh, yeah. There you go.

Saw my beloved favorite New Yorkers last weekend:

Sam got some video of Lo hamming it up, and Maire’s cackling was the sweetest thing I’d seen in a long time. Love and miss you all, friends. It was great seeing you.

.

Let’s see.. Here’s a story that I realize has to be worded this way, but just struck me as such a colossal NO SHIT kind of obviousness:

Evangelicals, Republicans were biggest backers of gay marriage ban.

Whatever. Ridiculous all-around.

.

So officially I want to be Dooce. Well, I want to write like Dooce. I’m not the first to say it, either. I had a conversation recently about writing for fun vs as a living, and she flitted across my mind, along with the daydream of getting paid to blog. (Well, ok the last few months would be a poor portfolio, but let’s pretend this is a hiatus.) She is my current hilarious and self-deprecating writer heroine.

[Love the Fug Yourself girls also, but I have a harder time convincing people it’s the writing that keeps me going back there, so Dooce lends some credibility. Snort.]

And I think that’s it for today, which is good, because I just looked over and saw Lorelei finger painting with my coffee on the white chair rail. Woot!

Happy Thursday, everyone.