Category Archives: random tidbits

Thursday Linky Bits

Posted on May 15, 2008 | Comments Off on Thursday Linky Bits

What you should read/watch since I’m not writing:

Things Younger Than John McCain. You’ll be surprised.

This fascinating NPR story on different ways of dealing with transgender kids. Also look at the Q&A with two of the psychologists mentioned. I find the traditional approach (trying to make kids more ‘comfortable’ in their current gender by forbidding them to express other behaviors) kind of appalling, frankly – both politically and psychologically. I hope the trend moves in a more accepting direction.

The Test for Husbands and Wives is both hilarious and depressing. I have to say, Mr. Squab would score MUCH higher on this than I would. Which is, I guess, a sign of progress?

I love Ricky Gervais, Gordon Ramsay, and juvenile humor, so this is pretty much the perfect clip:

Happy Thursday!

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Memo to Myself for Future Reference

Posted on May 14, 2008 | Comments Off on Memo to Myself for Future Reference

The problem with leaving the Pledge out on the kitchen countertop is that you’re liable to mistake it for the Pam and spray it all over the inside of the bowl in which you’re about to place your bread dough to rise. Only the lemony scent saved you from a waxy, possibly toxic loaf of bread. TIDY UP.

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Random Tidbits

Posted on May 7, 2008 | Comments Off on Random Tidbits

Iiiiiiiiiit’s HUMPDAY! I have no focus! Therefore I will mostly link to other stuff!

1. A substitute teacher in Florida was fired because he was accused of … wait for it … wizardry. Yeah. Reason #57638274 why I will never live in Florida.

2. This Harper’s article on raw milk makes me a) depressed, b) interested in trying raw milk, c) consider going back to vegetarianism, and d) pissed off about the state of the planet in general and agribusiness in particular. Worth a read.

3. Dooce rocks it hard pretty much all the time, but this is especially righteous:

Will you resent me for this website? Absolutely. And I have spent hours and days and months of my life considering this, weighing your resentment against the good that can come from being open and honest about what it’s like to be your mother, the good for you, the good for me, and the good for other women who read what I write here and walk away feeling less alone. And I have every reason to believe that one day you will look at the thousands of pages I have written about my love for you, the thousands of pages other women have written about their own children, and you’re going to be so proud that we were brave enough to do this. We are an army of educated mothers who have finally stood up and said pay attention, this is important work, this is hard, frustrating work and we’re not going to sit around on our hands waiting for permission to do so. We have declared that our voices matter.

4. Shanny gave me a Blogging Friends Forever Award! And I didn’t even order the yearbook! She also called me “brilliant, talented, beautiful, and hilarious,” so you might want to read her blog while you can because she’s clearly suffering from some kind of fatal brain disease. This award has been going around since last February, and has been given to some pretty awesome bloggers. Since I naturally only read awesome blogs, this makes the choice of who to pass it along to fairly difficult, but after some thought I’m choosing Jordan of The Wonderwheel to be next in the BFF chain of bloggy goodness. Jordan, like Shanny and me, is a mommy-blogger, who in addition to writing about her two extremely adorable boys also blogs a fair amount about her work with autistic kids and about autism generally. She *regularly* makes me tear up with her writing – but always in a good way – and her materialistic Monday posts have incited me to many an unnecessary but oh-so-lovely purchase. In short, she is teh awesome blogztre$$ and definitely one of my mommy-blogging heroes. You should check her out.

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Random Tidbits on a Tuesday

Posted on April 30, 2008 | Comments Off on Random Tidbits on a Tuesday

1. My hair is driving me crazy. It’s at that in-between stage where it’s not long enough to really do anything with but it’s too long to leave alone. I have to decide if I want to leave it for another month, at which point it will be long enough to put up or back, or chop it all off. I’m leaning towards the CHOP.

2. The Hatchling has two new words that I find extremely cute. #1: for hummus (one of her all-time favorite foods) she says “hummy” which is an excellent combination of hummus and yummy, if you ask me. #2: All wheeled, pedaled, manually (pedually?) propelled vehicles are now known as “whysicles.” This kills me every time she says it.

3. The other evening, during “nakey time,” the Hatchling took a crap on the stairs, stood over it asking “whassat?” until I came in from the kitchen and called her father’s attention to the fact, and then did a little poop-butted dance around the entryway while Mr. Squab and I scrambled for wipesfortheloveofgodWIPES. Her complete equanimity in the face of (butt of?) her own excrement makes me think that maybe she’s not quite ready for the toilet training.

4. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am now the sheepish owner of a Facebook account. I believe this officially makes me a tool. (But it’s waaaaaaay better than MySpace and the scrabble application makes it all worth while! I tell myself.)

5. This weekend we had a two hour photo session with Katy to capture the Hatchling’s two-ness. This pretty much sums up the Hatchling’s attitude towards the proceedings. Fortunately, Katy is so good that I know we’ll get amazing shots anyway.

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Meme-age

Posted on April 13, 2008 | Comments Off on Meme-age
Haiku2 for snarkysquab

rascally toddlers
again i’m trying to say
something like no no
@
Created by Grahame

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I know. I’m a slacker.

Posted on April 3, 2008 | Comments Off on I know. I’m a slacker.

Some weeks just escape me, man. But here are a couple of Hatchling tidbits:

1. Like most parents, we’re trying to emphasize politeness with the Hatchling. She’s been saying “please” for a few months now (she says “peeez!” or sometimes “peeez, yeah!”), but we’ve been having a harder time with “thank you.” Part of this is no doubt that it’s a harder thing to say, but she’s also seemed sort of uninterested in the concept in general. I mean, after “please” she gets what she wants, so why would she say anything else? What is she, stupid? But lately she is the QUEEN of thank you. Pretty much any time I hand her anything, or any time she hands me anything, I get a “nak kewww,” mostly unprompted. If she’s really gratitudinous, she might repeat herself and do a little skippy dance at the same time. I gotta try and catch it on video, because it’s pretty cute.

2. Just this evening, the Hatchling added a brand new word to the inventory: “crazy.” Which she uses in the manner of “crazy-cool” or “wild” or “totally awesome.” She was already saying “wow, cool” when, for example, she gets a present, but now she REALLY sounds like a little surfer. She was playing with her wooden blocks this evening and every time she stacked one on top of the other, she’d say “wah, kewl” or “kazeee” to herself. She stretches out the syllables, like she’s just had a really good bong hit. Next week I’m teaching her how to say “dude.”

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Random Tidbits on a Tuesday

Posted on March 26, 2008 | Comments Off on Random Tidbits on a Tuesday

1. Is there anything more annoying when you’re trying to write than having Microsoft Word repeatedly shut down on you FOR NO REASON? I hate you, Bill Gates.

2. I came *this* close to actually calling in and voting for an American Idol tonight. Does this mean I’m having a midlife crisis, or is it just continuing evidence that I’m a pop-culture slut? Discuss.

3. Yesterday, I was changing the Hatchling’s diaper and when I opened it up, I said “Oh, poop!” because I enjoy stating the obvious like that, and then the Hatchling looked at me and said, very seriously, “Stinky.” Her first time using the word. And yes. Yes, it was.

4. Speaking of which, you know how kids of a certain age get very interested in … um … exploring their nether regions? Like, especially when you’re changing their diapers? The Hatchling is no exception, and I realized recently that whenever she reaches down there before I’m done, uh, sterilizing the area, I say something like “no, no, don’t touch; dirty” which HELLO! What kind of message is that to send your daughter about her cooter? We’re all about vulvular love in this household. (I soooo need a T-shirt with that on it.) So now I’m trying to say something like “Wait a minute, honey, mommy has to finish wiping first.” You can add this to the ever-lengthening list of things I never thought I’d invest so much time thinking about, before I had a kid.

5. Raise your hand if you’re suffering from election-fatigue. I thought so. Please can primary season be over now? And please can Hillary wake up and smell the delegate counts? I *voted* for the woman, and I’d still love it if she could get the nomination, BUT SHE CAN’T. I’m sad about this, but I’m even sadder to see the increasingly desperate tactics of her campaign. Although I must say, Chelsea still rocks.

6. This post is crazy-good.

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Posted in parenting highlights, random tidbits

My sentiments exactly

Posted on March 11, 2008 | Comments Off on My sentiments exactly

This afternoon, I walked into the living room after clearing out the dishwasher to find the Hatchling sitting on the sofa, with a baby doll in one hand and Grover monster in the other, staring at nothing, and repeating “Blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah.”

That is all.

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Now I’m sick. OF MYSELF.

Posted on March 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Now I’m sick. OF MYSELF.

The mucous continues, and I woke up this morning with a sore throat, so that’s just fucking awesome. Man, it has been negativity central around here lately, hasn’t it? I’m not usually so morose. Part of it is the stupid Minnesota winter: right about now is the point when I would give my right arm to be living somewhere south-er and east-er. The cold and snow seem never-ending. My internal clock tells me it’s time to start prepping my gardens, but of course in this stupid zone you can’t plant anything until May. So, yeah: cabin fever, spring fever, and a baby with an actual fever. Not exactly the recipe for spiritual exuberance.

But, like the song says, you gotta ac-cen-tu-ate the positive. So here’s some positive stuff:

1. When you say “I love you” to the Hatchling, she now responds “Wuv ooo.”
2. Project Runway finale is tonight!! I’ll be happy as long as Rami doesn’t win.
3. I saw Definitely, Maybe the other day and it was so. totally. cute. Way better than I thought it would be.
4. The Hatchling and I both got cute shoes from Zappos today.
5. Those new jeans at Lane Bryant? ROCK MY WORLD. It was such a surreal experience to try on a pair of jeans that actually fit my body, right off the rack! No hemming, no tapering, no darting, no nothing. Just a great fit. I have some problems with LB (namely the absurd prices they charge for cheaply made clothes) but these jeans are well worth the $40 I spent on them.

OK, time for Project Runway. Go Christian and Gillian!

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Random Tidbits

Posted on February 26, 2008 | Comments Off on Random Tidbits

I got nothin’. The sickness is past, thank goodness, and we are back to being rascally toddlers again. I’m trying to get some writing done. Emphasis on “trying.” I enjoyed the Oscars. Aaaaaand … yeah. That’s all I got. But here, watch this:

And then you might want to get one of these.

Also, Emma Thompson is such a fucking GODDESS.

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Posted in politics, Pop Culture, random tidbits, weighty matters