2009

'Nuff Said.

Wiggles Part 2

Thanks to Whacked Daddy, my New Year's Eve post has been delayed.  He pointed me to this YouTube video.  It's Anthony of the Wiggles, my secret reward for being a father.  Don't bother to turn up the sound it really doesn't matter what they're talking about.  Just revel in his dreaminess.... Sigh.

But It's Still Sacred, Right?

Just in time for Christmas Karl Rove, the hypocritical asshole Senior Republican Advisor who engineered W's re-election strategy of mobilizing the Christian right against such issues as gay marriage and abortion, has been granted a divorce from his second wife Darby.  (Darby sounds like a name for a racehorse, but in a party filled with Tripps, Mitts, and Saxbys, well it kinda fits.  Still, Republican women love those out of date clothes with big fabric flowers on them so I bet she looks like she crossed the finish line first.)  "Karlby" were married for 24 years, a record in Republican political circles.  However, they apparently spent Christmas together (for the sake of the children I'm sure) and lying sack of shit spokesperson Dana Perino said "They maintain a strong friendship, and they both feel that that friendship is a source of comfort and inspiration for their friends and family".  Aww, how cute.  I often look at two people who can't stand each other and think Wow, how inspiring!  I'm having a crappy day, but I take comfort in the fact that Karlby are such great friends.  In a break from GOP tradition, Karl did not leave his wife for another man.

Now I may be wrong, but when you've carried the torch for Jesus and told the sheep faithful that you were doing everything in your power to protect marriage from the godless homosexuals, it seems to me that divorce would be unthinkable.  I mean, he's wrecked two marriages now.  That's two more than I've trashed.  How do you get to use the argument that two men or two women cannot get married because they'd ruin it after you've failed twice?  Or even once for that matter?  None of this will matter a bit to the culture warriors bent on keeping gay people as subclass citizens.  I don't hear any mega church preachers calling for them to reconsider, offer counseling, or even trashing them in the media for destroying a sacred institution.  Nope.  I guess it's OK as long as you're not gay, but we already knew that.  Is that hypocritical?  In the words of another great genius of our time...

You Betcha!
*wink*

Babe in Toyland

Well Santa made his first trip to our house last night, and by the look of things he had no trouble finding the place.  Sabrina made a pretty good haul between the things we got her and the loot she accumulated from her grandparents and her aunts and uncles.  I think the best gift was a big wooden toybox my father made for her.  It's beautiful, has lots of room, will last forever, and unlike everything else she got, requires no batteries and makes absolutely NO noise at all.  The rest of the stuff (except for the clothes) all makes loud musical flourishes and nonsense sounds.  Things without speakers can be pounded against the floor quite effectively for ear blasting sounds.  Most of it had to be put together of course.  I'll leave you with pictures of our day while I try to find Tab A to insert in Slot B...

This stuff is for me?

Rip, then tear, then rip, then tear

Chase, you can have this one.

Let's all open this one.

Christmas night, helping Daddy put stuff together.

The Child is Nestled Snug in Her Bed

Mmm, Cheese!

Cheese...you are what you eat!

Well my Christmas Eve plans didn't come to pass.  I wanted the perfect night; Sabrina on my lap as we sit by the stockings hung over the fireplace with hot cocoa while Gregg reads us The Night Before Christmas and carols play.  Sabrina had other plans.  She only took one nap today, then went out with Papa to Costco and who knows where else shopping while I stayed home and cleaned the house.  When they got home, I fed her a meal and then she was still in the mood to play and way too wound up for sleep.  So we played for a while, then I could sense the tired mood coming on.  However, it was already 6:30 and there was no way I was putting her in for a nap now.  So off to the tub, where she decided tonight was kick and splash most of the water on to Daddy night.  Fought for 20 minutes to get the Christmas Eve pajamas on, then on to a bottle.  After the bottle...zonk.  Out cold.  Oh well, it was almost 8 anyway, so down she went.  I have a feeling early to sleep Christmas Eve's are something that I should enjoy while I can!  Gregg and I will have some wine and finish up our Christmas preparations, and in the morning I'll post pictures of our first Christmas together.  I hope you're all enjoying your night!  Happy Christmas!

Watch It Wiggle

I've recently discovered one of the hidden benefits of fatherhood.  The Sprout Channel.  It's geared to younger children with shows I like, like The Goodnight Show, The Sharing Show, and The Sunnyside Up Show.  Educational, fun, and Sabrina loves it.

They also show The Wiggles.  It plays in the background while I do her hair or make breakfast.  Until  I took a closer look at the "Blue" Wiggle, Anthony. 

I sat down to get a better look.  He's captivating.  That smile just lights up his face.  Great cheekbones and whoa--he's Australian?  Australian men are very sexy.  The way he moves while he's dancing...I'm hooked.  I find myself watching the clock in the morning, waiting for Wiggle Time.  Sabrina had to learn to give herself a bottle because my attention was on Anthony and his dance moves.  That Yellow and that Red Wiggle keep trying to upstage him, but they can't hold a candle! 

All of this was fine until today, when I realized my obsession with Anthony was, well creepy.  Here's poor Anthony trying to entertain and educate kids, and me watching him thinking what beautiful music we could make together.  I'm sure he gets tons of fan mail, so I'm not worried he hasn't returned my letters or acknowledged my 1-800-FLOWERS gifts.  But I think it's time to change the channel.  It just seems wrong to be learing at the guy that's making my kid smile.  And so, in a world populated by Purple Dinosaurs and giant 6 foot tall canary birds, the bright spot that was the Blue Wiggle will have to fade away.  I'm sorry Anthony, but it's for the good of the children.

Plus there's always BET and the Wendy Williams Show.  How YOU doin'?

Holly Jolly Update

Well things have been busy, with getting ready for Christmas and all.  We're just starting to see the full brunt of our adoption debt, so it's kind of a tight one but we don't really care.  I'm off from work this week so that means no day care for Sabrina either.  Seems when you're out a whole week you only need to pay them $109 to not show up.  How fantastically festive of them.

We've been trying some more finger foods.  She loves her Baby Mum Mums crackers.  They are a rice rusk cracker that basically disolves in her mouth.  We found some Cheerio type things made of the same stuff.  I guess maybe we're going a little slower then most on this but that's my fault.  I'm so paranoid about choking.  She likes cheese too; we give her small pieces and she eats it right up.  All these new foods have apparently fueled her up because this week she started crawling.  If the last few days are any indication, we better batten down the hatches.  She started by sort of pulling herself along with her hands and dragging her feet behind her.  Now she sort of pulls herself up on her knees in the classic crawl.  I'm not sure how long that will last; I think she'll be standing and walking soon.  She's been pulling herself up to a stand for about three weeks now; I've caught her on her two hands and two feet trying to figure out what to do next more then once.  Her favorite targets so far?  Ripley's feet (he looks at her with a look of annoyance, gets up and moves two feet over.  She crawls over, they repeat this across the room), Chase's nose (he licks her face, she bites his nose--they're both gross), the trash can, and a dining room chair.  Nothing double sided tape won't fix.

Also this week I got my H1N1 shot at work.  I was going to bring Sabrina but they were only doing 3 years and older.  Gregg is mostly opposed to it; I'm for it.  What do you guys think?

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney With Care

Stockings Hung...Check

Train Chugging...Check

Now let's go see some houses with Christmas lights!

Go Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It takes a minute to load, but I think you'll like it!

Elfin' Lights!

A blatantly posed Christmas picture...

Does It EVER End?

Here we are now with a little girl about to turn 8 months old in a few weeks.  And we are still not finished with her adoption!  Our last step is the finalization, which is a court hearing where a judge gives his blessing, signs off on the paperwork, and makes the adoption final.  We were supposed to be in court in California around the beginning of November.  It took 3 weeks for our attorney to get us the paperwork we needed to send to court.  Throw in the Thanksgiving holiday, and now we're in December.  We mailed our forms in; now we need to wait until they come back to see when our hearing will be.  I spoke to our counselor at the IAC and he said that since California is on a budget crunch and only has family court three days a week, the chances of us getting a court date before the end of 2009 are pretty slim.  We'll still get to claim a bunch of adoption expenses on our taxes, but we won't get the full adoption credit until we file our 2010 returns.  Ugh.  Luckily we're independently wealthy and don't care.  We'll have a good laugh about it with Oprah and Bill Gates at our next Billionaire Bowling Club.

For today I'm home with a stuffy and coughy little girl.  I hate hearing her breathe like that over the baby monitor...I hope she gets better soon.  So far no fever, so that's good.  We started decorating for Christmas this weekend and we will get our tree this week so maybe that will help cheer her up.  Just like her dads, she likes twinkling lights!