One

I turn one tomorrow.  It doesn't seem possible to my mommies, but I suppose they just aren't down with the toddlerhood yet.  Rumor has it that even though my birthday is tomorrow, my shindig has to wait until Sunday.  I guess I can handle it as long as momma follows through and actually makes my cake.  I think homemade carrot cake is worth the wait.  I've never had it before, but something inside me says its going to be awesome.  My friend Lily's mom and dad are making a keg of wheat beer for my party.  I don't know what that is either, but I think my mommies were thrilled when they heard.  My other friend Tom's dad is teaching my momma to smoke brisket on Saturday, and I know from experience it will be awesome.  I wonder if momma is going to make some of my favorite pinto beans to...hint hint.

As my mommies have not updated here in ages, I thought I would let you know how much I've been kicking heiny and taking names is the new stuff category.

• I crawl- and not the army crawl I started with, but more of a lightning fast, omgoodness where is he going crawl.
• I can walk when I hold mommy or momma's hands or when I use my cart
• I try to stand up on own and I'm slowly getting better at it.  Momma says what is most important is for me to learn to fall on my heiny.
• I have 6 teeth and choose to sharpen them not where the teething guards are on the crib, but everywhere else.
• I have favorite books.  To let my momma know, I bat at the book I don't like until she picks one of the ones I do.
• I love water.  I love it so much that when I'm not in the bathtub or the kid pool, I'm looking for the next person to take a shower so I can stick my head in.
• I tried cat food for the first time the other day.  Momma swiped it out of my mouth before I had a good opportunity to chew it.  Meanie.

Just like last I broke into my mommies blogger account, I'm supposed to be taking a nap.  I need to go before I'm caught.

Love,

Will

Day 3-Your first love (late)

Day 3-Your first love (late)

My first love, any kind of love, was for books.  I struggled with reading in Kindergarten and half of first grade. Then, a new boy came to school- Joey- who was so advanced in reading he received his own special reading group.  I burned to my innermost core with jealousy and competition.  From that moment on, I picked up every book in my mother's library, the local library, etc.  As home life became rocky, they became my escape.  Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, the Boxcar Children and Louisa May Alcott were the first to empowered me.  Beezus and Romona gave me a picture into average family life.  The Master Puppeteer transported me to a distant land and time while Harriet the Spy and From  the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler sparked a need for adventure. 

In 6th grade I went to an overly strict, evangelistic Christian school with a banned books list.  Guess who made it her mission to read every one of them!

Later in middle school, I discovered Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, and J.D. Salinger.  On the less cerebral front, I got caught up in John Grishim and Michael Crighton novels.  In high school I found Sylvia Path, Kate Chopin, and Virginia Woolf.  I would spend hours on a midnineties gurl site discussing feminist books and trying to discover what else I was missing.

From college until now, my love of books has not waned, but my time to lose myself in them has.  Instead, I'm trying to cause my son to fall in love with books.

I turned 9 months old yesterday!

I turned 9 months old yesterday and all my momma did was post a meme :cp;;;;.  I will be staying up an extra hour and whining just for that!

As my momma was feeding me bananas this morning and my mommy was making funny faces, I was thinking about my favorite foods.  I don't really like the foods momma makes and purees for me- I would rather have the "real food" my momma makes.  I like spaghetti with carrots and cauliflower.  I like roasted turnips with a little red chili.  I like spaghetti squash with red chard and white beans.  Momma and mommy think I'm a pretty weird kid.  They do however totally understand when I want to eat breakfast with them- Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries and mango is THE BEST!

Ohohoh, and I need to tell you about my favorite stuff!  I love love love to hop.  Mommy put up this thing that hangs from a door way.  They put me in it and I can jump and walk- and play with cool toys.  I've also discovered grass.  I like to grab it in fist fulls and act like I'm eating it.  I thought it would have a better effect on momma, but every time I do it, she just tells mommy I'm getting my daily fiber- whatever that means!

I still refuse to crawl.  Crawling isn't for the gilded aristocracy!  Don't they know where I come from?  I don't need to get my toys for myself- I have momma and mommy for that!

Ok, I have to sign off now, I think they snoring moms are waking up.  I would be in SO much trouble if they knew I could type.

Until next time,
Will

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

I've been blogging in some form or another since 1999, first with a good old fashioned html webpage and then with Live.journal.  When we started the TTC process, I did insanely large amounts of research, and much of the research caused me to stumble on blog after blog of wonderful, honest, supportive and informative two mom conception or child rearing blogs.  After taking so much information from these amazing women, I figured I needed to give back my synthesis and execution of said information for others to be able to find and use at will- and the blog was born.  When it came to naming the blog, I came up with a name that basically projects myself onto our future kidlet- horrible I know, but it is what it is.  I have always been a chatty cathy, hence, Girls seeking Gabber.  Now that we have kidlet one, I keep planning to change over to Girls Got Gabber- but we'll be trying for number 2 next year, so...

Day 1- Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

My name is Meredith and I’m feisty, outspoken, and sarcastic.  While I’m a corporate stooge by day, my most important jobs are as fiercely devoted wife to Janet and non birth giving mother grizzly to Will.  While working, I’m also getting my MBA.  I’ve been saying that for several years now, but I keep changing concentrations (now finance) and adding necessary classes.  I adore adore adore business as a whole and its quirks.  I’m the kind of person who walks into any place of business and automatically starts thinking about business strategy, operational costs, etc…  I mentioned being a corporate stooge above- I try to make amends with the universe by being as granola crunchy as possible at home.  We cloth diaper and baby wear.  We try to compost as much as possible, and though lacking a green thumb, participate in a local CSA for organic and as local as possible fruits, vegetables milk, and meats. I over evangelize on all of the above, but luckily my friends still love me!

A Picture (I don't normally let people take pics of me- so I had to dig back to a Mardi Gras parade where others were taking random pics).  Janet (my better half) is the other person waving.

15 interesting facts:

1. I write (as in with a pen or pencil) so rarely I sometimes I forget what my signature looks like.
2. I once competed in the little miss mullet festival pageant.
3. I have been described as having a laptop growing out of my hip.
4. I can stalk anything or anyone across the internet faster than some people blink, I should have been a PI!
5. I’m too lazy to have style- Its easiest to walk in a store, tell them how much I want to spend and how many outfits I want and have them bring stuff to me.
6. That said, I love a bargain. Goodwill, Salvation Army- particularly those near high brow neighborhoods- W00t!
7. I must always live in a house with a front porch.
8. We were late for our son’s birth.
9. I’m that creepy person that randomly smiles at you in the grocery aisle, especially if you are looking down or grimacing.
10. I get excited over nonstandard color schemes for Converse.
11. I was recently introduced to fried pickles and Indian Chinese Food- they are both new addictions.
12. I found out at age 27 I was adopted. Mostly over the issues, but they still come up occasionally- followed by a rant of some sort.
13. Most of my friends in High School lived in a town called Niceville, Florida. Niceville really exists.
14. I recently started running again but am experiencing a whole new set of discomforts. The weirdest and most impactful seems to be arch cramping. Who knew it was possible for an arch to cramp?
15. I knew I was going to marry and make babies with my wife after knowing her for three weeks.

April 30 day blogging challenge

I’ve been such a horrible blogger so I’m going to dive in to the deep end and attempt the April 30 day challenge. I think I copied it from Jen and Tiff, who copied it from someone, who copied it from someone else. (If you know who started it and they want proper credit, let me know!)


The challenge goes like this:

Day 1- (April 1) Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3-Your first love
Day 4-Your parents
Day 5-Your siblings
Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7-Favorite movies
Day 8-A place you’ve traveled to
Day 9-A picture of your friends
Day 10-Something you’re afraid of
Day 11-Favorite TV shows
Day 12-What you believe
Day 13-Goals
Day 14-A picture you love
Day 15-Bible verse
Day 16-Dream house
Day 17-Something you’re looking forward to
Day 18-Something you regret
Day 19-Something you miss
Day 20-Nicknames
Day 21-Picture of yourself
Day 22-Favorite city
Day 23-Favorite vacation
Day 24-Something you’ve learned
Day 25-Favorite memory
Day 26-Picture of your family
Day 27-Pets
Day 28-Something that stresses you out
Day 29-3 Wishes
Day 30-a picture

Adoption Anger

I’m struggling through adoption anger right now. My issue is predominantly around being unable to articulate why I’m so angry.


I’ve been seeing little things that set me off. The most recent was a blog of moms who are angry a birthmother chose to parent her child. Really? Angry that someone who had been moving in sync with a life, attached, inside for 40 weeks had second, third, 500th thoughts?

My anger is fragmented around things like my own situation and how I can’t define my own opinions about whether or not being raised around or by those with my DNA would have mattered. Perhaps that’s it. I no longer know how I feel about nature versus nurture and walk back and forth all the time. The idea of adding to our family not just the modernized old fashioned way, but through adoption is no longer a romantic notion- its one full of research showing how many adoption agencies pray on unsure mothers and use social class as a wedge of coercion.

I want my black and white feelings back. I want to be able to sympathize with blogs of mothers who after years of infertility are going the adoption route. I want to be able to leave supportive comments as they struggle with the process. I want to be excited when I get a call from my wife excitedly sharing that a friend of hers knows of an agency actively placing with lesbian couples. I want to stop hearing my mother say “you would have been aborted”, every time I think of home. I want to stop hearing my mother say “he’s cute, but not as cute as his cousin”, because my son doesn’t look like her family.

Someone please tell me the murkiness and echoes go away.

Great Expectations

Janet and I have been talking a lot lately about our expectations of William as he grows into adulthood. Part of me always feels bad for having expectations. I know intellectually my son is his own being, meant to create his own path and ultimate destination- so perhaps, instead of phrasing them "our expectations of William", I should call them "traits we desperately hope we can impart to him". In that spirit:


Traits we desperately hope we can impart to him

1. Fearlessness- If something scares him, we want him to know how to address the fear, dissect it, and conquer it.

2. Protection- He should have an unshakable sense of right and wrong in the treatment of others. He should stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

3. Respect- He should know how to behave towards others, always keeping the golden rule in mind.

4. Self sufficiency- He should know how to do “stuff” and when he doesn’t, he should know how to locate resources to figure whatever out.