To Blog, or Not to Blog?

I really want to blog, but I feel like I can't blog until I get photos uploaded and I can't do that until I get a memory card adapter for our camera cause it will no longer connect to our computer. Plus, I have sooooo much reading to do. So, for now...I am just complaining. I will blog as a reward after I speak to my professor about my reading I'm supposed to be doing. That happens on Thursday. That will be my reward.

Gus and his Train

A while back I picked up a Thomas the Tank Engine tent/playhouse for Gus (on sale, cheap!). I put it away for a month or so, because he got an Elmo doll that day and I don't like to give him more than one new toy at a time. Gus doesn't watch the Thomas cartoons, but he loves trains - he's been riding them at the zoo ever since we moved to PDX! It's now his favorite toy - and he makes good use of it. Luckily, it folds up and stores...and we put Thomas to bed at night.

Chasing Squirrels & Birds

Off to catch a squirrel!

Signing "bird"

Signing "squirrel"

Waiting for the Squirrel to arrive

More signing "squirrel" so Dad knows what's up in that tree...

Gus shines on our recent warm, sunny day...

Babies, Government, and Thomas the Train

Today I held a six-month-old baby who was about the be taken from her drug abusing mother. She was teething. And she was smart and beautiful and sweet. Intensely sad. I sat with her and her two older sisters for an hour while "official people" decided what to do with them. Kinda not what I expected to be doing and it bummed me out. My mentee was bummed too. The sisters are her best friends. What can you say to kids who've spent months and years in CPS holding facilities and foster care? Just give them hope that it can be different, I guess. After they left my mentee asked me if it was usually dark or light in our house. Her mom sleeps a lot during the day. I told her we always open the blinds and have white Christmas lights hanging so our house is bright and warm. She wants to visit. At home I cuddled my boy all I could to ease the cracked feeling in my heart. I can't for the life of me understand putting anything before your child, and I don't get the appeal of drugs. Gus helped me vacuum and do a load of laundry, then we broke out his Thomas the Tank Engine playhouse tent thingy that I have been saving for the right occasion. He played in it all night, tired himself out, showed it to his daddy when the father figure came home early from rehearsal, then passed out. Good way to end the night. I want us to be a foster family when Gus is older.

Love, Life, & other quirks

After several months' hiatus, I have decided to try to blog again. so, here are some updates... I am spending some time today looking for other mommy bloggers, working to connect with other women in the Portland area with whom I share common interests and activties...not the easiest thing in absence of common gathering places like churches, workplaces, etc. I am enjoying the women I have met at my mentoring sessions and in playgroups and such, but I am still trying to find my "community" here in PDX. I am confident that will happen soon...no rush, but as is the case with most things, it won't happen unless I take some initiatve. I am also tending a sweet, needy cold-having little guy. At 17 months, Gus is doing fabulously well, but he does get little colds more frequently than I would like. Guess having a toddler is like that. Poor little dude. He doesn't seem to mind, though. Speaking of Gus, well, I could fill pages about Gus. He is talking a lot - mostly unintelligle babble, but several words are consistent. More importantly, he signs a LOT. He signs for almost everything he wants and for all of his favorite things - which are animals. We learn an average of two new signs a day, mostly from http://www.lifeprint.com/. He's a big reader and he likes to watch a couple of videos. He plays with his blocks, his shape sorter, his stuffed animals his Dora chairs, his keyboard, and the pets. And us. I think we are his favorite toys, actually. We play bouncing games 10-20 times a day, and dance all the time. He is obssessed with his ABC's also. And the itsy bitsy spider. I am working on the second or three sections of my comprehensive exams for my MA in American Studies. I took forever to do the first section on Race, Ethnicity and Class Formation - knowing I had to continue through this semester anyway (one semester was not enough time - according to my advisor - who was right! - and one of my committee was on sabbatacal), my procrastination drive kicked in early last semseter and told me to take my time and then rush through these last two sections! That's how I roll! So, now I am working on the Expressive Forms section, which I will be able to finish super fast - cause it's my favorite - about how literature, film, fashion, body image, etc. represent and influence American Culture and various subcultures within it. I will be done with this section at teh end of FEB, then on to Gender and Sexuality - which is my 2nd favorite topic and one I have lots of experience researching and writing about. I will have two months to work through that, then I will be taking my exams the first 4 weekdays in May. Woo hoo!