Glossolaliac

Health care hackles

Glossolaliac — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:10:45 -0800

Stupid health care bill. The perfect is the enemy of the good, sure, but shouldn't it win out over the fair to middling? Or is any bill better than no bill at all?

Here is where I'm supposed to get all high and mighty about how reproductive health care is health care and how, last I checked, abortions were still legal, and how retarded it is to deny funding for a safe and legal health care procedure. Oh wait, somebody already did that for me.

In fact, in lieu of ranting, late to the game as I am, I'll just link. So here are six other things wrong wrong wrong with the House version (although it makes me puke just a little bit to be agreeing with Dennis Kucinich).

Sure there's the Senate version left to pass, and then conference, and the Big O said Stupak was stupid and to strip that anti-abortion amendment out of the bill. But. What a way to kill it, dontcha think? What a way to divide.

And now I have that Schoolhouse Rock jingle in my head.

What's good is that medicaid is expanded, what's bad is that so is the existing private insurance company monopoly, and I doubt very much that they'll either lower costs or improve service.

What might have been a better idea would be to enact universal health care, a single payer system, for children. Expand the SCHIP program to cover all kids, and I do mean all kids, and use that as a stepping stone to universal coverage for all. Its hard to argue against health care for kids, the administration of the program already exists and people already like it, and it would be easier to tweak an existing program than to start from scratch. That way more families (read: voters) would gain experience with "government-run" health care and could decide whether they would want a similarly streamlined system for themselves. Just a thought. And, of course it's too late now.

So, is any healthcare bill better than none? And will what comes out of this process be any better for you than sausage?

I'm just not sure.

There can be only one

Glossolaliac — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:06:16 -0800

Because hubs, he's part Scottish, get it?

I had a full on bawling breakdown the other day about (now say this in dramatic teary-eyed bawly face) only having one baby and if so then I have to really cherish the time because she's never going to be this way again and it so so special and bwaaaaaaaaaaah.

At which point my husband looked at me and said, "You're ridiculous."

Yeah, ok. This, by the way, is after my last post about having only one baby and after five (maybe six) googled pages worth of "only child" reading (my god, you'd be amazed) and after getting over the choke of actually (for once) agreeing with the Wall Street Journal (that never happens) and after feeling somewhat relieved that one super cool house with not so many (not enough) bedrooms was off the market and so on and so on. After all that (because of all that) I had a total breakdown.

And my husband said, "Seriously. Our baby is five months old. Calm the fuck down."

But it's really quite emotional. At least I'm totally emotional over it. So after my full fledged and completely irrational freak out, hubs managed to talk me down to a more reasonable level, and here's what we've decided: factors lean toward only having one, but we're not going to rule out another one just yet. In Magic 8 Ball speak, "Ask Again Later." Which means I'm keeping some of the stuff (clothes, toys, things) but I'll also give at least some of it away as time goes on.

Which means that my offer still stands: the next one of my friends to get pregnant gets the goods.

Level 5 love

Glossolaliac — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:38:31 -0800

When I was pregnant, one of my friends (who has two kids) kept saying that "the love you feel is so great..."

And I thought, whatever, yeah, I get it.

But now I get it.

The love is so strong, so overpowering, so intense, so incredible. The love for this child is love like I have never known love before, love in its ineffable, unspoiled, ideal form. Love that wraps around you and fills you and warms you and makes you so much more than you thought you could be. So much love you can't hold it, you can't contain it, you can't describe it, you could get lost in it. Love so strong.

It is truly beautiful. Honestly amazing.

Shameless plug #2

Glossolaliac — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:42:31 -0800

My friend's new company, Mindbloom, just launched.

You should check it out, it's all positive thinky without being overly cheesey. Living intentionally, that sort of thing. Their site is super fun to play with, so go, you, be an early adopter and make pretty pictures of what your world could be.

Sleep super

Glossolaliac — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:45:48 -0800

A strange thing happened last night. Baby girl, she slept. For eight hours. STRAIGHT. Then she woke up, and I fed her, and she slept for four more hours.

Oh. My. God.

Maybe it was a fluke. The test is whether she'll do it again. But here's the thing - we put her in her crib. And she slept. So maybe it wasn't her keeping me awake but just the opposite - maybe I was keeping her up all these many nights. Because I smell so milky and good, no doubt (maybe it's like trying to sleep next to a constantly cooking pan full of bacon? The food smell just keeps you up?).

Anyway, now that she can handle going to sleep by herself at night, I had this crazy idea that maybe I could get her to nap in her crib, but first I should get her used to the idea of sleeping in her crib by, you know, putting her to sleep in her crib. Crazy. So we did just that. And she slept. A lot. Without waking up. All night.

Me, I only checked on her three times to make sure she was still breathing and there and ok and safe and I only got slightly distraught by the notion that she was totally fine sleeping by herself and not with me. It's hard to be proud of your kid when they show they don't need you as much anymore. I might have cried.

Five months old. My baby girl is growing up.

Only child

Glossolaliac — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:25:45 -0800

So we're thinking about only having one kid.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we just had the first one. Why on earth would I already be thinking about a second (or not)? Well, here's the thing - if you want them to be two years apart, you have to get pregnant when the first is only one. Which sounds like a good idea when you're 12 and planning your family via M.A.S.H. games and diary doodles but is less appealing when you're rolling over to breastfeed for the fourth time in the middle of the night. Two kids means double the diapers and half the sleep. It also means postponing or not doing some pricey things like travel or private school or super pretty anniversary necklaces (hint).

Or, if, as in my family, there's some weird thing that makes the ladies only able to get pregnant five or six years apart, well then the kids surely can't share a bedroom.

Bedrooms is really what it comes down to. We're looking at houses, and the question is how many bedrooms. Which my rich and swirling brain has twisted into a question about how many kids. Because I'm psycho like that.

So. In honor of what might possibly be just the one, here's this:

Awkward

Glossolaliac — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:58:00 -0800

Awkward. Like this.

My child is air humping. Like air guitar, only without the guitar, and with humping.

Hubs says, no, it's just something babies do. It is, of course, clear that it can't possibly be sexual because, y'know, she's five months old. But when she's grunting like Monica Seles and furiously throwing her little hips into the air, it looks like, well, air humping. She already earned me a quizzical and slightly WTF look from one of the moms in the mom group. God forbid she be wrapped around an arm or stuck on a nipple when this happens, because then it's mom humping (mumping?) which is all cross-Oedipal or lez-Electracal or some fucked up kinda Freudian and is totally, totally awkward.

We're just going to assume it's a stage.

Cut, paste, publish

Glossolaliac — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:32:43 -0800

Here's a thing I don't like: people who write the same book over and over.

Talking to you, Dan Brown. Da Vinci Code = Angels and Demons = isn't there a new one?

You know who didn't do that, despite the fact that they totally could have and we probably wouldn't have cared? Ian Fleming. Or John LeCarre. Shit, even Tom Clancy and John Grisham switched it up a little bit.

So we expect this from spy novels, supermarket paperbacks, and Dan Brown.

But it pisses me off from someone who calls herself a scientist. Ahem, Alison Gopnik. I bought your second book, The Philosophical Baby, because I liked your first book, The Scientist in the Crib, except your second book is exactly like your first book, only you've stripped the other two authors of any credit. And that makes me like your second book not at all.

I don't have a boatload of time on my hands to read, lady. This is not a cool trick. I paid money for this shit, hardback even, and all I got was something I already read.

Lame.

Hallo, weenie

Glossolaliac — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:27:15 -0700

"Because I am a grown-up," she said, stealing the line. "The answer to why I don't dress up for Halloween, as well as other decision-based questions like why did you stay up so late and why did you buy those expensive shoes."

Hat tip to Holly, who made me laugh out loud with that one.

And it's mostly true.

I hate Halloween. I hate dressing up, I hate spending money on a stupid costume that you only wear once, I hate that ordinary girls get all excited to go slutastic, I hate the judgment that is invited by whether your costume is pop cultural or intellectual or clever or bought or made. I don't want to be someone or something else.

I don't even particularly like the candy. Jesus people, you're already fat, diabetic, do we really need a nationally sanctioned day of sugar?

No. It sucks. It's stupid. I hate it.

And it just kills me that despite all that, baby girl in a velour pumpkin tracksuit is simply the cutest of cuteness.

For the sake of the children, I'll have to succumb.

Meditate

Glossolaliac — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:34:20 -0700

Seeing it for the first time through baby's new eyes really makes me appreciate just sitting in the backyard, listening to the wind, watching the grass ripple.