Happy happy birthday birthday!

Today is a special day for *two* people in our family...Uncle Bobby and Aunt Becky; both of them are having their birthdays today! Woohoo! Happy birthday you two, our family is richer for you being a part of it!!

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip.

Happy Birthday!!

To Gramps the Great!

Today's the 81st anniversary of Gramps the great being born and we're so glad he's here!

Have a fabulous day and eat lots of cake!!

Love you!

But, he's so polite!

Gabe sees a counselor on Thursdays; Dr. B. She's awesome and we love her (and more importantly, Gabe loves her) today she had an assistant to help with scheduling, etc. She's actually the receptionist/medical assistant from the pediatrician's office downstairs. She was polite and kind and chatted away...until she flung the "r" word out.

The "R" word, is, of course, retard. She said "oh I am so retarded. ah ha ha ha"

I looked at her and politely said "I would really prefer if you didn't say that word."

She said "Um, ok, I didn't mean anything by it, I meant I was being stupid"

My response "And being stupid and being retarded are NOT interchangeable So if you want to say that you're being stupid, just say so. "

She said "I don't know why it bothers you so much"

"Because my son is retarded"

"no he's not" she said

"Yes", I replied, "he is. He is physically retarded"

to which she said "no. no he's not. he's so...polite. there's no way he's retarded"

(at this point I was steaming mad...)

I said, softly, politely-if you will-"Gabe has a hole in his spine as well as other related problems, so yes, he is retarded. Just because he has a physical disability, does NOT mean that he can't have manners"

And at that point, I thought it would stop, but it didn't

She said to me "well, I'm sorry but he's too polite to be that way and I still don't understand why I shouldn't say the word. Besides my nephew is...he's 'like that' and he's fine. He doesn't care if I say it"

I nodded and smiled and the doctor called her away.

A few minutes later, I could tell she was still flustered, whathaveyou so I said as she was leaving, to show that I wasn't angry at her (because I wasn't, more annoyed than anything else) "Have a safe trip home, it's getting icky out there"

She stopped and said thank you and said "you know, my nephew and your son are both really polite, and I don't think of them as having any problems. I just don't. My nephew is really eager to please and I love him"


It's fine that her nephew doesn't care about the word retard being tossed around so cavalierly, that's his choice, but I prefer not to hear it because retard does NOT mean stupid and it's insulting to those who are retarded to have the word stupid equated with them.

After she left, I was still so annoyed that I spoke to the doctor she worked for; the doctor was less than impressed and promised me it would be taken care of. She looked horrified (particularly since she works primarily with children who have Autism and other disabilities) and I'm glad. It's NOT okay to use that word, especially when you're in the position to be dealing with patients day in and day out-of all the people that I've ever encountered, I wouldn't have guessed in a million years a medical "professional" would have used such a derogatory comment-especially while in a medical facility!

I'm just so thankful that Gabriel didn't hear her trying to justify her use of the word, I don't want to have that conversation with him yet. He's too little and doesn't need to know that people out there think less of him and others with disabilities as lesser people, as people whose feelings do not matter. I will protect him as long as I can from the hurtful ignorance of other people...you can count on that.

I love you so much, I could just explode

Today was a fabulous day for Bitsy. She woke up full of excitement at 6:45 (even before Gabe!) because story time at the library started today. She was nervous and excited and couldn't WAIT to go. For a few days before story time, she asked me "do you think there will be girls there?" "what do you think we're going to read about? I hope it's bears" "are you going to go with me?" and so on and so forth.

After getting herself dressed and having her hair done, she looked at me in my black t shirt and pants and said "um Mom, are you really gonna wear all black? can you put on some make up too?" So being the good momma I am, I changed and put on some make up and off we went to story time.

Imagine Bitsy's surprise when she walked in and found her name on a nametag shaped like...a POLAR BEAR (her current favorite bear) and then she got into line with a little girl who is going to be starting kinder at her school in the fall...and then they read a book about polar bears, had a snowball fight with plastic bag snowballs, and best of all, made a polar bear picture to bring home.

Oh this child was on cloud nine! Bears and little girls and more bears oh my.

But the day was just starting for Miss Bits-a-roo! She had her first dance class of the session too! More little girls and pirouettes and tutus! Oh my!

She was so worn out that she slept the whole way home...and woke up to make some fresh squeezed orange juice with me-her day just kept getting better. As she was squeezing the oranges she said "oh momma, this is so much better than what comes from a factory" (she's so right) and a little bit later, she put her arm around me and said "oh Momma, I just love you so much, I could, I could, I could just EXPLODE" and then gave me a squeeze and a happy sigh.

What a good day to be Bitsy!

Kids and Animals

As most of you know, we have two cats. Ding and Dong. No no, Boni and Bam :) Two furbabies; we've had Boni cat for three years, he's a rescued shelter cat and we've had Bam since August-a friend of ours had a cat who had kittens and we decided to take one. They bring so much pleasure to our family. Yes, they annoy us, but they also make us very happy. More than making Geo and I happy, they really make the kids happy. There's never a time when there isn't a cat curled up with one of the kiddos when they're in bed. If you're sick, there's a cat nearby to purr in your ear. If you're having a snack, you guessed it, there's a kitty.

Having cats has taught the kids responsibility; they have to make sure the cats have food and water every day. They have to make sure they aren't locked in a room or a closet (which has happened before, whoops) and they brush the cats to keep them clean and lookin' good.

I grew up with pets, Geo grew up with a dog. We both loved having pets as kids and we love being able to share that with the kids. So a few weeks ago, we decided since we all love the cats so much, how about adding a few more pets to the family? This weekend, we'll be getting two little guys called Degu's. They look like a giant gerbil; they're similar to chinchillas and prairedogs (which is a weird combo, but they're sooooo cute) they're highly intelligent, they adjust to your schedule (rather than being up all night like other rodents) and they can be trained to do tricks. We went this week to play with some at the pet store and make sure they'd be the right animals to add to our family and they definitely are. They don't bite and are really social. The one I was holding kept checking my face out, trying to see what I looked like. All of us are super excited to bring them home this weekend and you can expect to see pictures in the near future.

Do you have pets? Did you have pets growing up?

Bitsy Bitsy Bitsy aka: damn you albuterol

Miss Bits-a-roo is prone to wheezing when she gets sick; it comes with the allergies she has. Since she was little when she gets a chest cold, she wheezes. The last few times it's been so bad that the doc has prescribed an inhaler for her. Earlier this week I took her into the ped's office because she was coughing so hard she was losing her breath; come to find out it was a sinus infection and an ear infection and her chest was so tight she wasn't breathing properly.

In the scheme of things, no biggie. Hooray antibiotics...and the dreaded albuterol. Albuterol is an inhaled steroid and while it works wonders, it riles her up like nobodies' business. For the last two hours I've been trying to calm her down. She gets so wound up that she will click her tongue over and over, she's hop in place, she'll yodel, she spin. It's ridiculous. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if it wasn't at bedtime when this happened, but jeez oh pete. On the plus side she will crash hard when the effects finally wear off.

Oy...

Tell The Truth Tuesday: I Hate Baby Talk

Unless babies are the ones doing it.

A few weeks ago, Katie and I went to have dinner together; while in the ladies room, I saw a disturbing thing. There was a woman holding a little one (maybe 9 months old or so) and another woman standing next to her. The woman said to the mother of the child "Oh! I just love her hat, it's so cute" (it was, it was a cat) The woman holding the baby said to the other woman "oh thank you! her just loves her kitties. yes she do. her loves her kitties!"

To be clear, the baby talking woman was NOT speaking to her child but to another fully grown adult. Her just loves her kitties. yes she do. her loves her kitties Seriously? No, really. Seriously?

The woman who gave the compliment looked a little bit stunned and said "um, ok" and walked out of the ladies room with a rather perplexed look on her face as if she wasn't quite sure what happened there...

Now, it's a well known fact that when I come across a baby, I act like an idiot. New Years Eve for example, I was playing with my little boyfriend Logan. I would hold him up high in the air and say "super baby!" and then bring back down and say "I'll take the soup" and he would giggle like crazy. Talking like an idiot to a baby and talking like a baby to an adult are two different things. Can you imagine if I would have just said to you.

"Her was just playin with the baybee, yes her was. Her just lovessss her Logan. Her Logan is a super baby, oh yes he is. He a super duper baybee, yes he is. yes he is"

I'm pretty sure you'd smack me. Hell, I'd smack me if I spoke like that. So yes, the truth is, I hate baby talking adults. I understand that some times you've been with your children so long you speak to others like they're children, but for the love of Gob stopping speaking in baby talk...to EVERYONE. Even your baby. Babies aren't morons, you can speak to them like they're people since...*gasp* they are.

Now if you need me, her will be drinking her diet coke. Oh yes her will. Her just loves her diet cokes, doesn't her? *smack*