Randomness

1. I still have not had GatorMan change my heading yet.... but it will happen. Hopefully soon. We are just too exhausted every day when we get home. And, for my day job, I am on the computer all day.... the last thing I want to do is be on it at home.

2. Ukulele is almost sitting by herself now! When her back gets tired, she'll do that "slow-motion-forward-fall" that is just so adorable. Also, she is rolling EVERYWHERE. If I turn my back, she's gone. I can usually find her sucking on the leg of the coffee table, or pulling the dog's ears. She's also rolling over in the middle of the night. Scares the crap out of me. But, from what I understand, if she can roll over, and then roll back the other way, she's fine. Still scares me though.

3. I bought her halloween costume. She's going to be a lobster. Too flippin' cute! We thought it was appropriate since we live on the ocean. I guess GatorMan and I will be fishermen.

4. Tomorrow pre-season starts for the Dallas Cowboys... FINALLY! Ukulele's Cowboy onesie is all ready to go!

5. Ukulele is growing like a weed. She got her final shot in her shot series today (we have them split up) and the nurse weighed her..... at almost 8 months she is weighing 20 lbs 4 ounces! Yikes! And she is now in 9-12 month clothes. Speaking of, where can we find one-piece-footie-pajamas for a 12 month old? I can find 9 months and under everywhere - but no 12 month old. With her rolling over in her crib, I do not want a 2-piece pajama that she can potentially get tangled up in.

6. GatorMan's cousin is living with us now. So far everything is going well. Hope it stays that way!

7. Ukulele's one year birthday is coming up.... I need to start planning a party for her. We are going to have it the weekend before her actual birthday. The weekend after her birthday is just too close to Christmas... and in the south, everyone throws Christmas parties. I do not want her to get lost in that jumble.

8. And after Ukulele turns one, we are getting back on the adoption list. :)

New Blog Name Winner!

First of all, thank you to all who submitted recommendations. Everyone is so much more creative than I am, and I really appreciate all of your input!

And without further ado.....

Congrats to Murgdan for inspiring a new blog name. She recommended a blog name based on an article she included a link to. I read the article, and it was great. Basically, it said that when you are down you can pick up a ukulele to put yourself in a better mood.

How true is that?!?!

So, although I am not using her proposed blog name verbatim, it did inspire my new one:

When You're Down, Pick Up Your Ukulele

I know it works for me. Every. Single. Time. :)

So Murgdan, I will be contacting you regarding the details on your new kitsch!

(*Also, my title bar will change as soon as I convince GatorMan to help me with it!!!)

New Blog Name Contest

GatorMan eloquently pointed out to me a few weeks ago that I should consider changing the blog name. We are no longer "waiting" on our Ukulele ~ she's here in full swing.

So, I'm asking for help. I need a new blog name. I'd like to keep "Ukulele" in it. And if it helps, I know that we are going to start the adoption process again after Ukulele turns 1. So, I was thinking something along the lines of a band of ukuleles . . . or something. I don't know. I'm at a loss. Help.

And to entice some entries, I'll send the person submitting the winning name a hula girl. Miniature, of course. The kind for your car. Or desk. It's probably illegal to actually "send" a live hula girl. Even if it was legal, I could not afford to ship her from Hawaii. I'll keep the contest open for one week. The winning blog name will be announced on Thursday, August 6. Thanks!

Monster in the Closet

Ok, here is my second attempt at this post.....

The other night I was putting Ukulele to bed. She usually goes down pretty easily and falls asleep on her own. As this was happening, I started to wonder how long it would be before she became of afraid of being along.... afraid of "monsters in the closet." That led to the pondering of what causes those fears. Is it movies? Is it books? Who knows? I, in my infinite-new-parent-wisdom, have decided it is movies AND books. Therefore, GatorMan and I have agreed to go through her books (and yes, she does have some movies already - start handing out the parent-of-the-year awards to us!) and weed out the ones that have scary monsters or bad people in them. That should be pretty easy. Movies, on the other hand, are going to be a little trickier.

I started thinking of all the Dis.ney and Pix.ar movies we have (hand-me-downs, by the way!), and what type of character are in them. I have to tell you that I am hard-pressed to find a Dis.ney movie that does not have some sort of villian or monster in it. Even Bam.bi - poor thing gets to watch his mother get blasted away! Beautiful Ariel from Litt.le Merm.aid?.... Ursu.la scares ME - can only imagine what she would do to a toddler! And Pix.ar. While I lovelovelove this movie company for their secretly hidden adult humor, their movies are totally inappropriate for my purposes at the present time.

There are some videos that I think are acceptable so far.... such as Ba.by Eins.tein, Le.ap Fr.og learning, and Veg.gie Ta.les. Does anyone have any other suggestions???

As a side note, GatorMan and I bought a Class.ic Cart.oon dvd a couple of years ago. I watched some of it last night.... and holy crap! Talk about politically incorrect and violent! I do not remember cartoons being so bad as a child.... but apparently they were! Sheesh.

Hate Blo.gger

I had an entire post entitled "Monsters in the Closet" written and almost ready to post. I went to change one single line before I posted, and Blo.gger deleted half of the entire post. I hate Blo.gger.

I'll try to recreate the post later. Right now I am too mad at this program to monkey with it anymore today!

Lunchtime Discussion on Gender Change

Today I was having lunch with two of my girlfriends. We got into a discussion about Chast.ity "Ch.az" Bo.no and her sex change. I commented that the press is taking great care in addressing her as a "him" now. First of all, let me tell you that I have no problem whatsoever with someone choosing to have a sex change. Totally up to him or her.

But here's my problem with the whole situation. The way the media treats it.

"Huh?" you ask. If you notice, almost every news/media outlet will address her as a "him" now. Almost every single one. However, how do they address the children of Angel.ina Jol.ie, Nic.ole Kid.man, or any other adoptive mother? They differentiate the children. They will say so-and-so gave birth to _____ and she has x-number of adopted children. The adopted children are always listed as such.

Are adopted children so taboo with the press that they have to distinguish them from their siblings?

*** As a side note, Production, Not Reproduction had one of her blog posts published in this months Adopt.ive Fam.ilies. Also, there was a letter to the editor by another adoptive parent who was just as peeved with Hugg.ies as I was!

I'm Still Here

Sorry that I have been absent from the blogging world for awhile. I've actually been lurking quite a bit. There's just a LOT going on in my life right now, and sadly it has impacted my time to blog. I hope that situation is rectified soon.

I want to give a quick shout-out to my new blog friend who just moved here. It was great hanging out with you and I hope we can do it again SOON!