Splitzville

Reasons to Adopt:
You don't have to be pregnant.
You have a choice when it comes to the health of your child.
It is the ultimate low-carbon footprint.
You are helping a woman and a child who are very likely desperate.

Reasons Not to Adopt:
It is very expensive.
It is a lot of red tape, emotional strain, and effort. (Wait, this might go word-for-word in the first list!)
Governments, adoption agencies, and passersby will put you through the wringer, judge you, reject you, and make you feel inadequate.
People you will meet or already know will have issues with the genetics, race, and politics associated with your choice for the rest of your life and your kid's life.

Other thoughts:
I was going to put something about prenatal care concerns under "not to adopt" but then I realized that I still had those as a birth mother. You always wonder if all that coffee and wine you drank as a preggie had some lasting effect on your kid.

Also, I gave up long ago on the good genes/bad genes worries, when I realized that any biological kid of mine is more likely than an adopted kid to have depression, obesity, alcoholism, and myopia in his/her DNA.

I can't help wondering (with great excitement) if the kid we might adopt in the next year or two is alive yet...

Mariposa

Recently picked up Tillie at daycare and she was wearing this butterfly costume:

Ewrphans

I just recently finished a craft I started last fall--three stuffed elephants for Tillie--they are so cute! (I blogged about making them as gifts for kiddos last Christmas--just never got around to finishing the ones I cut out for my own daughter.)

Tillie loves elephants, which she calls "ewrphans." This sounds a lot like orphans, which I've had on my mind lately. I would like to adopt one. If you have any suggestions--like especially if know of someone who is wanting to give up their kid for adoption--please send them my way.

I spoke with a couple of adoption agencies in town and they said they would not accept a couple who is fertile. After much boohooing and feeling how unfair that was, I matured about 20 years (from an emotional age of 2) and realized perhaps being fertile is quite lucky and maybe I should stop my whining. Next realization: there are not enough unwanted infants or desperate pregnant women in America for all the adopting parents out there--this is a good thing. So, this means we will have to go international.

For the first time in my life I wished I knew more pregnant teens and/or unfit/poverty-stricken mothers. Again, please keep an eye out for those for me.

Occupation

Ug, work is painful this month--feels more like a military occupation of my brain and I'm a rebellious local. How does one get a better attitude about it? Sometimes I wish I had a boss to keep me in line and check my morale. I could also blame him or her for all of my problems.

Will Tillie be a firefighter or a librarian when she grows up?

Plate-Letting

I donated platelets today in honor of a friend who is needing them. Too bad I can't fedex my particular bag of life juice directly to her. Hopefully, there is some sort of domino effect with my giving blood causing a line of people giving blood to cascade in her direction all the way to Houston. Still, it feels good to give something, and it has the added bonus of being a futuristic, science-infused endeavor. I find blood chemistry fascinating! (By the way, did you know that the inventor of the blood bank was an African American? Charles Drew. These are the kinds of things that we textbook writers file away for future reference.)

The lady at the blood bank said that she had me down as last giving in 1994. Yikers--I was 19 then! So young, so generous. What happened to me over the next 14 years that I didn't give blood again? Why does it take a personal friend going through hell for me to hike it over to the blood bank? Please check back in with me and see if I've turned over a new leaf and made this a regular thing--preferably sooner than 14 years from now.

More busy baby vacay pics:

Old Biddies

Ug, I just dropped Tillie off at daycare in a mismatched, stained, wrong-weather outfit with shoes that don't fit, a bag of apples because we ran out of her favorite (bananas), and throwing the worst tantrum because she wanted to stay home. Plus she has a horrible yellow-brown bruise on her head from falling down last week, which really just tops off the neglected child look. It felt awful. I mean, I know what Mondays are like. How do you explain them to a two-year-old?

Oh sweet vacation, how I miss thee...

Can't you just tell what these two are going to be like in 80 years?!

Splashy Maddy

Cousin Madz likes a good splash:

Motor Mouth

Tillie did not say a word on her first motor boat ride with Uncle Mike. However, Little Miss Chatty would not shut up the whole rest of the trip!

PS. Life vests must be tasty.

Vacay Vids

Tillie meets an infinite number of Tillies:


Excitement at the Cincinnati Aquarium:
(When Tillie visits the aquarium, she sprints from exhibit to exhibit, spends no longer than 30 seconds at each one, and screams "Fishies!" the whole time.)


Stop, Hammer Time (complete with dance):


Refreshing sprinkler fun:

Monkey See

The Tilminator saw some little girls at the playground hanging from a bar and had to give it a try. She has officially reached a new stage of cute/annoying. If she is not copying everything you do, she's bossing you around officiously.

Staying Cool

Taking cues from the dogs, Tillie uses her tongue too.

Rough Day at the Sand Mines

Shew--operating a back-hoe is tough work!

Fortunately, union workers get a 15-minute snack break--barely enough time for these hamsters to stuff their cheeks with fruit.

Brushing 101

Pop Up

Thank you Camile and Alex for the awesome book!

Bubble Fun

Shooz

I love Till's new laced shoes.

Moving On

We got Zephyr's stitches out today and Athena's yesterday. Both dogs are doing great and need no further vet care--hooray! In fact, Zephyr is downright chipper. He is even healthy enough to get into a spot of trouble now and then--jumping over child gates, low-counter surfing, barking at door knocks and waking the baby, etc. I've decided to follow his heroic role-modeling and move on. The fence repair should be done this week, so by next weekend we should be back to normal and enjoying the scorching heat in our refurbished backyard. Tonight we go on our first post-incident family walk (probably only around the block--we don't want to strain anybody).

And to show how normal things are, here is a picture of Tillie accessorizing:

Tot TV

Tillie played with this balloon ("b'oon") for more than 30 minutes--then we took it away because it was starting to creep us out:


Friendly bus driver?


Tillie loves the "noise":

Look Out E.O. Wilson

Sometimes I find Tillie on the ground like this:

But, it is not because she fell, but because she found some ants:

She likes ants, so she wants to take a closer look: