This has been a test of the Emergency Broadcast System

Daycare I think has amped up his volume level. I think there may be a Survival of the Loudest thing going on with each kid learning that the loudest lungs gets his way. This is just a theory mind you but judging by last night's I want out of the high chair banshee wail, it appears valid. I'm sure further evidence will be screaming my way shortly.

Is he adopted?

It seems on average about once a week that someone asks me if my son is adopted. You see my partner is Hispanic and my son is very obviously Hispanic as well. Consequently, he never gets the question when we’re out and about and he’s holding E.

If I’m in the grocery store, restaurant, park, wherever, I get the question “Is he adopted?” Friends also tell me how much E and my partner look alike. At a rational level all this makes perfect sense but to be honest, it bugs me.

Having a child, especially adopted it seems, put your life out there in ways I hadn’t anticipated. E is loud, messy, friendly, and fearless. Dining out usually involves meeting half the people in the restaurant.

I wonder if a straight couple would get the adopted question as often. Hmmm.

Tagged

Steve over at The Hygiene Chronicles tagged me with this Six Strange Things/Facts/Habits About Me thing so next you will find my attempt to be strange, factual, and/or habitual:

1. I'm a vegetarian! What is it with this strange confluence of blogging and vegetarians? Apparently an uptick in vegetables drives people online.

2. Growing up my favorite movie was Broadcast News. I don't know why exactly. Was it Joan Cusack and her obstacle course run through the newsroom? Could be but it led me to this:

3. My first job out of college was working in a newsroom! After a year and a half and a lay-off I realized that I really didn't want to work in Broadcast journalism. The pluses are I found out what my dream job was like. Unfortunately the newsroom is filled with lots of people making very little money with lots of stress.

4. I'm addicted to reality TV. I get that some people find it horrid but I love the unscripted drama of regular people put into extraordinary circumstances. Also I think that reality TV has on average really helped gay people. It has humanized us and brought us into Joe Midwest's living room.

5. In middle school I won the County Spelling Bee! This means I'm a fantastic speller or I grew up with illiterate people, you decide.

6. At the state competition, I lost on the word thermostat. Can you believe it? It's not even a difficult word to spell. Freakin thermostat.

adoption.com

I wanna pass along this info I just learned about from Peter's Cross Station that Adoption.com has been discriminating against gay and lesbian parents. More info here:

http://www.potentialparents.com/adoptiondotcom.html

- Brian

Well next time I feel shunned by the Moms at our local playground I'll think on this story and realize it could be much worse:

Mie Taniguchi, 34, stabbed to death two five-year-old children who were playmates of her daughter last month after being ostracised by the other mothers at her local school. She had not fitted in and nor had her daughter, she told police.

Judging from her family's accounts of strange behaviour before the murders, Taniguchi was probably schizophrenic. But reports have pointed to a motive tangled up with the way other mothers treated her.

"The mummy clique is unique [to Japan]," the manager of an internet discussion board for young mothers told the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. "You suffer if they don't let you in; you suffer if you join."

The mothers' groups are mysterious, controlling and mean. Young mothers talk of the importance of the "park debut", in which a mother and child go to the playground and wait for an invitation to play from other assembled mothers.

At the school gate the signals are very clear. To be accepted into a superior mothers' gang, the clothes have to be right.

A navy dress, with short sleeves under a jacket that is buttoned from throat to hip, is worn like a uniform. No one escapes the tradition, and the higher up the scale the kindergarten is, the more essential the clothes.


http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mothers-group-outsider-snapped-and-killed-children/2006/04/14/1144521504024.html

I don't know if this happens to everyone but I've developed this strange ability to hear phantom cries. In the background there will be this little echo of a cry that forces me to stop and strain to listen for a mewling or wail. My partner L says he does the same thing so I don't feel entirely crazy. The problem is in the middle of the night I find myself waking up thinking I hear something. Usually I can lay there for a few tics and go back to sleep but sometimes I need to get up creep into his bedroom and check on him. Logically I know there's nothing wrong but there's that little niggling that won't let go.

Stepping out 2

Last night I saw E walk halfway across the living room. It was a bit surreal watching him take all those little steps. He had this big smile on his face the whole time.

Meanwhile at the dog park, our dog seems to have gotten very humpy recently. My theory is that as he's moved down in the pack at home he needs to be more assertive of something at the dog park. Yeah I know it's all natural but it's just not much fun to look at. Oh yeah that's my dog again sorry. He's got 50 lbs. on your dog but good thing he's showing him who's boss.

Stepping out

I've seen E take 4 steps on his own! It's so cool. He still has the drunken swervy quality about it but I'm sure that will go away soon. Wow, he's such a climber too. He's discovered that he can use a pillow to get up on the couch. The nannies at daycare tell me that he's very active. Good to know that it's not just me. As I was coming in one day I also heard one of the nannies tell another that "E is so rough." Oh yeah he's a scrapper.

One of the things that melts me is E's smile. He has this big goofy grin that takes over his entire face. It's like your dog's wag in its joy. It's funny how we start life with no middle ground it's all wailing or laughing it seems.