Just wanted to let everyone (who doesn't read AT lj and see my f-locked posts) that there will be a bloggy bru-ha-ha for Megan's birthday today.

 The blog is http://megans-party.blogspot.com

You can add virtual gifts to this flickr group http://flickr.com/groups/935733@N23/pool/

There are games and quizzes and much foolishness.  I hope you'll stop by (even if you don't see this post until sometime next week!),

We took a last-minute appointment at Sears on Q's birthday and had some pictures taken.  As with all things, you get what you pay for.  There is the trade-off of the convenience of calling at 10 am and getting in at 10:30 with the fact that the girl cut Q's pigtail or foot off in almost every picture.

Here are all of them.  Here are the three we ordered.  I love the first one.  The second is pretty good (it was cropped in closer on the ones we ordered).  I don't really like her smile in the last one, but it looked so much like a school picture that I just couldn't resist.

My friends at flickr really seem to like this one:

I like it, but there is something weird about the camera looking down on her that creeped me out so we didn't get any of that one.  I got the same feeling from this picture at 14 months:

I don't have a ton of time to post because we want to do a bunch of stuff today, but I wanted to take this time to tell you how proud I am to be your Mommy. You are smart and strong and beautiful. You are silly and caring and a daredevil. You are outgoing like neither one of us will ever be.  You are also opinionated, stubborn and a royal pain in the ass. Every day I am thrilled, amazed and horrified by all the new things you know and can do.  I'm so sorry if my sadness over the death of your baby brother or sister has somehow made me less of a good mom to you.  Please know how much I love you.

One year old -- I can't believe it! I can't wait until the girls can meet in person.

I'm sending a virtual gift of these shoes. They are SO cute. I hope you like them.




ETA - The shoes are from Jaminga ( http://stores.wildchildpdx.com ), which has the cutest baby stuff ever.

I love you so much. You have changed my life in so many ways. I know it sounds unoriginal, but it is completely true that before you joined our lives, I just could not have imagined loving someone the way I love you. You are the greatest blessing I have ever received.

I thought I would share a little photo collage of the past year.

Newborn	Two Weeks	Three Weeks
One Month	Two Months	Three Months
Four Months	Five Months	Six Months
Seven Months	Eight Months	Nine Months
Ten Months	Eleven Months	One Year(ish)

The has been the fastest, yet most eventful 6 months of my life. You have changed my life forever and made me love someone in a way that you always hear people talk about or read about, but never know is possible until you experience it.

We've learned so much about each other in this short amount of time. Watching you learn about the world around you is my greatest joy. Now that you are crawling(ish) and getting better at expressing your likes and dislikes, we are getting a sense of your personality and boy, are we in for it!. Every day is something new with you and I can't wait to see what the next 6 months holds.

I love you, Little Aubergine.

We took some pics yesterday (on the official day) to commemorate. She was more cooperative in some than others...


We spent part of the day with Aunt Terry and Aunt Judith (the professors we cat-sit for). They came to see the house for the first time, so you can probably guess what we did with the rest of the day leading up to their arrival...

We got you a (virtual) Giant Dinosaur, primarily because I love it!

I hope you have a great day big guy!


In case you want to stop by and wish Chuzzle a happy birthday, his party is here at "Faggots on the Third Floor.

We had a nice pride stroll today with all the other parents in the stroller brigade. Chris and Stacey were with us, so that made it more fun.


What a great birthday!!!

To my favorite drag king/disney whore!!

Happy birthday to kneidlach!!! I know you are feeling bittersweet about it, but we all set deadlines for ourselves. (I did the same thing with my dissertation) It's nice when we meet them and disappointing when we don't, but you are SO close! I can't wait to hear good news from you and it will be SO soon, I sure.

I had a wonderful birthday despite being sicky-poo. I wanted to DO something since I had only slept and attempted work all week. Megan loaded me up with presents in the am. I scored some lovely clothes, some Emily the Strange items, The Pretender DVD and the Little Mermaid DVD. I'm sure there are some other things too... We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (but no cheesecake due the previously mentioned tiramisu) then we went to see Bewitched. It was as good as one could hope. *shrug* (by that I mean, it wasn't so good...) It was amusing and much better than sleeping or working. We were going to have dinner with Chris and Stacey, but my belleh was hurting and so I napped instead. Later that night we went to the St. Christopher's Catholic festival in Grandview. We can walk there from our lovely second home. It was pretty good. Got some awesome shots of some pattern-line-dancing old ladies. Talk about entertainment. Whew! I really need to get started on our festival rating system stuff again. We started doing it once upon a time, but haven't kept up with putting it online. I see now that some of my graphics have turned to "J"'s

Saturday we watch the pride parade with Erin. She hadn't ever been to Klumbis pride. We've never watched it, only walked in it. It was HOT, but we had fun. I got to see a lawyer from work in small pleather pants being lead by a dog collar. I had some minor issues at work today in a meeting I had with him, but all-in-all I like him more now that before. He isn't my friend, so it's not like I could say "Nice collar" or anything. We had dinner with Chris and Stacey that night. Mmmm pizza and lots of catty conversation.

Yesterday we went to Target (not needing anything) and ended up buying a ton of stuff, including a floor model vacuum that was $120 instead of $300. Now that we've read consumer info online, it seems to have a propensity to smoke and eat belt quickly. We are still deciding whether to keep it or not.

We went to ComFest last night. We went mainly for the LadyFest Ohio sponsored radical feminist performance art. The first one was awesome, it was musical feminist puppets. Judith Butler played prince(ess) charming. Whee! The second one was a woman dancing to 3 songs. It involved finger cymbals, which I highly dig. It wasn't really choreographed and I must say that I felt more like a voyeur peeking in a bedroom window than that I was at a performance, but it was still cool. The third one was going to be Britney Spears related, but they ran out of time before they could get all the technical stuff worked out. sad :(

Today I got up and tested (negative again) and then went to work. I've had some strange crampy stuff all day. I don't trust myself that it isn't just regular stuff that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Megan bought some more $tree tests today so that we have more. (smooches) I'm trying to decide whether to just pee every day because it only costs a dollar or to skip every other day or something because of how depressing one line is...

My pg test this am was negative. I didn't really expect a positive because it is so early. That was my birthday-pipe-dream test. Still a little disappointing, but *shrug* I still have a whole week more of waiting.

Harold is really sick. Something about lungs and blood clots. Mom is supposed to call with more info later.

I feel a little better. Like, not good enough to go to work and subject cubicleland to my sniffing and coughing, but better than I have felt all week.

Megan royally spoiled me with b-day goodies this morning. She even went to the french loaf to get a birthday tiramisu (our wedding cake!). We're going to go eat some food now, so more details later.