Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Beef

I just read a newspaper article about a family beating their child with a pipe for religious reasons. The thing that stood out to me is that the article pointed out that these were adoptive parents of the child. Why is it that whenever someone is adopted, their parents are adoptive parents? Why can't we just be their parents? Why the word in front of it?

Sure, I'm proud to be an adoptive parent, but, more importantly, I'm just a parent. The word "adoption" should not mean anything. In fact, by them stating that these adoptive parents beat their child, they are suggesting that it is somehow related to the fact that the child is adopted. Or, that adopted kids are not as good as biological ones. Or, that adoptive parents aren't as loving as biological parents. Or, that adoptive parents are more likely to beat their kids. Not so! Dumb media. Dumb social connotations!!!

These people in the article were weirdos and would have beat their child no matter what. Not because they adopted the child. Just peeves me.

So, if a child is abused by his biological parents, will the newspaper say biological parents? Of course not! Why the adoptive parent title, then? I'm just a parent, and that's it. I think it's all lame.

Beef: eaten and gobbled.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Mission-agin (with a hard "g")

My little bro, Ben (or, "Benjamin Bunny Boy", as we lovingly still call him), used to call Michigan "mission-agin". I'm not sure exactly how he came up with that pronunciation, but I think it had something to do with my oldest brother being on a mission when Ben was learning how to talk.

I have waaaaay too many pictures from Michigan. I won't post them all, even though it's tempting. I'm fairly certain Megan is in every single picture. I know I'm obsessed. I know every stinkin' post is about Megan. But, I don't care. That's just the way it is! Honestly, I really don't think about anything except what I'm making for dinner, and how cute Megan is.

In a nutshell, it was great to be in Michigan! Megan was incredible on the planes, of course. Everyone we sat by on both flights commented on how good she was. I was very grateful for the baby carrier I brought with me, because it was the only way I could get Megan to fall asleep on the plane- strapped to my front with her arms stuffed inside the carrier. Granted, she only slept for an hour the whole day, but at least she did sleep.

Instead of explaining everything we did in Mission-ah-ginn, I'll just post a few memorable moments with pictures and captions: (but not 100 pictures; just 11.)

This is Megan with her St. Patrick's Day outfit on. She is such a little cutie-wootie! Also, Megan was in love with the plant behind her. Anytime she got near it, she would grab it like it was the last bottle on earth. My mom was even worried that Megan would tear it apart!

This is Megan in her St. Patty's outfit, with St. Patty's stickers on her face. The stickers were from Grandma Paulson, though I don't think Grandma intended for them to end up on her face. Better on her face than in her face, right? I love that she just sits there and lets me do anything I want with her.


On St. Patrick's Day, my friend Kimberly (aka Kimmie Jo, Kim, Kimmie, KJ-squared) came over. We went out for beer. Just kidding; we went out to TCBY and talked for about 3 hours. It was so fun! I love how, with your best friends, you can talk for hours when you haven't talked for months, and it's like nothing ever changed. The pose in the picture has special meaning, but I won't tell you what it is.

This is Megan in the exersaucer (which she LOVED) conversing with Ben's Taco Bell dog. The dog had a button, that when pushed, said in things like "I think I'm in Love" and "Can't this boat go any faster?" Everything was said in the Taco Bell Dog voice. I thought it was hilarious. I can't lie.


This is Megan with her cousin Isaac, who lives in Cincinatti. My brother Colter, his wife Kelly, and their 5 boys, drove up to Troy to see us! We felt so special and I was so happy they came. (Notice in the picture that Megan has her hand in Isaac's mouth. Apparently she wanted to share her tasty fingers. Yum!)

When people would come over to see Megan, my mother would strip her down to her diaper to show her off. My mom is convinced that you haven't lived until you've held a chocolate baby. I totally agree with that statement. Also, this picture makes me laugh, because we put Megan in this chair to take a picture, and she held up her left leg and placed her hand on it to pose for us. She kept it in this position for about 10 minutes straight, and I'm not exaggerating! It was sooooooo hilarious! We were all laughing our pants off, and Megan actually had her pants off! Poor baby...


This is Aunt Kelly & Uncle Colter enjoying some Megan Time. Megan sure loved that exersaucer. We're tempted to get one for her, but we don't really have a place to put it. I suppose it'll have to be a Grandma-&-Grandpa's-House-novelty.

These are Colter & Kelly's other 4 boys, enjoying a bowl of popcorn. Aren't they handsome boys? Megan didn't want to look at the camera because she was too interested in the popcorn.

This is Grandma P. playing with Megan. My mother loves babies like nobody you've ever seen. If babies really were made in a factory, you can bet my mother would be CEO.

This is Megan chillin' with Uncle Ben. Don't you like how they are posing the same? We didn't even plan that one! Uncle Ben had a lot of fun wiping Megan's drool off of his homework.

And, lastly (and only "lastly" because this was taken the last day we were there), this is Megan with G & G Paulson. Megan really loved my dad's moustache. Just sayin'.
One more note: On our way back to Utah, we were stuck in the Denver airport. There was a crazy snowstorm and the planes couldn't be iced off before they would ice over again. Our flight was supposed to leave Denver at 7:00, after a 2-hour layover. We finally boarded the plane at 9:00, only to stay on the runway for another 2 hours before taking off. When we got to Salt Lake at 12:30 am, they had lost our luggage, which they finally found- still in Detroit. Unfortunately, that luggage included our car seat, and the airline had run out of car seats we could borrow. They finally found one, after searching for a long time. We didn't get home until 2:30 am.

Extra side-note: Megan is the most amazing baby in the entire world. You can never talk me out of that statement. You see, on the day we flew home, she only slept one hour from 11am-9pm (she normally would have slept 7 or 8 hours during that time). Yet, she never complained, or even cried. She just sat in her umbrella stroller. She just looked around and sat there. Amazing. A-MAZE-ING. Again, everyone around me commented on what a good baby she is. Two ladies even said she looked just like a little doll. Just sitting' there all cute & adorable-like.

That'll do, donkey. That'll do.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Fear of Flying

I get to go to Michigan (yay!) to visit my mom and daddy on Tuesday, and I am so excited to see them! My daddy had a kidney transplant 5 years ago (I think it was 5) but that kidney finally gave out, so now he has to be on Dialysis again. It makes me so sad because I love my daddy "popparoni" so much. However, I am thrilled beyond belief to let him see his favorite granddaughter (okay, his only granddaughter). My mom is so excited to munch on Megan, and my 16-yr-old brother has never even met her. I definitely look forward to being in Michigan. It's the getting there part that scares the vomit out of me.

I haven't thrown up yet; I'm saving that for the plane.

I know I shouldn't be scared; zillions of mommies travel with their babies. Megan is 5 months old, and it's not like she's too young to travel. I guess it's just the fact that I've never traveled with a baby before.

I've been talking to my older, wiser, beautiful, generous sister Jazzy, and she's been telling me more about how to travel with a baby. She's been asnwering all my questions about what to check-in, what to check at the gate, how to travel (stroller or Baby Bjorn-style), what to do if you have to pee on the plane, what to do if you need to change a diaper on the plane, how to get water for a bottle, and a buncha other stuff I never had to think about before. All of that is a little bit stressful and will cause me to think a little more than usual. But this isn't what's scary to me.

It's really stupid, the thing(s) I'm scared about. Seriously, it's so dumb and I shouldn't even mention it because you'll just think I'm an overprotective, obsessive parent. But, yes, of course, I'll tell you.


I'm scared of someone stealing Megan. Or, I'm scared I'll somehow leave her somewhere and lose her. Or, I'm scared they won't let me on the plane with her because they won't believe me that she's mine, and then they'll want proof of adoption, but I don't have proof because the adoption isn't finalized yet. I'm scared that I'll be stuck in Denver and won't have anywhere to go because they won't let me on the plane. Or, I'm scared that I'll have to use the bathroom on the plane really, really badly, and I'll misjudge someone next to me and let them hold Megan while I go, and then come back and she'll be gone. Or, that I'll fall asleep on the plane with her in my arms, and I'll wake up and she won't be there. Or, I'm scared that some lady will try to steal Megan away from me, and when I find the security guards, they won't believe me and I'll never get her back. Or- and this is the stupidest one of all- I'm scared that somehow I'll run in to Megan's birthmom (which I know would never happen) and she'll say "can I hold her?" and I'll say "yes" and then she'll run away with her, and I'll never see Megan again.

What is my problem? Why is my
heart beating a million times a minute?
Tell me I'm not crazy and tell me you've had these feelings, too. Please? Even tell me a lie that you've had these feelings, and then I won't feel like such an idiot.

Okay. That's it. I'm going to go have some nightmares now, like I did last night...

Ugh.

Monday, March 8, 2010

For all you white people

If you're like me, you never have known much about "black" hair (being, the hair that black people have). Apparently they all have the same type of hair. And, I must say, for the moment, we are definitely enjoying Megan's.

Megan's hair is just crazy, and, to be honest, I don't know what I'm going to do with it when it gets any longer. I already don't know what to do with it, and she's only 5 months old! We watched a documentary on black hair. It was quite informative, but made me scared for the future. It's quite involved and it's going to take many hours of practice for me. It's very complicated... but that's for another day.

For today, I thought I'd share some of the fun Megan's head brings to our home.

If Meg were a Pirate she'd be called "Flat-head Roberts", as evidenced by the picture below:


However, her head is not flat. It's merely the bald spot on the back of her head, combined with her stiff, crazy hair that causes the effect:


Despite her baby baldness, Megan still has adorable curls. Look at this hair! It's just insane:


And, you'd think her hair is short, but if you look in this picture, you can see her hair is actually a couple inches long already (I'm pulling it up off the middle of her head). It curls up to centimeter-sized ringlets on her head!

We couldn't resist giving Megan an afro, complete with a comb:


Lastly, this is Megan smiling. She loves her crazy head of hair.