Oh damn, it got truncated 2/3 of the way through. Hang on, let me make it a pop-up image.
I used to buy all my cards at the 39¢ store. That closed because it was too good for this world, so now I use the dollar cards from the grocery store. That means I often send stupid cards, but not stupid cards with ribbons.
Either way, she will be immediately identifiable as a girl by her curly hair.
3: I suspect this card was both somewhat expensive and picked with great care.
I also suspect that the message ("aren't you lucky to have the girliest girl that ever girled") was directed somewhat passive-aggressively at the sender's daughter, a close friend of ours, who had the temerity to give birth to two boys and zero girlishly girly girls.
Maybe she redirected a card she already had but couldn't use.
4 concerns me.
7: Are you sure Sifu had you in mind? There are plenty of other people with curly hair.
That's true, JP. There doesn't have to be a general rule concerning curly-haired persons.
Right. It's a special rule for special people.
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Hey London peeps, clan Chalk will be in town from Tuesday to Friday. If anyone wants to have a meet up or has recommendation for touristy stuff that can be done with kids, post it here or email me at the address in my personal info.
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7, 10, 11: and, admittedly, all the card says is that the world of pink and lace and curls comes with having little girls; it could easily be that Blume and I will find ourselves with curly hair, or that the curls will be detached from any scalp.
Calabat has so many things in gray and baby blue, and everything has animal or truck prints, and I don't know why. Nothing against little giraffes and monkeys and things, but why do they dominate everything? Why not stripes and polka dots or interesting little patterns?
But he doesn't have a princess destiny. (Jury is still out on the curly hair.)
O's hair is super curly -- sproingy ringlets.
The "astronaut" bit is really kind of awesome. Like, somewhere in the process of making this card, someone had to have a little sliver of awareness that something about its message was off.
B-by k-sky -- Φ, perhaps? -- is just getting nice downy crewcut hair. My m-i-l and I have a $10 bet that she'll have red hair. Today she is wearing a DC-superheroes-on-baby-blocks onesie (Batman is the top block) to brunch followed by a sailor-suit dress and hat to a lefty garden party.
We are the sort of parents who pay lip service to not enforcing gender norms but then get huge piles of girly handmedowns and kind of like them.
I am thinking about making a stand with swimwear and sportwear -- that most baby clothes are for making the baby look cute, whether its boy-cute or girl-cute, but when they actually start to move around, boy clothes are for being active and girl clothes are for appearing cute, and this would be a good place for a foot to come down. Also bikini tops are dumb.
As far as I know, if you think your baby might have red hair, you're supposed to put them in a "rash guard" shirt to swim. Stupid skin cancer.
Also bikini tops are dumb.
This is so wrong, once the kid is using the potty. Really, pulling down a one-piece so that the kid doesn't have an accident is way worse than pulling down a little bikini bottom. Especially a wet one-piece with a rashguard sun shirt over it. Totally awful.
(If your kid will just pee through their suit, go for it, but Hawaii would consider it an affront to her internal sense of rules. Bikinis are the best.)
Or changing a diaper, for that matter. Yay bikinis.
Clearly we should just go back to the dress as the default garment for kids.
Except for very young babies, because dresses ride up annoyingly and are always floating up and gathering around the baby's arms. Dresses for everyone over six months.
19: My baby was a bright-carrotty ginger at 6 mos and then gradually de-gingered. He's pretty much blond now.
One of mine was very gingery too but is now blond(e). Neither had or has curly hair despite being girls. The card may be getting something wrong.
I like a two-piece swimsuit that is rash guard on top and shorts or bikini bottom below. Bikini tops are weird and inclined to ride up. Just bottoms would be fine too except that Jane tends toward wanting to wear tops and go entirely bottomless, if you're going to omit anything, which is less socially acceptable.
I was gingery but got over it. You can still see a bit of the red when I grow a beard.
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Informative piece from the ground on the health care reform roll-out taking this place this summer in anticipation for sign-up in October.
Kay at Balloon Juice has been active with We Are Ohio, and now she's attending to ACA roll-out efforts. I was surprised to read this, quoted from The Hill:
Some Republicans indicated to The Hill they will not assist constituents in navigating the law and obtaining benefits. Others said they would tell people to call the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
...
House leaders have organized a group known as HOAP -- the House ObamaCare Accountability Project -- to organize a messaging strategy against the law that will trickle down to constituents. The group has an eye on August recess, when member town halls will inevitably turn to healthcare issues.
As you were, of course.
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23: We have nightgowns for nighttime. So much easier for middle-of-the-night diaper changes. No teeny snaps.
Oh yeah, those super long nightgowns with a little elastic at the bottom are great.
One of my favorite memoir anecdotes is from Annie Dillard (I think...) about her mom stepping on the end of a long nightgown while the rest of the family gathers around to watch the baby crawl in place and laugh at her.
Today she is wearing a DC-superheroes-on-baby-blocks onesie (Batman is the top block)....
That onesie is Flippanter-approved, sight unseen.
Small children have a way of demanding to be "heard," to interpret any disagreement as an outrage, that is really unattractive when, as happens, somebody never grows past the baby pattern.
I can't count. That was 36. This is 37.
Comments λη-1 and λη-2 by politicalfootball are like posing with Stalin for a photograph while holding a sign reading "I'm standing next to three dudes."
21: Bikini bottoms over one-pieces are fine. It's putting a piece of clothing on a female toddler that says "someday I will have breasts that my swimwear will conceal while calling attention to" that really gets my oooh.
Bikini bottoms preferred over one-pieces, that is. Bikini bottoms worn over one-pieces are "fashion-forward."
32: yes they are awesome but sometimes the temptation to pick her up like a sack of potatoes is VERY HARD TO RESIST.
34: A gift from a friend you'd like.
I hope she has startling eyes and a mouth like roaring fire.
As far as I know, if you think your baby might have red hair, you're supposed to put them in a "rash guard" shirt to swim. Stupid skin cancer.
Sucks but reality at this point.
Our blond-almost-white haired infant has darkened to a medium brown. Still stands out in the family of black haired kids. Although the baby is somewhat lighter than the other non-blond kids.
Blond kid also blew away the field in a free casual kids race yesterday (20 second win on a ~600m race of 30 5-6y boys), and then the race organizer comes up and says we should definitely get him in a track program soon. I was... politely noncommittal. I don't know what's more depressing, that strangers think getting a kid started in formal running training at 6 is important, or that such programs for 6-year-olds apparently exist in abundance.
At the finish line he got a high-five from Mario Lopez, that was all the reward I needed.
Not having to touch Mario Lopez with your own hand is reward enough for anyone.
The OP reminds me of this from A Suitable Boy, which gently mocked it:
A lady baby came today!
What words are quite so nice to say?
They make one smile, they make one pray
For Lady Baby's happiness!
Today a Lady Baby came!
We have not heard her winsome name,
We can address her all the same,
As Lady Baby-Come-to-Bless.
When Lady Baby came to earth
Her home was filled with joy and mirth.
There's not a jewel of half the worth
Of Lady Baby-to-Caress.
We're glad that Lady Baby's here,
For at this sunless time of year
There's no light that brings such warmth and cheer
As Lady Baby's daintiness.
Hush! Lady Baby's fast asleep,
The friendly fire-flames dance and leap
And angels' wings above her eyes
A kiss they press.
"A Lady Baby!" Lovely phrase;
It means she'll have such gentle way,
And grow to goodness all her days-
May God this Lady Baby bless!
Helpy-chalk clan - do email sea\trout at gee mail com
It would be easier to give recommendations if I knew the age of the children involved. The weather here is dradful, by the way: ten defuckinggrees this morning
It's quite nice today -- and the bethnal green museum of childhood is worth a visit, if everyone is of a curious bent and the right age and so on. I'm around thur eve if a meet-up is a thing.
My kids adored the London science museum, and it'd work for a large span of ages. (There was stuff I was restraining myself from playing with because shoving children out of the way would have been unseemly.)
50: My son insisted we go back there for a second day. I just asked his advice and he also recommends the transit museum, the London Eye, and Hamleys.
I/we've taken my niece to the Science Museum (in London) three or four times now. Even though she's entering her early teens and getting into the everything-is-boring phase, she still gets excited by it.
The Science Museum has the Oramics Machine: I am not a TINY BIT BITTER they gave the PhD research position to that other guy, NOT AT ALL.
54: Aside from the lesbians identifiable by the bows on the back, rather than side or top, of their heads. Who knew?
