Ugh. I still feel gross from last night's meeting. DH, DD and I stayed for nearly 4 hours and never got to speak- we left with 2 hrs. of talking left to go and our names were so far down on the list it wasn't going to happen.

The meeting was horribly demoralizing. 12 people spoke in support of Planned Parenthood and 46 people spoke against it. (There were also 3 people who were either neutral or I couldn't figure out what they were talking about.) Somehow, all these people from the same street signed up to talk first. I wish I had just gone to the rally outside because inside? They'd quote facts that weren't true, kept saying "the majority of the citizens don't want PP" with no real back up of numbers, and they all had these well crafted talking points.

The truth of it is, I'm not 100% sure PP was above the board in their dealings. I want to believe they were, but yesterday the other side started bringing up how PP filed as a for-profit (with Gemini) and then occupied as a non-profit and didn't do some procedure thing and it's like... what if that is true? Now it's possible I've been indoctrinated because you heard the same fricking words over and over and over and over again, but it's hard, because I want PP there, I believe they SHOULD be there, but if they f-ed this up, I'll be so mad. I really will.

It was so insulting to have this one doctor go up there and be all "Edwards Hospital provides all the same services except abortion" without saying "oh, and if you don't have insurance it's a ridiculous amount of money, sorry." It was intellectual dishonesty. So annoying, hard and exhausting. All I did was sit and I walked out EXHAUSTED.

I seriously don't know what the heck to do next. I'm wondering if we don't need to canvas the neighborhood with petitions so that these claims of "the majority don't want them there" can be refuted. Oh, there was also a speaker who said that PP was responsible for targeting minorities and trying to get rid of them through abortion. Oh. My. And this STUPID woman in her dumb shirt in front of me turns to my husband and says "you should do your research" and waves around a print out from the internet. He just laughed but they were all so serious.

Now they want the building bull dozed. They want it a flat parking lot- don't even want it to be sold. They want it to be a total monetary loss for PP. As for what the City Council can do, I think they will be pretty well stuck following whatever the independent council says, though if they try to hold a vote on it, we'll really have to get Aurora petitions going because the anti-choicers are better organized, they are tight-knit and well grouped together and they again dominated the council meeting. It's frightening.

is religion at work.  I came in to the lounge the other day and there was a xerox taped to the table.  It looked like one of those emails that circulates endlessly.  This one was about a meeting of the Kansas state senate, which someone opened by saying, "If you can believe it, there are still some people who don't like prayer.  Well that's too bad, because I'm going to pray right now."  It went on at length about all this person's personal religious beliefs -- including a comment about "killing unborn babies and calling it choice" -- which he apparently unburdened himself of during a state-funded government meeting.

It bugged me that this happened in Kansas, and it bugged me that it was taped to the table, like some kind of thumbing of the nose to the secular nature of OUR workplace (which is also publicly funded).  I wrote a note on the bottom of it to that effect -- that this isn't the appropriate place to express those views -- but it wasn't removed.  After a few days of seeing it there, I got so exasperated that I shredded it.  The weird part is I'm pretty sure the site supervisor put it there, so people who may have objected to the views might not have wanted to speak up to avoid bugging her.  That seems like a subtle misuse of power -- though I know she didn't mean any harm.

If I had put up a polemic about global warming, Iraq, George Bush, or anything else, I know some people in my workplace would have been offended.  It's not the place for it, and I wouldn't want to make my co-workers uncomfortable.  Was I wrong to shred what to me was an offensive prayer?

or at least this wildly bitchy feeling I'm having.  I had a question to ask of a governmental body yesterday and her answer (which basically implied that it was a dumb question) is really chapping my ass.   Really.  I feel like smacking people.  I couldn't resist asking a woman a snarky question on a yahoogroup today when I should have just sat on my hands...

I think I may need to start drinking early today...

we ended up just buying a king size bed so we'd all be comfortable when the kids travel at night.  After 9 years at this parenting thing we've slept all over with them and without them and it's really, really okay.  My 9 year old now goes to bed on her own and sleeps through the night in her own bed (unless she has a nightmare) and I want to go back in time and shake myself for all the stupid arguments I had with her trying to get her to go to bed on her own at 3 years old.  

I know that some people can't sleep if there's a child in the room but if you can and if it lets everyone get some sleep then it's better than being right or than following the "sleep experts" advice.   They don't co-sleep forever.  

Personally, I was willing to do pretty much anything to get whatever scraps of sleep I could. If it works, it works. Don't feel guilty, as long as you're making the decision for yourself and not what you think other people think you should do.

a lot like what we did.  When Madeline was a baby, DH frequently went in to Grants room to sleep when he woke up.  We did the sleeping bag too.  But, I didn't care if Grant woke me when he came in.  I was so tired, I slept right through it most of the time.  

I think four is a tough age... at least for my kids.  I know what you mean about belligerent.  Some days I am so tired of dealing with Madeline and I don't even have a baby to take care of!  I am hoping preschool will mellow her like it did for Grant.  

On my mind today.... our UU church's RE classes.  Apparently enrollment is way up this year, causing a bit of overcrowding.  We have almost 20 kids registered for the preschool class.  It gets kind of crazy in there with that many kids.  Possible solutions:  splitting the classes up between the 9am and 11am services, recruiting more teachers, and/or capping enrollment.

We've had a lot of trouble with sleep and our daughter, now 8, over the years.  Or I should say we'll have periods of great trouble and periods where it's great.  Changes seem to set her off, and she has an anxiety disorder so that can sometimes effect her sleep.  Right now, with me being pregnant and school starting back up, she's been having trouble again.  Sleeping in our room, refusing to fall asleep in her room, waking up with "nightmares" (possibly she's having them or else she's just waking but unable to go back to sleep) and keeps coming into our room and waking us up.  Usually, we can let her do these things and in a week or two she's back in her room again, but it's been almost a month now, so it has to stop.

We had a family meeting about it and discussed a plan where she can earn a reward for sleeping in her room again.  After 15 nights where she goes to sleep in her room without fighting about it, she'll earn a reward.  She got to choose the reward, and she chose a DVD.  It's only been two nights but it's been no problem at all, even though just the day before she was going on and on about being too scared to be in her room by herself, and even too scared to sleep on our floor (as opposed to IN our bed) because she's afraid of Voldemort or other unknown evil forces.  (I curse her summer day care program for showing HP movies on rainy days....)

Oh, and I just remembered that we did this when she was four, too.  We moved to our new house, and with the adjustment she was refusing to sleep in her room.  I thought she'd adjust in time, but it went on far too long.  We did the same reward thing (suggested to us by the psychologist we were currently seeing for her anxiety) and it worked like a charm.  We bought her a doll, which was her reward of choice.  So, perhaps Ari is not too young to bribe like this.  ;-)  She would have been a few months over four at the time.  

Nola

I'm worried about the sleep thing, too.  Between the ages of 1.5-2.5, we had Simone doing so well.  We read her a story, said goodnight, and in bed she stayed.  All this established with relatively little fuss and muss.  Then the truck through the house thing happened.  You'd think if we'd done it once, we could do it again?
No.  

Ever since then, it's been rocky, and I'm worried about when the baby comes.  Jeremy has to sit with her for at least an hour most nights at bedtime, and she comes to sleep with us pretty frequently.  I don't really mind that, but I am worried about fitting four in a bed when the baby comes.  But the fact is, we could probably do something about it.  We're just not willing to take such harsh measures as the woman you wrote about who locks her child out of the room and listens to him scream.  Frankly, I prefer this to that.  And, like Shenanigans, in the middle of the night I'm going to take the option that lets me get back to sleep ASAP.

I'd like to think perhaps I'm in labor.  We shall see.  I'm having mild contractions, and I think Simone was born at the tomorrow stage of that pregnancy.  I'd take it as a good omen if he came on the same timeline as Simone.  She was an angel baby!

Are so delicious, aren't they?  It's very hard to kick them out of bed.

I am happy to report that Eli, who crawled into bed with us nearly every night for the past, oh, two years or so? is now sleeping soundly through the night in his own bed on a regular basis.

It will happen for you, too. But I do feel for ya because of the baby.  Eli is our youngest and Miles never had this habit, so I can't imagine what that's like!

Reminds me of a book called Sleepless in America.  I know it's been mentioned here before.  I have not read it yet.  Would anyone be interested in this as a MotherTalker book discussion?

So on Monday when I posted that I had a cold I was hoping I'd be feeling better. No such luck. Things only got worse. When I woke up Tuesday I realized it was a sinus infection and called my Doc ASAP. A script for some antibiotics and a day later I am already feeling better.

DS has his 3rd day of nursery school (its only once a week), and the teacher told me he did well for the first hour, but then melted down after that for the remaining half hour. Next week is supposed to be two hours, but she thinks he might not be ready for it. So, if I'm feeling better later in the week I might try to schedule a playdate with of his classmates. It seemed to help last time we did it.

Morning sickness lies after all.  We went for the second sono yesterday, and there was no heartbeat.  Had a D&C last night.  So I won't be joining the spring baby boom after all.

I'm so tired...

...I'm completely worried about Al Gore's speech to the UN. I'm feeling sick to my stomach about the planet, with our 23 years until the polar ice cap melts. Thinking about where to live if cars wont be available, etc...

I'm trying to get my mind around what global Marshall Law would be. If Al thinks it's necessary (and it seems like it is, after that horrid IPCC report last week), then I'm ready to get ready, but what to do?

Oh yeah, and we're having all the same sleep issues as everyone else with 4-yr-olds and babies. We're doing the musical bed thing every night, too. I'm wondering how people once survived without both pullups and washing mashines, as well.

It's a tough one, isn't it?  

Our 3 year old slept with us until just recently.  We were just about to get a king size bed when she started requesting the floor versus our bed.  I think she was just too squished!  We made a cozy bed on our floor for a couple nights, then moved her mattress to our room and finally her kid bed.  She sleeps in our room in the kid bed and has been doing great.  We lay down with her as she falls asleep and help her at night should she wake.

Our room is pretty hilarious looking with 2 adults, 1 3 year old 1 3 month old, and a golden retriever.  It makes our 1400 plus sq home seem palatial ;-)

Just came across this but haven't watched it  yet. From the WMST-L list serv:

Someone just sent me the link to this Bill Maher rant on feminism. Never = a great friend of women, Maher's eight minutes or so gets to the = underbelly of how "liberal" men really think about feminism. I am going = to use this in my feminist theories class as I am interested to see what = students make of it.=20

http://www.youtube.com/...