Well, isn’t that just for the win. :)

And my personal favorite so far:

Said cousin is Kelly Bennett of Holden, UT. She’ll be back in Idaho this summer, and she also makes semi-regular trips to northern California. If you’re interested in working with her, I can hook you up with more info.

All y’all who said “It goes by so fast!” – yeah, you were right. It’s crazy.

She’s a walking, talking (a little, anyway), eight-toothed whirlwind, who looks mighty cute in MARPAT:

And, while I’m at it, I’m going to go ahead and post my one-year-post-baby picture that I’ve been showing off everywhere like the vain little trollop I am. But you know what? I deserve to be a vain little trollop, because I’ve done a pretty doggone good job, I think:

(That’s technically 51 weeks post-partum, not a year, since it’s from my birthday a week ago. Thanks for the happy birthdays, by the way!)

I never really had any baby weight hanging around, but I’ve lost nearly 10lbs off my pre-baby weight… and I did that before the holidays. And kept it off. I’d still like to lose a few more, and a lot of work to do when it comes to actually getting in shape, but I’m more than a little proud of my progress, and have a good feeling about where I’ll be in another year.

So: Yay Girl Child, yay me, yay for being 1 and 24, and yay for 2010! I’m feeling downright optimistic these days.

As in: straight-A’s, 4.0, hello dean’s list, etc. etc. etc.

I have been horrible at college prior to this semester. Floundering seems like an appropriate word.

So, yeah. Gloating. Reveling, even. I think I shall go enjoy a celebratory brew.

Also: All those people who were like “Oh, yeah, ‘taking time off school to have a kid,’ enjoy being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen for the rest of your life, yada yada…” – HA. Told you so. Neener.

*Grade on said final: 94/100. BOOYAH!

The above picture caused one of The Inconvenience’s Marine friends to reply, and I do quote, “holy freaking shit that is so cute it caused my head to explode into a cloud of rainbows and glitter.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Posting the legal marriage story, and the addendum about the birth certificate, prompted me to follow up on some unresolved issues.

When the Girl Child was born, we, after much discussion, decided to go ahead and get her a Social Security number.

She’ll eventually need one, we figured.

It’s easier to do it ‘automatically’ on the birth certificate than it is to go in and prove citizenship later, we figured.

We might as well get the tax credit, we figured.

As soon as I sent the birth certificate off, I felt awful. I immediately regretted signing my kid up for a system she may want no part in. What a golden opportunity – the chance to live without a number unless she chooses to – and I, the homebirthing mother who doesn’t believe in routine infant circumcision or ear-piercing because “It’s their choice!”, had just signed her up for a government-run Ponzi scheme.

HORRIBLE.

Fast-forward over six months now, and we’ve never received her national ID Social Security card nor any communication from the SSA suggesting they’re aware she exists.

So, I called. After finally figuring out how to talk to a Real Person^TM, I hesitantly provided her name and date-of-birth so he could check for her records. (The Real Person^TM was thoroughly confused by the whole situation, because why in the world was I only just now asking, and hadn’t the hospital handled this, and what, there was no hospital?) A couple minutes of silence on the line later, he informed me that no social security number had ever been assigned for my child, so I should probably contact the local office and start getting this all straightened out.

Next, I called the Idaho records department, to find out if her birth certificate had even been processed. (I learned a few months ago they don’t automatically mail one; you have to request it and pay the associated fee. I never did.) Turns out, there was a hold placed on it because of a perceived error with the birth address. I am sure they thought we screwed up, since the birth address and my address were the same. Once they figured it out, they forgot to remove the hold.

So, there it sat. I asked the lady I talked to if she would mind leaving the hold intact. She sounded confused, so I explained that we had checked the box for a social security number, but I had changed my mind and do not want to apply for one after all. “Well, if you intend to claim her on your taxes, I think you’re going to need that,” she offered.

I told her I knew that, and that I also knew we wouldn’t be able to open a bank account for her, or (very easily) do several other things. But, I’m okay with that. I want her to be able to make the choice for herself when she’s older. Can we reverse that, or not?

She had to go check, since she’d “never been asked that before” – but she came back saying yes, she could hold it until she received a notarized letter verifying the change, and upon receiving said letter they would process the birth certificate without a social security number.

Holy second chance, Batman.

Whoever forgot to remove that hold: THANK YOU.

Comment by Ride Fast

2009-07-02 07:40:03

“Having taken out the knit horsey with the yellow hunting club, the natural huntress prepares to pack her prize for the long crawl.”

And now the exploring begins! What a cutie.

Good one, RF! :)

Picture taken at 5 months and 18 days.

I’m going to go ahead and give up on reading about normal infant development, because this kid ain’t normal.

(Though: This bodes well for early operation of the .22 though, now doesn’t it!)

I’m an addict. I love cloth diapering.

1. I’m cheap. Have you seen the price of Pampers lately? I can’t even fathom how many we would have gone through by now – but rather than pick up a pack a week, I’ve bought diapers once and get to use them over and over again. There’s even a booming market for second (and third, and fourth) hand cloth diapers, so you can recoup cost when you’re done with them.

2. Disposables are wasteful. Yes, believe it or not, I do give a rip about the environment. Dumping disposables into a landfill – where they are estimated to take about 500 years to biodegrade – for the sake of ‘convenience’ is something I just can’t reconcile.

3. I couldn’t get behind the idea of putting chemical-laden junk against a baby’s most sensitive bits.

4. Babies that are in cloth spend less time in wet diapers because you really have to change them promptly. They also tend to be more aware of their elimination patterns because they can feel wetness. Cloth-diapered babies are often easier to potty train. Considering Abigail has one of these and uses it at least 50% of the time – at under six months – I’d say we’re going to do pretty well in that department. (Note: We’ve been doing part-time EC since she was six weeks old, and cloth diapers are the perfect complement.)

5. No diaper pins necessary.

One of the coolest products I’ve seen in a long time is the gDiaper. gDiapers are a reusable cloth cover you can put cloth inserts into, or flushable one-time-use inserts. For those who don’t want to worry about keeping track of cloth while out-and-about or traveling, or who would like to minimize their consumption while having at least part of the convenience of disposables, the flushables are really cool. I’ve also seen infant-sized prefolds used as gDiaper inserts (rather than the cloth inserts available from the company) and they work great.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up now: My best friend is a gDiaper devotee, and she mentioned that as part of their gMom program she has a sale code for $30 off the everyday g’s six-pack, which is six of the gPants (covers). You can then choose cloth, flushables, or order inserts elsewhere.

Shipping to my zip is $9.95, which I think is a flat rate. That means you’re getting each cover for about $8.33 shipped – a very good deal for any type of cover, and an especially good deal for covers as versatile as g’s.

It’s time to up-size Abigail into a new set of covers, anyway, so I’m definitely ordering a pack. I’ll probably keep using the infant prefolds we have as our inserts, so the total to upgrade our diapers to something that will fit her for another thirteen pounds is under $50. That’s less than about one month of Pampers.

If you’d like to order a pack, buy some for a baby shower, or just pass along the deal – the code to use at checkout is g1153Gates. Keep in mind it’s only good on the six-pack, so make sure you have this item in your cart to get the $30 discount. Deal expires July 31, 2009.