I decided it’s time to give something new a try and, as I’ve always been keen on recurring income, a product seemed like a good bet. Enter PlyBird. These birdhouses are based on the design that I used for the Modern Bird show. I’ll be producing them as one-offs for the time-being, with the hope that I can find a better (read “faster”) way to produce them in the future. I suppose it’s more of a hobby outlet than anything else but if I play my cards right it could be some beer money.
Chloe took a late nap today and we’d made plans to go to a small local circus tonight after she woke up from her nap. It was nearly time to leave and she was still sleeping and, knowing how much she wanted to go, Kerri and I decided to try and roust her out of bed, somehow failing to remember the adage about “never wake a sleeping baby.” Eventually she got up and dressed and all that she had to do was go potty before we could leave. She’s been on-again-off-again with the potty training and we’ve started to use events as an excuse to mandate some potty time. For the most part this works. Except tonight.
I’m not sure if it was the sleepiness or the sincere lack of a need, or just stubborness, but she was _not_ down to use the toilet and commenced a twenty-minute long cry-a-thon in protest. In the end I told her that she could make the decision to use the potty that minute, or we would not be able to go to the circus because it would be too late. She wouldn’t budge, but it wasn’t until about 30 minutes later that she realized what had happened and was utterly crushed. I felt so damn stupid keeping her home over something like that – who am I to tell her when she needs to relieve her bladder? It’s her bladder after all. But, we’re getting into some deeper waters now as Chloe is getting older and beginning to understand the fine art of resistance and manipulation and so we have to begin to draw some lines that feel pretty damn arbitrary, to be honest, just to establish some boundaries and initiate that idea of “what mom and dad says goes.”
I hate having to do that to her. She’s the sweetest thing in the world and to have to act against her in ways, even if it’s for her own good, just kills me. Anyway, Chloe – I’m sorry we missed the circus tonight.
We held a gallery opening at the studio last night – “A Chance of Showers.” The turnout was great, especially considering it was a December event and we raised nearly $1,000 for 826 Seattle. It’s so great to be able to do things like that. It sort of off-sets our commercial work as a studio as well as giving the people in the studio something inspirational to work on.
We signed up for the adoption process a while ago with the understanding that uncertainty would be involved. As part of our program you have control over a few things – the family health history (as far as parents know of, or will disclose it) – and, well that’s about it. so really don’t have control over anything. The waiting part has been OK with me. Not knowing when, or if, our new child will come to us hasn’t been something I’ve focused on. Rather, I’ve tried to keep my attention on enjoying the way things are. That said, as every day now passes I start to think, “is there something wrong with our profile?” or “was that the right picture to put on the cover?”
In the end, it will all have happened too fast I suspect. But for now, the uncertainty is starting to drive me nuts. It’s going to be such a big change in our lives – two kids, two races, two origins – that I’m just dying to “dig in” and get to work on making it all fit together.
Dear Kiddo – if you happen to reading this, HURRY UP!
There’s a great piece in the NYT Opinion blog, Relative Choices, titled “Being Adopted, and Being Me.” Adam Wolfington is a 16-year-old black man who was adopted by a white family. From his account it’s an incredible loving family who has done a lot of things right in terms of supporting him in his interests and vigorously deffending his role as their child. One account he gives that I found to be great was,
When people ask if she is my “real mother,� she asks, “What do I look like, a hologram?�
Another one:
So Mom and I sat down and I told her the ten worst things people said to me. She wrote them down. Then I made up answers that were funny but not mean. (Mom’s rule is to never make someone feel bad just to get back at them.) Mom wrote these down too. I then memorized the list. Next time it happened I was ready. It felt great! I wasn’t so scared, or hurt (as much), or embarrassed by those questions again.
It’s great to read a success story like this as we go through our adoption process. With so much that can go wrong, it’s nice to hear about something going right.
The Puzzle Problem, originally uploaded by mdconrad.
