Monthly Archives: August 2011

Aug 31 2011

Gonna Dress You Up

Just read this excellent post at Rage Against the Minivan about little girls and bikinis.  One thing that strikes me most about having a son and a daughter the same age is how differently clothes are made and marketed to them.

Boys’ t-shirts are all about sports, trucks and dinosaurs.  Pants are cargo shorts, jeans and sweatpants.  It’s not hard to find lots of cute stuff to dress Bennett in, and for the most part, he dresses like a miniature version of me.

Girls’ clothes can be summed up in one word: slutty.  I know that makes me sound like some ranting conservative loudmouth on the Jenny Jones show, but I don’t care.  Everything is pink, purple or neon, with sparkles and glitter caked on top of airbrushed unicorns, princesses and butterflies.  Dresses are low cut, and shorts and skirts barely cover her butt (which is doubly ridiculous because all it does is let her diaper show through).

It’s as if everyone else in the world saw Jon-Benet Ramsey and thought, “Yes, that’s how little girls should look.”  I thought we were on the same page, parents!  Let them be little girls for a while.  And for as long as they want to, for that matter.  Do I have to encourage my daughter to be a Charlie’s Angel?  What if she wants to be Hillary Clinton?  Where are the adorable toddler power suits?

I’ll take 10 of those.

Aug 18 2011

“Mommy, They Are Just Like Me”

I love posts like this.

My kids are only 2.  I really haven’t given much thought to whether they’ll be gay or straight, but I guess we’ll start getting clues at some point.

And if they turn out straight, I will love and support them and let them know how wonderful being straight can be.

Aug 17 2011

It’s My Birthday Too, Yeah

Today was Bennett and Sutton’s second birthday.  Last year on their birthday, I posted something to Facebook along the lines of, “One year ago was the best day of my life, followed closely by the rest of the top 365.” Well, make that “two years ago” and “the rest of the top 730.”

But this is probably the last year I’ll do the math on that.  I love you, kids.  That’s what matters.

We had a lot of time to reflect today.  The kids really liked going through the photo book Aunt Susie made them of the day they were born.  Drew broke down crying reading it.  We had to explain to Sutton (“Daddy’s crying!”) that sometimes grownups cry because they’re happy.

We also talked to Aunt Tiffany, who told us that her son now thinks, because we are two daddies, that all kids are supposed to have two daddies.  He is convinced that once she grows up, his mom will be a daddy, too.  Take that, right-wingers!

Aug 15 2011

2

Yesterday was the kids’ 2nd birthday party.  We wanted it to be very different from their 1st birthday party, which we held at Pan Pacific Park and which was attended by over 100 guests.  It was a lot of fun, but a lot of stress – and a lot of money.

This year, we wanted to focus on the kids.  One of their favorite places is MyGym, so we held the big bash there. We invited their friends from MyGym, their friends from twins class, one friend from music class, plus all our friends with young kids.  There ended up being close to 100 guests again, but in a much tighter space.

We requested that people not bring gifts, but we still got more gifts than we know what to do with.  We carted them out to our minivan in garbage bags and barely had enough space for all of them.

Bennett checks out the loot.

Drew and I sat in our building’s hallway last night opening them one by one, while the kids rode their bikes back and forth.  The gifts were amazing – thoughtful, creative, overly generous.  Nobody bought the same thing as anybody else and nobody bought anything we already had.  It made me realize how many great people we’ve met through our kids in the last year.

We used to be terrified of what LA parents would be like – and even more terrified that we’d become like them.  But somehow, we’ve found a safe place for our kids in this bizarre, sometimes terrifying city.

Year 2 has been even better than year 1, and I can’t wait to see what the next year holds.

Aug 14 2011

New Site, Old Blog

I know, it’s been ages since I posted to the old site, WhyJerryWhy.  But I wanted to have somewhere besides my Twitter to write personal messages, for those rare occasions when something happens that takes more than 140 characters to explain.

If you read the old blog, here’s a quick update on me to bring you up to speed.  In the last 4+ years, I saw a few movies, went to Iceland and ate lots of cupcakes.  Oh, and my boyfriend Drew and I became dads to twins.  Long story.  I’m writing a book about it.  Maybe some day you can read it.

The main thing I want to do for now is to migrate the old blog over here.  For someone of my adequate googling/reading instructions/following instructions skills, it should be moderately frustrating.  Then, we’ll see what happens.  Hopefully, I’ll have more to write about soon.

Aug 13 2011

Where Jerry Where?

I managed to move some of my old blog over here, but some of it wouldn’t publish.  So, in the meantime, feel free to go back there if you want to check out any deep cuts.  Otherwise, most of the stuff is here.

I’m plenty embarrassed by some of the old writing, and I definitely don’t recommend starting at the top of the old blog, because, let’s face it, those were some lean times inspiration-wise.  If you’re new here and want to see stuff I’m slightly less embarrassed by, start here.  That page lists some of the more readable posts from Why Jerry Why and gives you some basic info about who I thought I was when I wrote it.