Otter all hands…

January 15, 2008 Savvy Spoonie 2 Comments

Otter is nine months old now and is all over the place!!

He can’t crawl yet, but he can scoot across a room in the blink of an eye, especially if there is a speaker cable or electrical cord he could chew on, a trash can he can tip over and rifle through, or a plastic bag he can play with!

Yes, the warning labels on plastic bags were made for my son, and children like him! He is fascinated by almost anything that would prompt me to say “No, no, honey, you could hurt yourself.” Safe, developmentally appropriate baby toys hold no interest for him.

He also has 300 hundred hands, though 298 of them are invisible to the naked eye. I am convinced it’s a new step in the evolutionary process. He can get into anything and everything. His reach is far longer than I think it is, so he will suddenly lunge onto the side of a soup bowl or a glass of milk and splish… we go through a lot of laundry these days.

Luckily I am paranoid and keep all truly hot and sharp things out of my reach, much less his.

I am going to be led quite a merry chase by this young man over the next few years (or longer).

Otter had his first egg yolk the other day, he was not thrilled with actually eating the hard boiled egg yolk, but he was thrilled with the tactile sensations the yolk introduced.

Otter enjoys his first egg yolk:

He is also sleeping on his tummy a lot now, which is an amazing shift for the boy who spoke out publicly against tummy time. He is less vociferous now, and even enjoys it during the day from time to time. That is a good thing, as almost all his reaching attempts result in a downward schlump into tummy time.

“da,da,da,ya,ya,da,sssththss,eh” He says to me, which I believe means “Quit blogging Mother and pay attention to me!”

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43 men…

January 14, 2008 Savvy Spoonie 9 Comments

219 years.
43 Presidents.
43 White Men.

In the 1790 census, performed one year after George Washington was inaugurated, there were approximately 1,598,944 free white men, 1,541,263 free white women, 59,150 free persons of other races, and 694,280 slaves in the United States.

The free white women were nearly equal in number to the free white men at the start of our nation (this did not account for women of other races, of course, neither did the numbers for the men). President George Washington was not representative of the sex and race of the majority of the population. That was the way things were back then, but they changed.

In 1890, there were approximately 32,067,880 men and 30,554,370 women in the United States. There were approximately 7,038,360 non-white persons. There was a total population of 62,622,250 persons. White men totaled less than half the population of the United States. President Benjamin Harrison was not representative of the sex and race of a majority of the population. That was the way things were back then, but they changed.

In 2000, there were 143,368,343 women and 138,053,563 men in the United States. 75.1 percent of those were white, 24.9 percent were another race. The women outnumbered the men. President George W. Bush was not representative of the gender and race of the majority of the population. That was the way things were back then, but they changed?

Not in 2004…

Oh, but gender discrimination, it’s all but gone. Things have changed.

219 years.
43 Presidents.
43 White Men.

Where exactly is the change?

If you want to see the numbers, get a look at how much lower our wages are, how the families we support are more likely to be impoverished, and how at all age groups we are more likely to live in poverty than men are, go here, and choose the “We the Americans” report on women.

Not all the news is bad. We are getting more educated, we are getting more involved in the workforce and in politics, but not enough has changed. Run the numbers for yourself. The census info goes back all the way to 1790, and it makes for a very interesting read.

ADDITION: Posted after some positive news on women in politics, and a comment as to the nigh-purely negative view of my post, was discovered… (by me, I realize the editorial was out for a bit before I read it. Sorry Daddy, I don’t always read it right away!.)

Colorado is a great place for women to be! Why? Well we outnumber the men in the House of Representatives, 21 to 19. Yay! A female majority! Of course, women politicos still only make up a third of the legislators in the state, but there is a majority in the house.

Why does this matter? Because while there have not been any Boys V.S. Girls votes in the legislature, it is important to realize that voting on bills is only a small part of the process. Determining what bills get up for vote is the big part, and having a number of women around to insure a modicum of women’s issues get on the floor is an important thing!

The editorial is much more eloquent than me. Link above and check it out!

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