Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Let me file that under fuck it.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

T R E 4 5 O N

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Very Baby Open Thread

A Very Baby Open Thread

by | 150 Comments

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The background on Suzanne’s baby:

A lot of fellow Juicers wanted me to make sure I let a front-pager know when I finally had my baby, because they’re all very sweet and lovely people. Even matoko_chan. ;)
Anyway, Mia Rosalia was born perfect and healthy yesterday evening at 5:13 pm, and weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and is 20 inches long. She has a full head of thick, dark brown hair, and looks very slightly like an Ewok. I am doing just fine—no seizures (I’m epileptic), and, most importantly, THE EPIDURAL WORKED. Damn skippy, that is a fabulous invention. FSM smiles upon the soul who came up with that idea.
In the photo, which was taken last night, you can see that her face is a bit bruised from being born so fast… most of that’s already faded. We’re going home tomorrow morning. Please convey my gratitude to everyone for their kindness and concern and love, and happy holidays to you and everyone. :)

It’s good to have some new blood around here, since Bean and her husband-to-be SamKitten have abandoned us.

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    I’m watching Lawerence O’Donnell’s show on MSNBC and had hamsher on and she’s seething over Obama’s victories, saying he doesn’t deserve any credit.

    Heh!

    Obama derangement syndrome at it’s finest.

  4. 4.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    I should add: bizarrely enough she twice implied obama needs to grow a pair of balls.

    Misogyny is always wrong, but coming from a woman is sad. Poor jane, why does she hate women?

  6. 6.

    SIA

    Congrats Suzanne! What a darling! Glad everyone is doing fine. Makes me (temporarily) want one.

    And in honor of the Famed] Duck, Ninja Obama.

    G’wan & troll me, haters!

  8. 8.

    Alison

    Even though I am happily without kids and plan to remain that way forevermore – and would use my uterus for extra storage if I could – I still <3 baby pics (in moderation).

    All that to say: cuuuuuute!

    Welcome to the world, little one. Sorry it kind of sucks, but there's lots of good stuff too.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Mia Rosalia is just lovely! Happy to help welcome her.

    For 2012, we need a Babies of Balloon Juice calendar.

  12. 12.

    eemom

    she’s beeeyooootiful. Babies are the BEST.

    Congrats Suzanne and Mr Suzanne, and welcome to the world, little Mia!

  14. 14.

    Jibeaux

    Lovely name for a lovely baby. If you’re ever in Arizona, though, take care to call her “My Rosalie” because she’s too precious to face deportation.
    Okay, that was a bad joke but it’s Walnuts’ fault. And my own lame ass Dem senator voting no on the Dream Act. I called today, but I dunno if it’ll get another vote.

  18. 18.

    JCT

    @pjcamp: When they stand up?

    And start “surfing” the coffee table and pulling things off bookshelves, throwing themselves down stairs like “Superman” and CLIMBING up bookshelves…

    Yeah, my second child scarred me but good…

    She’s a beaut, suzanne — all ready for some bows in her hair!

  21. 21.

    birthmarker

    What a beautiful baby! Congrats to everyone. I had a Christmas baby too, (who is now 21 years old) and it was so much fun!!

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @pjcamp #15: When they go from being mostly horizontal to mostly vertical? (Dunno actually, I’m guessing.)

  26. 26.

    RedKitten

    Congratulations Suzanne! Mia is absolutely gorgeous! And I’m so happy the epidural worked — they ARE a blessing, aren’t they?

    And Cole, SamKitten hasn’t abandoned you. I just wasn’t sure if everybody would still find him squee-worthy now that he’s not a teeny-tiny behbeh, and I didn’t want to be one of THOSE people who is always foisting pictures of my kid on an unwilling audience.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Alison #8:

    would use my uterus for extra storage if I could

    I intend to use this line without attribution.

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    Congratulations, Suzanne (& DH & older sister, too)! Welcome to the world and Balloon Juice, young Mia!

    @SiubhanDuinne: __

    For 2012, we need a Babies of Balloon Juice calendar.

    Nah, we just dedicate one month on the Pets calendar to the hairless primates. (/smile)

  33. 33.

    Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom

    Lovely, lovely little girl <3. Makes the day even more worth celebrating than it was before. And it was pretty awesome!
    Blessed Be, little one. Perfect Love. Perfect Trust.

  34. 34.

    Tattoosydney

    I would like it noted that I did not go squee at the picture of the adorable itsy baby.

    There may have been a loud “Dawwwwwww!” but that’s all I am admitting to…

  38. 38.

    Gary Farber

    Good god, how many open threads a day are there on BJ these days?

    Does anyone actually read all these open threads in a day, or what strategy do people around here use?

    [scratches head]

  40. 40.

    Debbie(aussie)

    Congrats to Suzanne & family, she is a beauty!
    I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all the BJ’ers, front pagers and commenters alike, a very happy and safe holiday. Hope you are not freezing too much, we down here(SE QLD) are getting just a little soggy.
    From an occaional commenter, regular reader.

  43. 43.

    Gary Farber

    Open Thread at 10:20 pm | 38 Comments

    Open Thread at 8:47 pm | 57 Comments

    Open Thread at 6:28 pm | 86 Comments

    Open Thread at 7:24 am | 71 Comments

    Cat Blogging, Open Thread at 9:48 pm | 72 Comments

    How does anyone read all of this, and all the posts in a day on BJ, even if one skips every other comment, and reads no other blogs, and nothing else but the links, and writes no where else, but actually still wants to read Other Things Too?

    Or do people just plunk themselves randomly at posts and randomly make comments or… how do people approach commenting on BJ in recent years when there are this many posts per day and this many comments?

    Serious question: I have no idea what strategy people use, but it seems unlikely to include reading a high percentage of comments. Which… what strategy do people use?

    Feel free to give a few pointers to what must be one bazillion past comments or discussions about this, rather than anyone repeat themselves unnecessarily.

    Or, of course, there may be a new open thread posted before I’ve finished posting this comment.

    I may be under/over-estimating. I could try experimenting with how much of BJ I could read and respond to in 24 hours, I suppose.

    Would have worked better before I left Raleigh, though.

    And probably wouldn’t be the best approach, for various obvious reasons.

    But: randomness? Or… what?

  45. 45.

    jeffreyw

    Though I d make it a point to try to add puppies to posts where comments seem to be stuck in a cycle of “oh yeah, well yer momma…”

    Or anywhere, actually, I consider all posts to be open puppy threads.

  47. 47.

    WereBear

    Congrats, suzanne and behbeh Mia Rosalia! (Love that name.)

    @RedKitten: He’s still squee worthy! Just a bit more dignified.

    And here’s my baby:

    Tristan meets Santa.

    Schrodinger’s Cat was kind enough to ask about him many threads back.

    Solstice Party went awesomely, I discovered the joys of eggnog/Captain Morgan’s spiced rum, courtesy of one of my guests. And a new holiday tradition is born!

  48. 48.

    Violet

    Congrats, suzanne! She’s gorgeous. Glad the delivery went well. Pain killers FTW.

    @RedKitten:
    Oooh…he’s so cute! And getting so big! Good to see a photo of him again.

    I’m busy baking. First of five types of cookies are baking at the moment. Christmas bread baking as well. Breadmaker FTW. Busy, busy, busy. House smells good, though!

  49. 49.

    Lysana

    @Gary Farber: Holy carp. Is this the same Gary Farber from rec.arts.sf.fandom? If so, wow. Blast from the past. If not, welcome either way.

    And in regards to your concerns, I pick and choose the posts I read, too. I favor some writers and topics over others. And sometimes, I pick based on my random mood of the day.

  51. 51.

    Mark

    Mr. Suzanne here, I just wanted to thank folks for the lovely well wishes. Suz and I are stupidly proud of Mia.

    I’m a lurker myself, but am proud to have intro’ed Suz to BJ, and have been a reader since before the great Cole de-wingnuttening of ought whenever.

    — QuestionMark

  52. 52.

    asiangrrlMN

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwssssssssqqqquuuueeee! I was just thinking of suzanne and her bebe. Mia Rosalia is just gorgeous! Glad both mama and bebe are fine!

    @RedKitten: SamKitten is getting so big. He is just a handsome boy and still squee-worthy!

    @jeffreyw: Oh my god. That puppy is insanely cute!

    @WereBear: Still the cutest kitten evah!

    As for threads, I pretty much read all the front page posts, then I choose which ones interest me and read the comments. As for open threads, I usually just stick to the latest one.

    TattooSydney, hi, hon! How you be? Nice to see you here on a weekday.

  53. 53.

    asiangrrlMN

    Good to see you, Mark (Mr. suzanne). You should be ridiculously proud of mama and daughter. Congratulations.

    And, clean up in aisle three. I think the new father is the victim of the single-dash phenomenon.

  54. 54.

    Shadow's Mom

    Congratulations, Suzanne! I am so pleased that you and your daughter came through delivery in good health, and particularly that you did not suffer seizures. She is beautiful, what a happy Christmas for you.

  55. 55.

    Jewish Steel

    D’aw! That is one cute baby. Well done!

    Don’t you cheat that baby on Xmas or Hanukkah presents just because she was born so late in the year. My birthday is the 24th. Take it from one who knows.

  58. 58.

    Comrade Mary

    Oh my God, proud new daddy Mark (you and Suzanne have cooked a lovely baby!) has eaten asiangrrl! Please, oh please, won’t someone rescue her?

    And I am on record as saying in some earlier thread that even though SamKitten shockingly transitioned to small boy instead of baby some time ago, here’s still adorable and we NEED his pictures.

  60. 60.

    Gary Farber

    “Well, I just skip the posts that aren’t about shit I care about.”

    I’m unclear how I should apply this strategy.

    “@Gary Farber: Holy carp. Is this the same Gary Farber from rec.arts.sf.fandom”

    Yes. The same one whose name was until recently on the first page of Google for both “Gary” and “Farber,” and still is for “Gary Farber,” who has been blogging for almost nine years, with over a million and a half page views.

    Although I see that I’m no longer even in the first 20 pages of Google results for “Gary,” although I’m still #10 on the first page for “Farber.”

    All things are temporary.

    I’m fairly sure I was posting on this blog before y’all were, unless you were around when John started, like I was.

    Most of the time I’ve, you know, been on the blogroll here on the upper right sidebar. For most of nine years. (There was a gap for a while during one of the template switches, or whatever, but it wasn’t terribly recently, or for terribly long, as in at least a couple of years, if my memory isn’t too confused, which is always possible.

    I kinda explained all this just this morning on an open thread here, and pointed again here, which is why I’m being baffled at how people are supposed to read around BJ these days, or in recent years, which is why I haven’t been commenting much since Tim F. was added, since it’s rude to participate somewhere where one isn’t familiar with the local culture, and hasn’t taken a couple of weeks of heavy reading to familiarize one’s self with it.

    As you may recall from Usenet, or before this newfangled “web.”

    I dunno how one is supposed to approach commenting on a blog that one doesn’t read most all of the posts on, and most of the comments, aside from those exceptional moments when a cruise-by isn’t totally rude, which is kinda hard to tell without first spending the time to learn the local culture, and there we start looping, or at least I do.

    Although there have been few years since John started, if any, that I haven’t commented on BJ at least a few times.

    Not remotely heavily, though, for the reasons I’m mentioning here, but have the feeling I’ll have to mention again on another, new, open thread, next time I make my way back upstairs to the computer again, at the rate open threads appear to be posted on BJ these days.

  64. 64.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Gary Farber: I said this and it was eeted, but now it’s back.

    As for threads, I pretty much read all the front page posts, then I choose which ones interest me and read the comments. As for open threads, I usually just stick to the latest one.

    When I first lurked, I would just read the threads and comments. Now, I read the front posts and open threads that interest me. I will open all animal/sports threads, and the latest open thread. It’s pretty loose around here.

  65. 65.

    soonergrunt

    Suzanne–Nice job! Now the real fun begins.
    @RedKitten–Sam’s still as handsome as ever.

    Hug em and cuddle em as much as they’ll let you now. One day they turn 10 and they don’t want to in front of their friends, and then they turn 12 and they don’t want to at all. Then they turn 13 and roll their eyes at everything.
    I love both of my children deeply. But at least once a day, I remember what the son or the daughter (whichever one is being today’s pain in the ass) looked like as a sleeping infant. Because they’re so cute at that age and my desire to kill the teenager is only transient after all.

  66. 66.

    Anne Laurie

    @jeffreyw: Annie and Homer are the cutest madonna-n-child photo I’ve seen this year!

    (Animists don’t have to worry about blasphemy, and besides, MoDo’s ‘undersea creche’ article should be keeping the Papists busy enough.)

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    Mia’s beautiful, Suzanne. Congratulations to you and your family.

    May the FSM endow Mia with advanced sleeping skills soonest. Among other gifts.

  68. 68.

    Gary Farber

    @Lysana:

    […] And in regards to your concerns, I pick and choose the posts I read, too. I favor some writers and topics over others. And sometimes, I pick based on my random mood of the day.

    How many other blogs a day do you read, and many other newspapers and magazines?

    This isn’t a challenge: I’m trying to understand what it is commenters do around here these days if they’re all sort of missing each other, as seems clearly not just necessary, but impossible to do otherwise.

    Meanwhile, I really need to be getting back to posting at my own blogs, which I’m having trouble finding time for at present, but since I was asked a question that followed up on a very kind post of John’s from a year ago, I’m doing my best in the brief time allotted since this morning to try to figure out how to reply in a way that is read by more than a single person here, absent constantly keeping a tab open and reading everything, or… what?

    Even if there were a “click to receive email notifications if there are replies on this thread” option, it seems impractical if one doesn’t want to get flooded with email, or, contrawise, have to have moved up to the next open thread, and then again, and then again.

    Five in one day? Over 300+ comments on those alone? I don’t think so.

  73. 73.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mark: Congratulations! You will want to save a copy of this post somewhere, so that at some future date you’ll have the ammunition to thoroughly embarrass Mia with the proof she wasn’t just a Facebook phenom like all her friends, but the toast of a B-list political blog as well!

    (Also, for future reference: TWO em-dashes/hyphens or NO em-dashes, but never a single em-dash before your siggy, unless you want WordPress to do unpleasant things to all the comments after yours. I fixed it this time.)

  75. 75.

    Yutsano

    I was about to be very put out if I got home from work and there was no bebeh news. Now I haz a happy. The space alien emergeth!!

    @asiangrrlMN: Hi hon. Gonna be up and down from the computer all night so don’t panic if I’m not responding right away.

    @RedKitten: We can start the Balloon Juice Samkitteh Hockey Fund any time you’re ready. :)

  79. 79.

    monkeyboy

    @Jay in Oregon:

    It’s a bebeh! :D

    @sherifffruitfly:

    It’s a BAYbee!

    I see what you did there!

    Many new parents and those new to babies often get told the “minister” story.:

    There was this newly minted priest/minister/pastor/rabbi who in his first congregation was always having babies/children thrust at him for his admiration.
    __
    He knew he should he should say something in response, but he had problems with the ugly ones. Being a servant of God he didn’t want to lie about how beautiful the child was nor did he feel comfortable in being brutally frank or saying nothing.
    __
    An old hand eventually gave him the solution – just act enthusiastic about being presented with the child and exclaim “Its a BABY!”

  80. 80.

    RadioOne

    Babies rock. My one new year’s resolution is for the world as a whole to have a hell of a lot more babies next year. Provided that parents can provide for them, of course. But I’m kinda psyched by the new baby boom that’s been happening in America this past year. It’s pretty cool.

  82. 82.

    cmorenc

    That baby thing seems so long ago now that my two daughters are 26 and 21, respectively and we’re (most, though not quite all the time now) empty nesters.

  83. 83.

    asiangrrlMN

    @gwangung: Well, I am trying to deliver it to Yutsy by Christmas Eve, and I’m trying to keep it under 2,000 words. So, I’m confining it to the last three months. And, it’s still not easy. In fact, I coined a new term for him–ass-shattery.

  84. 84.

    WereBear

    @monkeyboy: When I heard it, the punchline was, Now that is a baby!

    I must say it always reminds me of when I was the babysitter for a family with two young boys for several years during my teenhood, and they finally got the little girl they wanted.

    I was excited and proud to meet her, only to be confronted with what looked like a shaved and boiled chimp. I made the appropriate noises anyway, and (happy ending!) by six months she had grown hair and gotten a human skin tone and was truly adorable.

  85. 85.

    Dee Loralei

    @RedKitten: Sam Kitten is still a handsome, happy boy. And the holidays are just going to keep getting funner with him.

    And Allie, over at Hyperbole And A Half has a new entry up. It may actually be one of the funniest Christmas stories, EVAR. It’s all about Baby Jesus, Baby Santa and Kenny Loggins… and well, you really just have to read it.

    http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

  86. 86.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Packing, light cleaning, basically getting the digs ready to leave it for four days. I don’t think I’m gonna manage finishing the milk off though. At least I have Lexie’s favorite kitteh toy handy to distract her on the drive over. I’m also thinking the garbage may not go out until the morning. Lassitude is an ugly business.

    @gwangung: I considered offering to edit, but seriously, what do you cut out? He really is a fucktard of the highest order.

    Time to check the passes.

  88. 88.

    monkeyboy

    @WereBear:

    When I heard it, the punchline was, Now that is a baby!

    I didn’t tell the story as the joke with a punchline.

    The “joke” form is that a minister learns the “It’s a baby code”, has a baby, and when a fellow minister exclaims “It’s a baby!” punches him out.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: If the weather is cooperative: four hours. If it sucks: seven if I gotta go the long way. I’ll tough it out either way.

    Just remember this when talking about Grandpa Walnuts: no matter what he does he’ll never know actual happiness. I think it’s the real source of all his bitterness.

  90. 90.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Damn. Lexie is not going to be a happy kitteh, methinks. How’s the weather looking?

    Grumpy McCain: I know. I would feel bad for him except he’s inflicted his misery on everyone else.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Actually…pretty decent as of right now. I’ll do a final check in the morning to see if it holds but no restrictions is a positive sign in my book.

    As for Walnuts: fuck him. The people of Arizona are pretty much getting what they deserve re-electing that bitter doddering old fool.

  93. 93.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Hey, it’s my vacation, I’m gonna try not to think about Grandpa McGrumpypants until I read your blog post.

    And I know suzanne is way passed out by now, but I did have my division of the IRS pulling for her. And the name consensus was Phoebe. As one of them said, it has a puffy mouth feel.

  96. 96.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Puffy mouth feel? I’m dying here. I like Mia Rosalia. It’s beautiful.

    Grumpy McCain: I just can’t quit him! Shudder.

    And, to counter the bad mojo of so much laser-like focus on Grumpy McCain, I give you Generous Peace (h/t ee/Emily Hauser).

  98. 98.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Now THAT was cool. I see hijab around here like that all the time. The beauty of my city: no one BLINKS. We just give a glance and move on. Nice eye candy too. :)

  102. 102.

    taylormattd

    OMG, yay, so wonderful Suz!! What a beautiful kid! :D

    And I told you everything was going to be fine. Congratulations.

  103. 103.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Bah. Trying to get all this shit done. But Kareem seems like a fascinating gent.

    And trust me, you’re a helluva lot tougher than that old geezer. Think of it as a digestion of all he does to frustrate you. Then let it flow out your fingers. See if that helps.

  109. 109.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I’m sure all three kids will have enough to deal with having crazy aunts and uncles all over the globe who they most likely will never meet. But could you imagine getting Xmas presents for the three of them?

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Yes ma’am. As long as the roads cooperate I’ll be good.

    And a little something for the season. I go by one of the major concert halls on my way to work so I got to hear them rehearsing this today.

  112. 112.

    R-Jud

    Very very late, but welcome Mia and congrats Suzanne! I’m glad the pain meds did their thing.

    Yutsano, if you don’t want to drive, Bean will do it for you, as long as you work the gas and brake pedals for her.

  113. 113.

    Lysana

    @Gary Farber:

    I’m fairly sure I was posting on this blog before y’all were, unless you were around when John started, like I was.

    No, I only came along after his conscience kicked in, but this is the first time since I got here that I saw you commenting here at all. I see nothing’s changed.

  114. 114.

    Lysana

    @Gary Farber:

    How many other blogs a day do you read, and many other newspapers and magazines?

    To answer this is a difficult question based on how I consume online writing. I do freelance writing nowadays, and a fair bit of my time is spent reading and researching for articles as well as promoting them and cross-promoting others for in-kind consideration. I get here maybe twice a day except on slow news days. So I wind up reading multiple news sites as well as keeping up on Twitter and whatever links appear there on my feed just to make sure the income doesn’t dry up and also keep my ADHD brain from breaking with the boredom.

    I figure, to sum up roughly, that I look at up to six to ten blogs a day depending on who posts what. This place I visit directly for the quality of the front-pagers and commenters.

    I also don’t attach a lot of ego to having all of my comments reacted to. Sometimes, saying my piece is enough.

  117. 117.

    JPL

    Special congrats to Suzanne and Mark. Mia is a sweetie.
    R-Jud and Red Kitten the pictures of the tots are adorable and I hope you will post some xmas photos after the big day.

  118. 118.

    Josie

    And a lovely little ewok she is. Congratulations. I’m so glad the epidural worked for you and that all is well. Have a happy homecoming and a merry Christmas or whatever.

  119. 119.

    Carrie

    Awwww…..she’s gorgeous, congrats to you both.
    I love the bunny wrap, it makes babies look like loaves of bread.

  120. 120.

    R-Jud

    @RedKitten: She’s almost two. TWO. It’s nuts. She used to be this wiggly loaf of human. Now she talks in short sentences and builds things and tries to draw pictures and pretends to cook and does lion noises if you ask her.

    Of course, 31 years on, I am pretty sure my parents think the same thing about me: “Yesterday she was a seven-pound slobber machine, and now she has an accountant. What happened?”

  121. 121.

    A Humble Lurker

    So happy to see:
    The baby is healthy.
    You appear to be healthy.
    There were no seizures.
    Your epidural worked this time.

    Saw you skipped a moon name, but the name you picked is really pretty. Just like her. Bruises and all I just wanna hold her. Babies are so cute.

    She was born on the 21st? Just for fun let’s see….a Sagittarius! Neat! I don’t meet very many Sagittariuses.

    Hope you’re getting all the love and rest you need. Stay rested and healthy, yeah? Congrats to you and your family.

    (Sorry if this seems creepy because you don’t know me…no creepiness was intended, I swear.)

  122. 122.

    Poopyman

    Yay Suzanne and Rosalia! (Not “Rosie”, I’m guessing). Good news that everyone’s OK.

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    For 2012, we need a Babies of Balloon Juice calendar.

    Well then, get crackin’, but don’t look to Chez Poop for any such pics. It’s just cats over here.

    But it was close. Last weekend I was awakened at 4 AM by an ambulance and advanced life support trucks pulling up to the house across the street. To make a long story short, she delivered in her bed before they got there. They’re renters and just moved in, so I didn’t even know she was preggers.

  123. 123.

    aimai

    Suzanne,
    Congratulations on the baby! She’s beautiful and the name you have chosen is beautiful too. Mr. Aimai is currently digitizing the first years of video of our two daughters (now 12 and 14)–the adorableness and intensity of those first years can not be matched. Every year is wonderful and I won’t say its not great to be able to go out without hiring a babysitter–but those early months and years are incredibly rich. To be with a child during his or her first years of life is an incredible privilige. I know you will have a fantastic time–write down as much as you can every night. It goes by in a blink.

    aimai

  124. 124.

    Poopyman

    @Gary Farber:

    why I’m being baffled at how people are supposed to read around BJ these days, or in recent years, which is why I haven’t been commenting much since Tim F. was added, since it’s rude to participate somewhere where one isn’t familiar with the local culture, and hasn’t taken a couple of weeks of heavy reading to familiarize one’s self with it.

    Damn! That’s downright quaint! Not that I disagree with the sentiment, it’s just that we see too many examples where it’s obvious that somebody just dropped in. Of course, cold commenting is pretty tame around these parts, as rudeness goes.

  125. 125.

    c u n d gulag

    Congratulations!
    Wait, that baby looks a little Mexican. Quick someone, check her papers!

    Just kidding! She’s beautiful. And what a great name – Mia Rosalia!

  127. 127.

    Poopyman

    @Yutsano:

    Just remember this when talking about Grandpa Walnuts: no matter what he does he’ll never know actual happiness. I think it’s the real source of all his bitterness.

    Wow. Thanks for that. That gives me some comfort in my own twisted way.

    And this is an answer of sorts to Gary Farber’s question on how we manage to read all the entries. We don’t of course, and some of us only show up hours later when everyone else has moved on.

  128. 128.

    Tattoosydney

    And this is an answer of sorts to Gary Farber’s question on how we manage to read all the entries. We don’t of course, and some of us only show up hours later when everyone else has moved on.

    Yep. Particularly those of us on the other side of the world.

    Read what you can read of what interests you, comment without caring (or at least trying not to care) whether anyone reads it or responds, and if you miss something happening (like someone appointing themselves ombudsman or cute babies or fat cat pictures) you’ll probably hear about it later anyway.

  129. 129.

    RedKitten

    @R-Jud: No doubt. After Sam’s first birthday, I had posted a photo composite on my Facebook of his birthday picture and a pic from when he was about 10 minutes old, mentioning how they grow so quickly.

    My dad commented, “You can say THAT again, young lady!”

    And yeah…it seems so recently that he was this chubby little dumpling who couldn’t do anything but eat, poop, sleep and smile. Now he’s feeding himself with a spoon, bangs merrily away on my computer keyboard (thank goodness for that Baby Giggles program or I’d have no operating system left!), and runs around like a lunatic.

    He’s still my baby boy, though. He’s just cute in a different way, with his lean little back and his toddler pot belly and his feet that have turned from chubby little wedges into miniature replicas of my own.

  130. 130.

    Alwhite

    Congratulations to all involved.

    You will now get to know the most painful fun and the most fun pain you will ever know.

  131. 131.

    South of I-10

    @Mark: Congrats to both of you! Such a beautiful little girl. Watch out, our little girl has Mr. South trained to do exactly what she wants.

  132. 132.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Best wishes to all — especially a wish that Mia’s beauty is only eclipsed by her excellent eating, sleeping, snuggling and pooping habits.

  134. 134.

    Angela

    Congratulations to Mark and Suzanne on a safe and sound delivery and sweet sweet baby. Congrats to Mia Rosalia on such a good choice of well read parents!

  135. 135.

    Ash Can

    Hurrah for Suzanne and family! Darling healthy baby, pregnancy is history, epidural goodness — it’s all fabulous.

    And just wait till you do Christmas/birthday shopping for the kid. You’ll find yourself explaining to complete strangers in the store, “Yes, it’s all for just one kid, but her birthday is just three days before Christmas, and I’m taking care of everything now.” (Yes, this is the voice of experience talking.)

    @RedKitten: Of course he’s still cute! Here’s another vote to keep posting pictures.

  136. 136.

    matoko_chan

    Even matoko_chan.

    like i said to eemom, pet me again an’ ill take your arm off at the elbow.
    that said, that is an amazing gorgeous little girl and her name is gorgeous too.
    well worth wearing a fat suit for nine months imho.
    mebbe u wont be so cranky now.
    :)

  141. 141.

    Gary Farber

    @asiangrrlMN:

    You can put three links if you do not reply to anyone. Two links if you reply to someone. One link if you reply to two people.

    I take it by “reply” you mean using BJ‘s buttons, which seem to simply duplicate simple tags, if one doesn’t handwrite them, you wind up with a simple link to the comment linked to, so in other words, the answer seems to be that four links dumps one into moderation.

    Thanks.

    Hitting the cute little button to do multiple responses seems to generate multiple links in the same attempted comment, so trying to use that to respond to more than one person is problematic if one wishes to use more than two links, but, hokay, got it.

    I handwrite my own tags; every blog varies in software and use; if I don’t write my own HTML, I’d have to pause to examine the software of each blog before commenting, and then remember each blog’s variant commenting software; this started proving somewhat impractical back around ’04, but now is now.

    asiangrrlMN:

    @Gary Farber:

    How many other blogs a day do you read, and many other newspapers and magazines?

    To answer this is a difficult question based on how I consume online writing. I do freelance writing nowadays, and a fair bit of my time is spent reading and researching for articles as well as promoting them and cross-promoting others for in-kind consideration. I get here maybe twice a day except on slow news days. So I wind up reading multiple news sites as well as keeping up on Twitter and whatever links appear there on my feed just to make sure the income doesn’t dry up and also keep my ADHD brain from breaking with the boredom.

    Thanks muchly. That was helpful.

    I figure, to sum up roughly, that I look at up to six to ten blogs a day depending on who posts what. This place I visit directly for the quality of the front-pagers and commenters.

    “Look at” is defined as? Reading all the posts per day? Reading selected posts as you chance on them via skimming and luck of the moment? Searches? How often do you comment on each, more or less? Which sort of blogs? Examples?

    I also don’t attach a lot of ego to having all of my comments reacted to. Sometimes, saying my piece is enough.

    Sure.

    aimai: it’s nice to see your name again; come by Obsidian Wings sometime, if you feel like it; I’ve always vastly enjoyed your own blogging and many comments and views over the years, with the greatest of respect and admiration.

    (Of course, will aimai actually see that comment, without a link to her? — but if I link to more than three people in a response, blam, into the moderation queue. Which I suppose doesn’t matter if it’s not time-essential, but I have no idea how quickly the queue is cleaned around here. In any case, I’ll either find out, or it’s moot. Obviously it works for y’all, so.

    Poopyman:

    Damn! That’s downright quaint!

    As I am in many things, yet also a neophile.

    Not that I disagree with the sentiment, it’s just that we see too many examples where it’s obvious that somebody just dropped in.

    People don’t even read the RFCs now.

    “Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”
    — Socrates

    Of course, cold commenting is pretty tame around these parts, as rudeness goes.

    I prefer courtesy.

    But am hardly unused to rudeness, including, of course, my own unintentional many times.

    P, later:

    […] And this is an answer of sorts to Gary Farber’s question on how we manage to read all the entries. We don’t of course, and some of us only show up hours later when everyone else has moved on.

    Sure. It couldn’t be otherwise. It’s the volume/numbers that I needed to grok how people approach.

    The picture is clarifying. No huhu. Thanks.

    Tattoosydney:

    […] Read what you can read of what interests you, comment without caring (or at least trying not to care) whether anyone reads it or responds, and if you miss something happening (like someone appointing themselves ombudsman or cute babies or fat cat pictures) you’ll probably hear about it later anyway.

    Sure, if BJ is one’s primary blog community, and one spends a fairly regular amount of time on a fairly regular weekly, if not daily, basis, but in other words, of course it’s the standard asychronous internet that it’s been since I was archiving SF-LOVERS printouts from ARPANET in 1978.

    Thanks also for your perspective, which again, is helpful. I appreciate your taking the time to respond.

    #113, Lysana:

    No, I only came along after his conscience kicked in, but this is the first time since I got here that I saw you commenting here at all. I see nothing’s changed.

    I hope your life has improved and changed in many ways since the Nineties. Mine certainly has.

    It would be chilling to be the same person as many years ago. But I do have nine years of writing to demonstrate my back and forths, for better and worse.

    Thanks for your response; may you find more change where you look for it.

    Does anyone know how to make contact with WaterGirl, or should I just do a search on the site every now and again, or, well, whatever, it’ll work out or not.

    Thanks, all.

    Incidentally, I’ve posted at least half a dozen times in open threads on BJ in the past several months, though not the past two or three, probably, repeatedly asking a query, in variant forms, that was never answered, but that, too, is an answer, by this point. Oh, well.

    Perhaps time will change that, and perhaps not. Best to all, especially those who once lived in East Lansing, and then Boston.

    Back when I can. Thanks again to those who responded to my query.

  142. 142.

    Cain

    @RedKitten:

    I’m sorry RK, I had to hit “report this picture” because of the overload of cuteness. Too dangerous for facebook or BJ!

    He’s so big now! How time flies…

    Best wishes,

    cain

  144. 144.

    Gary Farber

    For the record, my full name has been used on this blog, so far, according to Google, 508 times. Mostly links in posts from John to posts on my blog. 48 pages of Google listing them.

    There was a time when blogs weren’t silos.

    That was then, this is now.

    Be here now.

  147. 147.

    Tsulagi

    Suzanne: Congratulations, very cute little girl.

    @RedKitten: I see a future hockey player in Sam. Obviously happy and good looking kid. He needs a little brother or sister. Work on it; it’s winter, what else you got to do in the frozen North?

    @soonergrunt: That’s funny and so true. Son plays pee-wee league football. After a game this year he shined in but his team lost, walking off the field he saw us waiting and correctly calculated hugs were in his immediate future. He takes off running. Cracked me up because I knew why; he didn’t want a hug in front of his football buddies. Everyone looking tough in their shoulder pads, helmets and all. I chase him down and asshole that I am give him a big exaggerated hug out on the field.

    Later at home told him okay, you’re getting older and I get why you don’t want a hug from me in front of your friends. Not gonna force it, but your mother gets a hug in private or in public whenever she feels the need. Deal with it.

    However can’t imagine the day when my little girl won’t want a hug. Don’t want to think about it either.

  150. 150.

    licensed to kill time

    suzanne takes you down to the place by the river
    you can hear the babies go by
    you can spend a long time with them suzanne :)

    Just got here but want to wish you a very happy newborn magictime…they are so goddamned sweet when they are so tiny!!

    suzanne you are one of my favorite commenters here….funny, slightly profane, articulate and full of spunk. I really enjoy your particular voice, keep it up! (if the baby will let you). Enjoy!

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