Just had to share this video. Brenden's latest craze is watching me put a toy in my mouth and growl like a dog. I'm detecting a trend here - anything that makes me look like an idiot is a hit.

I also snapped my favorite picture ever of Brenden. He is such a ham:

Sometimes he enjoys eating solids, and some days he's not interested. So far his favorites are peas, oatmeal, and bananas. We stocked up on jars of baby veggies, but Brenden hates the jarred fruit because they add absorbic acid to keep it from turning brown. So we bought a little hand grinder at Babies R Us, and it works great.

I'm becoming a poster child for adult ADD. I'm always thinking about 8 things at once, and I'm getting really forgetful. It's hard for me to connect the dots mentally. I keep to-do lists, but just trying to remember to write things down is a challenge. I'm always thinking, "Oh yeah, I need to email so and so, pick up such and such at the grocery store, etc etc." It makes me crazy sometimes.

And to add to the list of things swirling around in my head, for the first time since Brenden was born I've started paying attention to politics and social issues again. Over the weekend we watched Battle in Seattle. It was really interesting to see footage of the rioting that took place right outside my office. Here's a quick synopsis - back in 1999, the WTO (World Trade Organization) held its first major conference in Seattle. Bad idea. The WTO exploits a good part of the world, especially the poorest parts of it, no matter what the cost to the environment or people's quality of life. Seattleites love protesting and demonstrations (at least once a week there's a group of people getting riled up outside our office), so they went all out to shut the WTO's conference down.

I also started reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire. The US is responsible for some really horrible things in the past, and in the present. In school we read about the Native Americans being all but wiped out and the dropping of the atomic bombs in WWII, but I didn't really see the connection between those events and things going on today. Zinn starts back in the 1800's, detailing how the US has taken over multiple countries and repressed many groups of people, all for power and ultimately, for money. What really gets me going is that we're given so many excuses for invading other countries, and led to believe that we're doing it either to protect the people of that country, or ourselves. The common theme is that big business sees dollar signs on the map and thinks they're entitled to a piece of it. The war in Iraq is just another example. Please don't think I'm out there ripping "support our troops" bumper stickers off people's cars. I don't doubt the soldiers' bravery and I don't make light of their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of their families.

As long as I'm revealing my liberal leanings, I might as well mention how dumbfounded I am that we continue to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Why isn't the ban on gay marriage recongnized as discrimination, or the ban on gay couples adopting children in some states? Gay couples can legally adopt in Washington, and one of the principals at our firm and his partner have adopted three children. All three children have the same mother but different fathers. They adopted the first boy, then when the mother got pregnant twice more they decided to adopt those babies too. Their youngest is the same age as Brenden, so we get to compare notes. I've never met the children's birth mother, but it sounds like the children have a much more stable homelife with their adoptive fathers. I know some people are uncomfortable with the idea of homosexuality, but even if it's not your cup of tea, aren't there a lot more important battles to fight than keeping people from establishing a secure family life?