Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Day!

 

This is what my 5 year old came home from pre-k announcing to everyone. He loves him a good holiday. And I love that he paid attention at school today! He was told me that it was MLK’s dream that we would all be kind to each other and love each other the same no matter who we are. I was very impressed that they got that concept through to him today! And, he sang an adorable little song to me about him as well. I asked him if he understood why Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to get people to be kind to one another. He tried to explain that it was because the people were all different.

I spent a few minutes trying to explain the civil rights movement to him and how people with white skin used to treat people with brown skin very badly. I tried briefly to explain that African Americans were slaves to white people and how horrible that was. He was befuddled by all of it. Honestly. I wish you could have seen his face. First he said, “But mom, all of us have brown skin! Mine is really light and Quinn’s is darker and Dr. Martin Luther King’s was darker.”

So, his first newsflash of the day was that he is white (technically I guess, or of that category).

So I used some examples to help him understand. I asked, “How do you think it would make Quinn feel if you treated him badly because his skin is darker brown than yours? What about Mrs. Nadeau? What if mommy was mean to her because she has dark brown skin?” Blake just looked at me in the rearview mirror like I had 3 heads. Seriously. And he said, “Well, that’s just not how we ‘ll do anything. We’ll look at how people are on the inside.” Just when I almost shed a tear from pride, he followed that up by saying, “Our skeletons are all the same.” HA! OK, skeletons, hearts, we’re almost there. So, I explained that things used to be very, very bad and MLK was working very hard to make sure that everyone got treated kindly and equally no matter how they looked. I also told him that there is someone else who cares even more that we love one another very much. I asked him if he remembered who that was. Oh yes. This kid has been paying attention in Sunday school. He knew that even more that MLK, our Heavenly Father actually commands us to love one another. There are no exceptions made. God is the maker of these beautiful skin tones, therefore he MUST care very much that we treat them all as beautiful creations.

I think it’s no coincidece that B and I had been reading out of 1 Samuel recently and he remembered this verse (he remembered it because I underlined it in my Bible-he thinks that it is amazing that I’m allowed to write in my Bible!):

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

We’ve wondered if we need to discuss transracial adoption with him (the fact that we have listed “no preference” means that we don’t know what ethnicity our baby could be). I don’t think B is going to give a flying flip for a very long time.

I’m so happy about his innocence. I want stick him in a bottle an hang on to it forever.

 

 

The End of an Era

I’ve had the blue streak for 20 months. It’s been a great run. But it has to be updated about every 3-4 weeks, and lets be honest, I’m in no position to be holding my head over the tub working on hair dye projects. Stu won’t miss trying to get blue dye spots out of the countertops. 🙂

However, I still had to do something fun! So my wonderful hairdresser and I came up with this. The back is just brown. The highlights are only in the front. The bathroom self portraits are never anyone’s best side, but it’s all I had to work with for now.

After and Before:

Me and the Dog

This is how I can be sure that I’ve been laid up for too long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ0tetZKpRU

The House at Pooh Corner

I have had the book since I was a little girl. I have always loved the way A.A.Milne wrote. When I was growing up, I dreamed about reading it to my children someday. When Stu and I were dating (phone dating-he lived in Maryland and I in Texas for 3 long years), sometimes I would read him portions of this book that were my favorites. We would joke that I was putting him to sleep with a bedtime story. And now, finally, the day has arrived, and it’s surreal. My boy is loving this book. He loves it because he knows the characters, but he feels so grown up because it is a chapter book, a “big kid” book. His favorite thing to do is go through the book and find the places where Pooh makes up a song and B makes up his own tune for it and we sing it. It is adorable. My heart is happy.

Mama’s got her keys!

Look out world! I haven’t driven since sometime in November, I think. You would not believe how good it is for a family’s budget to take the keys away from the mother. I have a long list of places I want to take myself and they all require money. I see a hair appointment in my future. There are so many things you take for granted when you have to ask someone to do everything for you. What would I do without my incredible friends?

In real news, however, we saw my neurosurgeon yesterday and brought my films from the xray of my neck. That was fascinating!! Here’s a front and side view:

He said I’m healing up nicely, meaning the new, artificial disc has fused with my vertebrae. The muscles in the neck are still furiously angry and causing me a great deal of pain, although admittedly less pain that I was in weeks ago. This progression is slow as molasses, but it is happening. Now that I’m cleared for physical therapy, the hope is that things will speed up.

And in other random news, we LOVE our neurosurgeon. I know that he was a Godsend. I don’t say that in the cliche sense. I mean, we prayed (many, many people prayed), then we picked a day to go to the ER at a world renowned hospital and ended up with not only a very gifted and brilliant doctor, but a kind and helpful one. When our insurance company denied our ENTIRE claim (CIGNA!!!), he promptly called their doctor and went to bat for us. When we thanked him for that, he said that that doctor happened to be an old friend of his, and made an “exception” for us. Stu and I looked at each other wide-eyed. We were scared to ask why we needed an exception, we were just grateful that yet again, I know that God’s hand was in this. I know it. We also learned that our doctor has published MANY books. I was waiting to hear how boring they were (you know, medical stuff, probs), and he went on to tell us that he writes poetry, novels, and plays the clarinet in the orchestra when he has time! Ha! He totally busted my stereotype. Shame on me.

Next step, find a physical therapist and pray for the day that I can wake up and not desperately reach for a bottle of medication in order to even consider getting out of bed.

And for now, I’ll be grateful that I HAVE the medication that helps me get out of bed, and that I’m on the other side of this horrible ordeal.

Ps. Funny note. We’re ASSUMING I’m allowed to drive. It was the most obvious question for this checkup, that we didn’t even bother to write it down. When I called Kait to tell her how great everything went, she asked if I was cleared to drive,and Stu and I realized that we never asked!! He cleared me for everything else, so we’re hoping that covers driving too.

🙂

Am I there yet? And other things…

I’m coming along. People tell me. Recovery is SLOOOWWW. The only reason I know that I’m coming along is because I can look back in weeks and see things that I obviously can do things now that I couldn’t do before. I still feel SO invalid. So frustrated, so impatient (patients/patience, anyone think that’s ironic?).

I hope that soon (weeks?) I can have my keys back and start physical therapy. Oh keys, where will we go together?!

B turned 5 in October and he has been incredible. I was really afraid he would act out when the realization sunk in that his mother was really laid up (but let’s face it, I’ve been down for a long time now). Instead, his daddy has taught him about taking care of me, and he has truly impressed me. I’ve been meaning to document some of our conversations…

He’s discovered Full House, and the other day (while I was trying to rest, and yes, letting the TV babysit my boy), I heard him say, “She is so beautiful.” Naturally, I perked up to make sure we were still on Full House. Does anyone remember Becky, the one Uncle Jesse eventually married? I agreed, “yes she is”, and rolled back over. He crawled over to put my face in his hands and said, “you know who else is beautiful?” (picture my face smooshed, eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer). And that is when my son said, “You are beautiful. And that’s why you’re my sweet lovin’ Mama.”

His sweet lovin’ Mama?!

Last night while I was reading to him (another indication that I’m improving, I’m able to tuck my boy in at night!), he proposed to me. He’s done this before, but this time was a little different. I asked him what the hurry was, and he told me that he need to hurry up and get married so that he can be a daddy and a deacon. Im so happy that my baby has a daddy that makes him want to aspire to such wonderful things!

He got scared in the night last night. I don’t know what had him so spooked, but he was already announcing that he was scared when he was heading to the restroom at 3am. We were coaching him lazily from bed that he was ok. Instead of flipping on the bathroom light, he flipped on the bathroom fan and the noise scared the crap out of him. I can’t remember the last time I heard him scream like that. I nearly popped a stitch flinging myself out of bed to get to him. I’m usually a “tough-it-out” kind of mom, but he was really terrified. It took a while to get him calmed down and tucked back into bed. This morning, he came to me in bed (do you see a pattern of bedrest with me?), and asked me if I remembered how scared he was last night. He thanked me for holding him. I mean, my 5 year year old said, Thank you, Mommy for holding me last night when I was scared. That made me feel so much better. I want to give you a Lovie Hug because you I love you so much.” (Lovie Hugs are special commodities where you snuggle the lovie while hugging).

He melts my heart. All the time.