Thank you!
Sorry for leaving you all in the lurch with my negative post. Thank you all so much for the kind words, especially Tora. I needed to hear them. I also needed something else that only Mike can provide. Or half the human population, but I prefer only Mike provide it. Well. I suppose the whole human population COULD provide it, but I only swing one way.
Anyway, after my pity party I ended up having a good Sunday and have been super, super busy this week. Elsa is suddenly cutting her naps way short, which means my computing time is even less than it was before.
I couldn’t sleep last night because I was worried about how I would deliver big sums of money to all my LJ friends and blog readers when we win the 130 million dollar (just an estimate) jackpot next week. I wouldn’t want you to know where the money came from, but just sending you an anonymous cashier’s check wouldn’t really be that safe because you’d assume it was some sort of scam and throw it away. I wouldn’t send it through paypal because I wouldn’t want to pay a big fee on all that money. Yes, I’m a millionaire, but I don’t have to line the pockets of paypal when I can send a free cashier’s check. Maybe I could hire someone to go around and hand deliver all the money.
This, of course, is dependent on several things. First, I’d have to buy a lottery ticket. Then I’d have to win.
Maybe I need to start back on the sleeping pills.
Speaking of sleep, as Kisha suggested, I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to mold. The worst times are the times the mold blooms (3-6 am). Mike cleaned out our humidifier and that solved most of my problem. Thank goodness!
Here, have a little random Elsa. There are some new pics on Flickr. I found a few on an old camera. I never thought the kids looked alike, but if I didn’t know they were Elsa I would just as easily assume they were Erik.
I read The Help this weekend. I’d been resisting because I don’t like to read sad things and most serious literature is sad. True, there are a lot of sad and disgusting things in the book (it’s about black maids in Mississippi in 1964), but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, the end was kind of abrupt and unrealistic. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to the main characters, but the end didn’t really feel very authentic. Still, excellent book. I couldn’t put it down. I am disgusted that people ever acted like the whites did back then, but then I see people still acting like that today. The target has changed (mainly other brown people like Hispanics and Asians).
Speaking of brown people.
I wanted to disappear through a hole in the center of the earth the other day. We were on our daily walk around the lake. We had just come up to a black family and there was a big group of middle school kids of all colors behind us. Erik suddenly pipes up “Hey! Did you know one of Lucy’s mommies is black? I’ve never seen a black person! How did she get black?”
I’m wanting to die, of course, but also going “wtf?” because Lucy has two mommies? And he’s never seen a black person???
So with at least ten sets of black eyeballs on me, I say, “What are you talking about? You know Lucy and David and Miss Nina and Jayquon and Julian and [insert names of at least ten other people].”
“Uhhh. Mommy. None of those people are black. They’re all brown.”
I’ve read many times that white people have no idea how to talk about race with their children. I try, but I don’t have any idea. I don’t know what words to use or how to phrase it or anything. We live in a very diverse area with people from all over the world in our neighborhood, schools, MOMS Club and so forth. I think he knows that all people are people, but I guess I better work on how to define people. I don’t know how to do that without being offensive, but he needs to know that a black person is a black person. I don’t know any black people who don’t want to be known as black. It’s a part of who they are, obviously.
For something all together different, I do have to brag on him a little. He is such a good boy most of the time, but I tend to forget it because he’s a five year old boy, not a perfect 36 year old mom like myself.
He always works really hard in karate class and pays extra special attention. At the end of every class the teacher hands out a blue stripe. This stripe is supposed to go to the person who does the best in the class (most focused, loudest, pays attention, so forth). In reality, the stripe goes to whoever hasn’t gotten the stripe in a while. It is a huge motivator for the kids and the teachers make sure all the kids get a turn. It makes the kids feel about 10 feet tall and makes them want to come back. Problem? Usually Erik or this other boy are the only ones who really deserve it. Erik gets really frustrated when he sees a kid who has been lolly-gagging around all class get the stripe when he knows he was focused and doing what he was supposed to do. The teacher usually rubs Erik’s head and tells him that he wishes he could give him the blue stripe every week. This week the teacher did something I’ve never seen before. He gave Erik a special Attitude stripe and told him it’s because he always deserves a blue stripe and is doing the best in the class all the time.
I was so happy! Erik was beyond happy! Even the mom sitting behind me was happy (she says Erik has gusto).
Ok, I need to go take care of this baby. Do you want another picture? No? Too bad.
Yes, I realize this is where I should put in a pic of Erik looking fierce in his karate outfit, but he doesn’t like having his picture taken at the moment. And he’s cute, but he doesn’t have baby-cute going for him.