"Brown Bear, Brown Bear"

I am sure I can probably do this memory...

"Brown bear, Brown bear
What do you see?
I see a red bird looking at me.

Red bird, Red bird,
What do you see?
I see a yellow duck looking at me.

Yellow duck, Yellow duck,
What do you see?"

You get the gist. Every animal is classified by "color" and "being."

Until you get to the White teacher. And then she is just "Teacher." Similarly, the multi-colored children on the following page are just "children." Spence starts to giggle right when the White teacher shows her goofy face and doesn't stop until the children are gone.

Perhaps he gets the joke. Bill Martin and Eric Carle are attempting to socialize little Spence to the impossible. There is no color-blind society. Whites often pretend that the world is colorblind, as if that is possible or even desirable. We point out the people of color as if white is not a color.

So when I get to the bespeckled teacher, I modify.

"White teacher, White teacher,
What do you see?"

Happy Birthday!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Oh, how much Spencer blooms.
It's been one year since he left the womb.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

(March 15, 2008)

Early to Bed...Part II

Benjamin Franklin had it right all of those years ago. I wonder how he would have weighed in on the ol' 'never wake a sleeping babe' advice.

I thought of Ben when I was chopping spinach into teeny tiny pieces to hide in Spence's scrambled eggs. At 4 a.m. He was kicking his little legs and banging a wooden spoon against the tile floor. Bright eyed, he didn't seem to notice that the sun was still hidden from the sky. For many, many more hours.

After a failed dinner at 10:30 p.m. last night and some fitful hours of sleep, the boy made it clear that 4 a.m was breakfast time. A quick game of paper-rock-scissors with my snoring husband sent me down the precarious stairs to try to wrestle up something to toss down the boy's mouth.

At about 7 a.m., I kicked Dave out of bed and snuggled under our down comforter for at least 45 minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

Steppin' Out

I purposefully left my camera at home. I thought to myself, "Live in the moment. Be there. Not behind the lens."

And I was.

Spence did his tail-wagging super-charged crawl all around the "Habitot," playing close attention to the spinning fish and (always) the window peering at the giant fish hanging from the ceiling. He gave some kisses to the boy in the mirror.

Then we ventured downstairs to the land of the miniature walkers. Kids were darting around in postal uniforms delivering mail. Others were running into the music studio. Spence immediately sensed the "genre" and demanded to rise to two legs. He clung to my hands for dear life as we traversed from the clinic to the world market.

And then we passed the post office box. Spence had one hand on the box and the other wrapped around my fingers. I pried my hand free and backed away. And before he could think, he took two steps towards me.

He walked.

I didn't have my camera, but my sense of absolute awe snapped an indelible image in my mamasoul.

Waiting. Like Idiot-Parents.

The boy is sleeping. Soundly. For many hours.

Time to rejoice?

Nope. He crashed at 5 p.m. Without dinner. The boy was having too much fun to take a longer nap today and when the fussing began, his mouth slammed shut. Not a stellar parenting move.

We are screwed.

So now it is 10 p.m. and we are waiting for him to stir. We're sitting on our orange couch wondering why we didn't wake him up hours ago. Stupid parents. Now, he'll undoubtedly demand a 3 a.m. dance party.

All that advice..."Never wake a sleeping babe"...paralyzed us. And now, it is 10:12 p.m. and we've been debating whether to wake him for about 4 hours. No adult conversation. No adult fun. Just debating the "to be or not to be" question of babes that went to bed too early.

Pray he wakes soon. Or not?

Next to the Famous

Watch this....

Environmental Degradation in China


Yeah, my sister in law made it. She's 15. What have you done today to change the world?