So tomorrow I am chaperoning Anaya's class to the International Civil Rights Museum and I can tell you that I definitely dreading the conversation I know will result. Up until this point my child has been color blind, all people while they may appear different all were equal in her eyes. And I actually appreciated and even envied the innocence that she viewed the world with.
However, tomorrow I will have to explain to my black child why people who look just like her white teacher and white classmates did not treat people who looked like her with the same level of dignity that they treated each other with. How do you explain to a 7 year old "White people used to hate black people, and we built a whole museum because of it.... oh but they don't hate you now so don't change your opinion of your white teacher or your white classmates".
Needless to say I definitely don't think this is an age appropriate field trip because I now have to walk the fine line on educating her about the struggles of our ancestors, without badly tarnishing the innocence she views people with. If I am too passive then she will miss the lesson and our ancestors will have struggled in vain because our next generation will have missed the point of why they struggled and what they stood for. Too aggressive and I turn her into what our ancestors fought so hard to abolish, which is hatred based on skin color. I have to trust my 7 year old to not only learn but fully comprehend a very grown up lesson that I honestly don't know that she is ready to learn.
I am sure many of us remember watching Roots or Rosewood in school and afterwards I distinctly remember a deep sense of hatred for any and all white people, simply because I was given a lesson that my childhood mind wasn't ready to learn. I pray she handles it better than I did.
In case your wondering here is the link for the museum:
http://www.sitinmovement.org/
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Feeling Crabby
So I haven't had a second to post anything, between running around with the girls and homework (normal stuff). However, the past few days have been dominated with hermit crab drama. As you know my youngest took right to a hermit crab named "Pinky" given by a friend of mine, whose name I wont say but I assure you I am thinking mean things about...LOL.
As I mentioned previously Pinky couldn't live alone so we bought a second hermit crab and named him "Brain". Brain was purchased on 8/31/12, he was significantly smaller than Pinky but the two seemed to get along just fine. So I was a little concerned to find that Pinky had completely buried him in sand on Tuesday, no big deal I thought, they dig in nature so he should be able to get himself out, but just to be on the safe side I unburied him. I thought that was the end of it.... boy was I wrong. I check on the pair last night and found Pinky to be in good spirits, Brain however was limp and rather lifeless... just as I was ready to call time of death however he twitched.
I turned to my old reliable friend Google and came to the conclusion he must be molting and that's why he appeared limp.... wrong. My husband came home a short while later and checked on the pair... and when he picked up Brain's shell a lifeless body came falling out of it. Luckily for us all of my children were sleep. Neither my husband or myself is good with handling dead things... so the very first task was the arguing of who was going to remove the dead thing from the tank so Pinky being the scavenger he is wouldn't eat it. I lost that argument and ended up scooping it out with a plastic spoon (plastic so it could immediately be thrown away LOL).
So today I informed my youngest who stays home with me that I had taken Pinky to the petstore for a new shell and we would be picking him up today. She was naturally excited about a trip to the petstore and didnt give my lie a second thought. I take her to Petsmart and we pick up Brain 2.0, I ask her if she like Brains new shell she tells me she loves it Yay Mommy right? Wrong... I noticed that when Brain 2.0 was put in the little cup to go home they didnt put anything in with it, this struck me as odd because the original Brain had been sent home in a wet paper towel, but the guy assured me that the paper towel really wasn't necessary. I picked up Brain 2.0 at 1:30 then immediately went to go get the other girls from school.
I typically arrive at the girls school roughly 30 minutes before they are dismissed so I can take my youngest to the playground. Now ideally I would have had time to drop Brain 2.0 off at home, but because this mornings doctors appointment ran long I was pressed for time. So I decided to switch Brain 2.0 to a shoe box that happened to be in my car (don't ask me why there was an empty shoe box in my car because I really don't know) and take him to the playground with us. Now hermit crabs need to have constant humidity between 70% and 80%, well it happened to be preparing to thunderstorm so the conditions were certainly ideal. I picked up the girls as usual and headed to drop something off at my mothers which was on my way home, within blocks of my house I hear a clicking noise and automatically assume there is something wrong with my car. So I reach to turn the radio off and I happen to notice that something is in the container with Brain 2.0. That something turned out to be 3 of his 6 legs... smh his official time of death 3:13pm... not even two whole hours.
So now I am in the car with all of my children, my youngest has already told them a riveting story of how Mommy took Brain to the petstore and got him a new shell so they are all expecting this big reveal and I am literally less than 5 minutes from my house. So I did the only thing I knew to do, turned towards the petstore and announced "Oh no, Brain broke his shell again!". Thinking to myself this hermit crab is worth roughly $5, a gallon of gas is almost $4 and I know I have used more than a gallon of gas, my gas is more valuable than this hermit crab. However as my mother put it, some things are priceless... and my children's happiness is definitely one of them.
I arrive back to the petstore, and of course all the same people are on duty and remember me and now I have to start the task of having a conversation about replacing my dead hermit crab in front of my nosy children who are quite smart. Luckily the lady at Petsmart was an excellent actress and caught on quickly.
I am finally back home with Brain 3.0 and you would think that was the end of my day, because Lord knows that was more than enough excitement.... that would be too like right I suppose. So I placing Brain 3.0 in the tank with Pinky, they are much closer in size and since I have the tank open I start tiding it up a bit while waiting to see if the two will fight or anything else random they may do. With me standing just steps away Tiana my 5 year old takes the glass lid for the tank, and decides to stand on it. Smh, it shattered naturally. So now I need yet another trip to the petstore because I cant regulate the humidity in the tank without a lid... but this time I said "That's it and that's all... twice in one day is my limit". I am hoping I can regulate their humidity without it until I get a moment to go back, otherwise I can legitimately walk away saying I tried.
As I mentioned previously Pinky couldn't live alone so we bought a second hermit crab and named him "Brain". Brain was purchased on 8/31/12, he was significantly smaller than Pinky but the two seemed to get along just fine. So I was a little concerned to find that Pinky had completely buried him in sand on Tuesday, no big deal I thought, they dig in nature so he should be able to get himself out, but just to be on the safe side I unburied him. I thought that was the end of it.... boy was I wrong. I check on the pair last night and found Pinky to be in good spirits, Brain however was limp and rather lifeless... just as I was ready to call time of death however he twitched.
I turned to my old reliable friend Google and came to the conclusion he must be molting and that's why he appeared limp.... wrong. My husband came home a short while later and checked on the pair... and when he picked up Brain's shell a lifeless body came falling out of it. Luckily for us all of my children were sleep. Neither my husband or myself is good with handling dead things... so the very first task was the arguing of who was going to remove the dead thing from the tank so Pinky being the scavenger he is wouldn't eat it. I lost that argument and ended up scooping it out with a plastic spoon (plastic so it could immediately be thrown away LOL).
So today I informed my youngest who stays home with me that I had taken Pinky to the petstore for a new shell and we would be picking him up today. She was naturally excited about a trip to the petstore and didnt give my lie a second thought. I take her to Petsmart and we pick up Brain 2.0, I ask her if she like Brains new shell she tells me she loves it Yay Mommy right? Wrong... I noticed that when Brain 2.0 was put in the little cup to go home they didnt put anything in with it, this struck me as odd because the original Brain had been sent home in a wet paper towel, but the guy assured me that the paper towel really wasn't necessary. I picked up Brain 2.0 at 1:30 then immediately went to go get the other girls from school.
I typically arrive at the girls school roughly 30 minutes before they are dismissed so I can take my youngest to the playground. Now ideally I would have had time to drop Brain 2.0 off at home, but because this mornings doctors appointment ran long I was pressed for time. So I decided to switch Brain 2.0 to a shoe box that happened to be in my car (don't ask me why there was an empty shoe box in my car because I really don't know) and take him to the playground with us. Now hermit crabs need to have constant humidity between 70% and 80%, well it happened to be preparing to thunderstorm so the conditions were certainly ideal. I picked up the girls as usual and headed to drop something off at my mothers which was on my way home, within blocks of my house I hear a clicking noise and automatically assume there is something wrong with my car. So I reach to turn the radio off and I happen to notice that something is in the container with Brain 2.0. That something turned out to be 3 of his 6 legs... smh his official time of death 3:13pm... not even two whole hours.
So now I am in the car with all of my children, my youngest has already told them a riveting story of how Mommy took Brain to the petstore and got him a new shell so they are all expecting this big reveal and I am literally less than 5 minutes from my house. So I did the only thing I knew to do, turned towards the petstore and announced "Oh no, Brain broke his shell again!". Thinking to myself this hermit crab is worth roughly $5, a gallon of gas is almost $4 and I know I have used more than a gallon of gas, my gas is more valuable than this hermit crab. However as my mother put it, some things are priceless... and my children's happiness is definitely one of them.
I arrive back to the petstore, and of course all the same people are on duty and remember me and now I have to start the task of having a conversation about replacing my dead hermit crab in front of my nosy children who are quite smart. Luckily the lady at Petsmart was an excellent actress and caught on quickly.
I am finally back home with Brain 3.0 and you would think that was the end of my day, because Lord knows that was more than enough excitement.... that would be too like right I suppose. So I placing Brain 3.0 in the tank with Pinky, they are much closer in size and since I have the tank open I start tiding it up a bit while waiting to see if the two will fight or anything else random they may do. With me standing just steps away Tiana my 5 year old takes the glass lid for the tank, and decides to stand on it. Smh, it shattered naturally. So now I need yet another trip to the petstore because I cant regulate the humidity in the tank without a lid... but this time I said "That's it and that's all... twice in one day is my limit". I am hoping I can regulate their humidity without it until I get a moment to go back, otherwise I can legitimately walk away saying I tried.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Back to School Week
Talk about a hectic week, not only was this week the older three girls first week at a brand new school we also celebrated my little sisters 17th birthday. My oldest started 2nd grade, I also have a 1st grader and a Kindergartner who are all settling in nicely in their new school. They, like mommy are still trying to adjust to getting up at six am again. (Not my favorite part of the day) While everything on the academic side seems to be going well they have started early this year on making me dread school.
On Thursday Kymora my 1st grader came home and proudly proclaimed to her father "Look Daddy I have Boobs!" while grabbing the flat area her boobs will one day inhabit.... I dont think the word mortified properly sums it up. Her daddy was equally shocked and promptly told her to hush, only for her to announce "No really look" and it was as if she had been watching a girls gone wild marathon, in one swift motion she lifts her shirt and flashes her father like she wanted him to throw Mardi Gras beads. Definitely not one of my finest motherhood moments.... all I knew to do was put her shirt back down and ask her who had taught her that? She of course had no answer but I am pretty sure this is the doing of one of her new "friends" who is a little too grown. I would really not like to re-visit the "boob" topic for the next few years.... please and thank you.... and im sure my husband agrees with me.
On Friday we went to the Pet store to get supplies for our newest animal acquisition... a hermit crab named Pinky that was given to my youngest child by a friend of mine. Now when you see hermit crabs in the pet store you dont typically give them much thought, or at least I never had because they seem like such a ridiculously easy animal to care for... No walking or training required, just drop in some food and water from time to time and go on about your day. This I discovered after actually getting one is the furthest thing from the truth, in fact they are probably the most difficult of all of my animals to care for... and I currently own 2 Siberian Huskies, 1 cockatiel, 1 parakeet and a cat. For something so small it really does need a lot of stuff... It has to have 2 water bowls, one for salt water and the other for fresh water, somewhere to climb, somewhere to dig, somewhere to hide, an extra shell choice and a companion because apparently they get lonely. So to add to Pinky we bought a smaller hermit crab and named him Brain.
We later went to dinner to celebrate my little sisters 17th birthday, we went to a Japanese Steakhouse by the name of Arigatos, by far one of my favorite restaurants. We start the meal off with a salad covered in lots of ranch dressing... and of course my children just had to eat it with their training chop sticks. While most of the food made it to their mouths, the same cant be said for the ranch dressing, it ended up on their clothing... as well as my mothers clothing. My always dramatic Tiana initially pretended to be afraid of the fire which flares up during the preparation of the food, but she ended up enjoying the night more than any of the others. And while my husband and I had an excellent meal, with the bill for us being triple digits I definitely plan to leave them home for our next trip there because I am sure they would have been equally excited about McDonalds, and I would have saved $60. All and all it was a great day though.
On Thursday Kymora my 1st grader came home and proudly proclaimed to her father "Look Daddy I have Boobs!" while grabbing the flat area her boobs will one day inhabit.... I dont think the word mortified properly sums it up. Her daddy was equally shocked and promptly told her to hush, only for her to announce "No really look" and it was as if she had been watching a girls gone wild marathon, in one swift motion she lifts her shirt and flashes her father like she wanted him to throw Mardi Gras beads. Definitely not one of my finest motherhood moments.... all I knew to do was put her shirt back down and ask her who had taught her that? She of course had no answer but I am pretty sure this is the doing of one of her new "friends" who is a little too grown. I would really not like to re-visit the "boob" topic for the next few years.... please and thank you.... and im sure my husband agrees with me.
On Friday we went to the Pet store to get supplies for our newest animal acquisition... a hermit crab named Pinky that was given to my youngest child by a friend of mine. Now when you see hermit crabs in the pet store you dont typically give them much thought, or at least I never had because they seem like such a ridiculously easy animal to care for... No walking or training required, just drop in some food and water from time to time and go on about your day. This I discovered after actually getting one is the furthest thing from the truth, in fact they are probably the most difficult of all of my animals to care for... and I currently own 2 Siberian Huskies, 1 cockatiel, 1 parakeet and a cat. For something so small it really does need a lot of stuff... It has to have 2 water bowls, one for salt water and the other for fresh water, somewhere to climb, somewhere to dig, somewhere to hide, an extra shell choice and a companion because apparently they get lonely. So to add to Pinky we bought a smaller hermit crab and named him Brain.
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