Tuesday, May 17, 2011

She's 6!

Well, my baby turned 6 last week.
SIX!
She's getting good at basketball.

The basketball was courtesy of the Easter bunny. 
The bunny isn't such a huge fan of Lucy on sugar.

She's a farmer now.  I have developed a little addiction to Value Village thrift store. She's getting lots of pretty dresses, and these overalls! 

Lucy became a patient at Shriner's.  As part of a study she gets access to three different types of assistive devices.  We have to pick up device three soon.  Here is Trent.  Lucy loves him.

She had such a hard time resisting touching the sticky goo they used to make the mold.  "I SO BAD want to touch it" but she refrained and I applauded!

You know "the boys"?  The ones I babysit?  Well the boys and their mom gave Lucy two rats for her birthday.  Ratchet and Millie.  They are sweet and Lucy loves them.  I am developing a fondness for them as well. 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Race Relations

 I've been blessed with a child who knows who she is. 
All "the books" say that kids start noticing race around 3 or 4.  She definitely started
at or before age three.  She notices everything.
Talking about race (thus far) is easy with her because she asks,
she notices, she challenges. 


I had to include a photo of Lucy's aunt Jen because Jen is about the whitest (especially at the end of winter) person we know.  Hey Jen!

It's also a challenge, Lucy's ability to pay attention to and
really see the people around her.  It challenges me to keep us
surrounded by more then just white people.  She notices.
The other day we had just sat down at Fasika and Lucy was looking around, meeting most
people with her direct eye contact.  Her eyes got bigger and bigger as she scanned the room.
Suddenly she reaches over and grabs my hand and in a low voice she says "momma, I dont' think they
allow white people in here".   She notices.  It was sort of funny but the message I took home in the end
was to do whatever I can, while I can, to see to it that she never feels that way about herself and black people. 

Today we were driving to the grocery store to pick up dinner from the deli.
Lucy says "momma, do they have injera at this deli?"  I say no.  She
lets out a disgusted sigh ....  "we should just go somewhere where it isn't just
boring white people"  she quickly added "not you momma, you're not boring, you're not
really white you are more like ummmm you're like, well hmmmm" 
It was almost like she predicted that we'd be eating tasteless boring dry turkey breast but that's another blog post for another day.

Every day I pray "let me do this job as good as i possibly can" 

Thankfully I have a village here to help me out and teach me.

We're counting on your help.