Tooth #3
James cut another tooth today. He is the sweetest, most charming little teether I've had, so far. This tooth came after a 2-day snot waterfall and a brief incident of diarrhea. Not bad. I keep thinking to myself, "Man! This is the easy baby everyone's been talking about."
Pink pink pinky pink...and purple
Alice and Robert received some birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Evans. One morning, some time ago, Alice was bemoaning the absence of a Pillow Pet in her life. Bobby showed her online that with a few more chores, she could earn enough money to buy one herself. Robert was hooked, too, and they picked out their "pets" right away: Alice selected the rainbow unicorn and Robert opted for the snow leopard. The PINK snow leopard. Looking at the picture online, it seemed a muted pink. Bobby didn't even notice the pink, actually, until I pointed it out to him.
It bothers me that the color bothers me. Y'know? That's a recent development. I used pink blankets on baby Buddy. I was PROUD of myself for being such a free thinker and bucking the "pink is only for girls" mentality. I tried not to let the color of the snow leopard matter to me. Well, we picked up the Pillow Pets today, and the pink snow leopard is NOT a muted pink. It is hot pink, with bright purple spots. Heaven help me:
I've been thinking about this all evening. What's the difference between a pink baby blanket and a pink Pillow Pet? It's who made the choice. If I choose pink for Robert, it's because I'm a free-thinker, but if Robert chooses it, suddenly it means something different???? Why should it? He really likes the snow leopard in Kung-Fu Panda. That's why he chose this particular pet. The color was unimportant. It's still unimportant to him. I wondered if he would reject it when he saw it. Nope. I wonder if he'll reject it when his cousins or friends come over and question him for having a "girl" toy. Or will they even care? I guess we'll see.
So far, Robert's leopard and Alice's unicorn have completely different personalities. The leopard likes to be hit, punched, yelled into, and sat on. The unicorn is a baby that must be held gently and fed from a bottle. The leopard has already traveled in his own boat to England. The unicorn took a ride in the baby swing and needed a snuggle afterwards.
Growing Up
I feel like I've had to grow up a lot the last few weeks. I've had to tackle a few issues that I didn't really see myself handling until later in life, but I guess that time is now. I finally hit adulthood at age 33 years and 9 months. James is meeting milestones one right after the other. Robert is challenging and crazy fun and rapidly expanding his understanding of the world. Alice is crossing out of childhood into a new youth stage...more independent and capable than ever. I'm feeling more and more like a mother of three and all that entails. What does it entail, exactly? I dunno. It's like I've finally had to commit everything to the cause. Everything. I'm all in.
I've been on a "gather and photograph" kick with the kids. I feel compelled to put them altogether and capture this stage in pixels. As if staring at all three at once will help me understand it any better. It's mind-boggling how all the little decisions have added up to this point in my life. I feel full. I feel complete. I feel old, but it's a good old. Comfortable. It's the old I was aiming for. I just never knew how close I was to it until suddenly it arrived. This week.
Everything looks different when there are other people to care about.
Time with Julia
My friend Julia visited last month and I barely took pictures to document it. We made a few new memories (surprise game night, anyone?)(Jasper County line, wahoo!), and got to catch up a bit. It's nice to have known a friend for 16 years. The relationship carries a different weight when it's been around that long.
And now, before I wax too philosophical, it's time to go to bed. This old lady needs her "sanity rest" :)
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Yup. It's all true and it's all good. And it's deeply satisfying.
ReplyDeleteBoys and pink. You really never know how the relationship will go. The same goes for girls right? Our society puts so much into the color pink... Boys "can't" like it for some reason until they are teens or young adults and then "pink is the new black" and its suddenly cool. Girls must like pink to be girly otherwise they are "tomboys" (though being a tomboy is nothing like being a girly-boy--is there even a term? that says something already--; tomboys are acceptable while girly-boys...that's something else). Ah, society and culture. So fluid. So arbitrary.
ReplyDeleteBut from what you've said pink doesn't really seem to be anything for Robert since he picked the leopard because it was a leopard not because it was pink. I also think you could/should take into account the fact that he has an older sister whose choices and opinions surely influence his behaviors and opinions as well sometimes toward similar choices and other times to the exact opposite.
One of my nephews (the second son in a family of three boys) favorite color is pink. It sort of bothered his dad (not seriously bothered, more confused). Then his dad realized that the first son hated pink and would say rude or mean things about pink to other kids when they chose/wore pink, that kind of thing. To combat this behavior the dad would say nice things about pink and about how pink was cool. The second son would hear dad saying pink was cool and, lo and behold, pink became is color of choice. Makes sense, right?
I have no such explanation for Owen's love of pink. Pink is Owen's second favorite color which he will generally choose if orange is not available. So as far as one of Robert's friends is concerned, Owen will probably adore the pink snow leopard. I could see it becoming a mini-issue during our playdates in the future. :)