Baby's First (Real) Halloween/Samhain!

Halloween (or Samhain for us Pagans) is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. Of course, as a Wiccan, it is my most important holiday of the year, being the New Year and all; but it's also just fun. I love costumes, candy, desserts, decorating, the whole works. I've loved Halloween since I was a kid, and couldn't wait until I had kids of my own with whom to share the holiday.

Now, obviously, seeing as my daughter turns two in less than a month [OMG, how did that happen??], this isn't really her first Halloween/Samhain [pronounced, BTW, sow-een or sah-win, but never sam-hayn]. However, this is the first one that counts. Pop Culture Toddler didn't get to have a real Halloween last year, and unlike her first Yule and Christmas (at one month old), it had nothing to do with her age.

Every year before I got pregnant with PCT, I celebrated Samhain/Halloween in a big way. It started in 1997 when I got my first on-campus apartment. That was the first year of my Samhain dinner party. It started with four or five friends, just a bunch of us gals hanging out and eating a meal I prepared loosely based on the suggestion in Laurie Calbot's Celebrate the Earth: A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition. This tradition carried through law school and after I moved back to Houston and started my job. The parties were all small, with my close friends, and the menu stayed pretty much the same, with little modifications here and there. The party has gotten bigger and bigger (as has the menu) over the years, and has practically become a legend in its own right.

Each of the nine years I have been a practicing attorney, I have taken off on Samhain for religious observance. I'm not just taking off Halloween to prep for a party and get costume-ready [though, certainly I do that, too]. I spend the day doing a spiritual and physical cleanse of my house and my person. I reflect on the year that has passed and the year that is to come. I communicate with my ancestors who have passed [most importantly, my paternal grandmother, with whom I've always shared a strong bond, despite her passing away when I was only 12 years old, and who I know -- I can feel -- is watching over me always]. And I cook like nobody's business. The year before I got pregnant was my Tenth Annual Samhain dinner party. There have only been two years where I did not follow my usual tradition, the last two years.

In 2008, I was very pregnant on Halloween -- officially due at the beginning of December (but not expected by my midwives to make it past November; I didn't). My good friends suggested that instead of me either (1) cancelling my party and being unhappy about it; or (2) trying to drag my extremely large belly around a kitchen, standing on my feet all day cooking for them, they combine my usual party with my baby shower. It was seriously the most awesome thing ever. I always thought a Halloween baby shower would be cool, and I got one. Of course, everything about it was different from what I did every year, but the spirit was still there -- having a great time and breaking bread with my friends and my immediate family.

Last year, however, was very different. My in-laws are snow birds who spend half the year living in Florida. Within the resort where they live, they also have a time-share condo that is available the first week of November every year. Now that we have Pop Culture Toddler, my husband and I get use of the time-share for that slot in November. When we first planned the trip, I didn't really think about the logistics of it all. I just threw PCT's and my costumes in the suitcase, along with perhaps five different Halloween-themed outfits for her, and called it a day. I knew I wouldn't be able to have my party, but it didn't really occur to me that she wouldn't get a real Halloween either.

Where we were located, there was no trick-or-treating. There weren't even really any Halloween decorations up. Add to the fact that it was 80 degrees, and it didn't even feel like we were anywhere close to Halloween.  Halloween morning, we took PCT to the mall.  Had I know there would be a photographer there, I would have brought her in-costume. But I didn't. So PCT now has professional Halloween pictures wearing a pair of too-big black shorts, a shirt that says "Got Candy?", jack-o-lantern socks, and a bib that says "Baby's First Halloween."
(This is obviously not the professional picture, but this is the outfit)


The mall was going to have trick-or-treating, but we never made it. It's sort of impossible to go trick-or-treating between 5 and 7 p.m. when you have dinner reservations at 6. So what's a poor Wiccan mom with a suitcase full of costumes to do? Bring Tinkerbelle to dinner.


Okay, so she was the only person in the restaurant wearing a costume. In fact, other than our family, there was only one other group in the entire restaurant. But she was so stinking cute how could I not put her in the costume? Besides, it traveled all the way from Texas!

All and all, Halloween was a complete bust last year. I was pretty depressed about it. Thankfully, the combination of ocean air, warm weather, relaxing, being out of the office, and consuming copious amounts of alcohol helped me get over it temporarily and enjoy my fabulous vacation [it really was fabulous other than Halloween]; but it always kills me that my baby's first Halloween was so very un-Halloween. I've told Pop Culture Dad in no uncertain terms that our annual Florida vacation will only occur after Halloween from now on.

This year, however, I plan to make up for it in spades.

I've been getting PCT geeked up for Halloween since the end of September. She's got an obscene amount of Halloween-themed DVDs that she's been watching every day, and she's even obsessed with a couple of them [I'm looking at you, Dora].  She insists on reading Trick or Treat, Dora! every night before bed. She's tried on her costume a few times, and she loves dressing up and twirling around. She goes around the house yelling, "Trick or Treat!" and pointing out the various pumpkins and spiders, claiming that they are all hers. She waves to our Pac-o-latern and three ghosts in the front yard. She talks to the scarecrows and is quick to tell anyone that "Nonna did it!" [my mother put the scarecrows up]. This little girl loves Halloween as much as her mommy does!

We're doing a family-themed Halloween. Luckily, Pop Culture Dad is just along for the ride, and let me do my own thing here. I love love love love Wicked (the musical; not the book). In fact, my birthday present this year was PCD taking me to see Wicked.... AGAIN. My dear husband was kind enough to consent to the Wicked theme. Because he was so lovely about it, I'm not going to force him to be the goat or anything. And, since I am (of course) going as Elphaba/The Wicked Witch, it only makes sense anyway that he go as Fieryo/The Scarecrow. PCT is going to be (of course) Galenda/Glenda the Good Witch [And, hey, I could see her being a tall, biracial version of Kristen Chenoweth in the future.... You should hear PCT sing!]. In fact, every time Dora asks what's her costume, she gives a cheesy grin and yells, "Good Witch!!".

The Samhain/Halloween dinner party (feast) really that has been on a two-year hiatus is now back in full swing and is happening tomorrow.  The big difference, however, is that now it is "hosted" by Pop Culture Toddler. I didn't want to modify the structure of the party too much [yes! there will still be alcohol], because I still have dear friends who don't have young children, and I still want to celebrate the New Year with them; but I wanted to offer enough kid-friendliness so that my friends with children [it's been a baby-booming past couple of years, what can I say...] wouldn't feel uncomfortable bringing their kids.  In the past, I've only been able to convince two people (both in the same year) to bring their kids with them. Of course, back then, most of my friends didn't have kids; but seeing as I didn't have them and neither did most other people, I think many thought their kids would be a burden or something. Shrug.

The party is earlier in the day so the kids can get to bed on time and the kid-less can go clubbing (or whatever it is people do other than watch tv at home like we do every weekend) without wrecking their party schedules. I've kept the same menu that evolved over 10 years of perfecting my party, but we've added some kid-friendly dishes that I know the kids will love [the recipes have already been tested on PCT], and I'm pretty sure the adults will, too. Gosh, I just hope they let the kids eat first! I've created some favor bags for the kids, with different toys and treats given depending on age group -- the ages of the kids attending range from four months to 10 years. We've set up a craft table for the kids, and we've got a few other surprises that I won't reveal just yet in case any partygoers are reading this before Saturday night. ;)

Sunday night, we will take PCT around our neighborhood for her first ever trick-or-treating. She's already been saying "Trick or Treat" for a month now, so she's ready. And we'll have already given her costume a run-through.

And only after we have thoroughly enjoyed our Halloween festivities will we then board the plane to chillax on the beach for a week. Sigh.... Rough life, ain't it? ♥
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

1 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

In Defense of Britney/Brittany (Glee)

Okay, I suppose this isn't really about parenting, except to the extent that I'm feeling like a protective mama over one of my favorite shows; but after reading what feels like the 12,000th criticism and being asked by a pal if I agree with one of the more scathing ones, I felt I should weigh-in.

I'm probably going to get lengthy here [what?? Me, long-winded? No way!], so for those of you who don't want to wallow through it all, here's my short answer: I loved it, every bleeping minute of it! I thought it was better than the much beloved Madonna episode, and in fact may be -- gasp -- one of the best episodes to date.

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog, my former WTE blog or any of my tweets knows I love Glee. You may be wondering (or not), though, if I'm just biased toward this episode because of some Britney love. Maybe. You be the judge.

Britney and I have a checkered past. When she emerged, I was 22 years old and in my second year or law school. Hated her voice, hated her look, hated her hype, hated everything about her. I was six years older and in grad school (compared to her high school), and I didn't appreciate the immaturity of all the Britney hype. And I certainly didn't appreciate my then-boyfriend (also 22) and our other buddies from school drooling over her. It was creepy, like on the verge of pedophilia. And she wasn't that cute (still isn't).

Oddly enough, I was Team Christina. Even though they are the same age, Christina had this maturity about her. Her voice was certainly a million times better. Heck, I still get chills when I hear her hit high notes. Also, this was way before Christina entered her skank phase, and she was sort of an underdog. Pre-plastic surgery, no grown men I knew were drooling over this particular former Mousekateer. I wasn't really buying the rest of the teen pop sensations of the late-90s/early-00s either. I had no love of N'Sync (ironic given how much I love JT now) or the Backstreet Boys. Don't get me wrong, I love pop. I just wasn't loving that particular sub-genre.

Enter the Law Revue and Cabaret show.

After the popularity of the Spring show's Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls numbers [the latter was written by my roommate and I. We both liked the Spice Girls, and they get a pass, seeing as they are our age], there was a call for more pop tart numbers. So, I begrudgingly downloaded one of my least favorite songs and proceeded to write a parody to the tune of "Hit Me Baby, One More Time." Somewhere between the weeks of dance rehearsals learning Brit's moves and singing the parody over and over, I actually started to like the song. Still hated Britney, though, and I was not about to jump on the bandwagon.

Fast forward a few years, and Britney became a trainwreck. Now I was intrigued. Honestly, I think I was more interested in the cleanup than I was the wreckage itself. You can't help but root for a mom to get things together for the sake of her kids.

To make an already long story short, I discovered "Toxic," and it became the gateway drug into what is almost Britney fandom. I now own her last few albums and a few earlier singles, but I'm not jaded or tone-deaf enough to attempt to argue that she's a good singer. Heck, I won't even say she's a good dancer (she does have good choreography, though).

So, yes, I am a Britney Spears fan(ish). Is that enough to make me biased about "Brittany/Britney"? I don't know. All I know is that was the best episode of Glee -- EVER. Here's my argument:

THE GOOD:

1. It's (More) Brittany, Bitch.
Brittany S. Pierce [did we ever know her last name before?? Brilliant!] is one of the best characters on television. I can't call her "underrated," because I think most people are starting to catch on. She delivers classic one-liners with such quietness and earnestness ["Did you know dolphins are really just gay sharks?... Yeah, it's true."]. And, oh, what lines! Just from that one episode, could you pick a favorite from these? I couldn't.

- (in response to the question of whether anyone knows who Christopher Cross is) "He discovered America."

- (after admitting to rinsing her teeth with soda instead of brushing) "I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist."

- (at the dentist office) "This room looks like the one on that spaceship where I got probed."

- "Please don't pull all of my teeth. When I smile, I look like a baby... but with boobs."

- "I would just like to say that from now on, I demand to have every solo in glee club. When I had my teeth cleaned, I had the most amazing Britney Spears fantasy. I sang and danced better than her. Now I realize what a powerful woman that I am.... I'm more talented than all of you. I see that clearly now. It's Brittany... bitch."

I can't believe this character almost didn't exist!! [Fun fact I learned from my friend... Brittney]

In addition to finally getting that Brittany fix that was so desperately needed, we finally got to see Heather Morris, the actress who plays Brittany S. Pierce, show off her amazing dance skills. Related to my fun fact above, Heather Morris was a former backup dancer for Beyoncé. She was brought in to teach the cast the "Single Ladies" dance. They liked her, so they created a character.

It is hard to watch the "Slave 4 U" number on "Brittany/Britney" without being absolutely blown away by Heather Morris. She is phenomenal! She's a million times better than the original Britney. And that body! I vote for more Brittany singing and dancing numbers!

2. John Stamos

Oh, Uncle Jesse... I hadn't even realized I had missed you until you popped back intro my life!

I've read several reviews saying that Stamos looks as good as he did on Full House. Are you kidding me? He looks better! For one, there's no mullet. But this man has just aged gracefully. Wowza! I have to agree with Santana that I have never seen a dentist that hot.

Beyond the eye candy that is John Stamos, I was just glad to see Emma Pillsbury moving on. Will Shue needs some time to get over his plethora of issues, and in the meantime she needs a better romantic prospect than the equivalent of another Ken Tenaka.

3. Moving out of the Auditorium

Even though I've read a lot of complaints about the dream sequences feeling inorganic, I loved it. I mean, was that really any more inorganic than randomly breaking into song, having a guitarist and pianist appear who know exactly what you want to sing, and your backup singers automatically knowing their harmonies and dance steps -- all without any practice? Of course not. In fact, a dream sequence is probably more realistic. I get that with musicals, you check reality at the door. That's part of the reason why I love them. But if you're going to willingly suspend reality for what takes place within the school, then you should be able to suspend it for the sake of a dream.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this detour into dreamland is that it allowed so much more creativity and sparkle than your traditional auditorium vocals. I mean, would that boa constrictor have had any proper place at McKinley High?

4. It's (the Real) Britney, Bitch

Another thing some critics have panned, which I absolutely adored was seeing the real Britney pop up for a few seconds in some of the fantasies.

Madonna and Lady Gaga take note: When a television show offers to do an entire episode devoted to you, the very least you could do is shoot a few promos for it. Britney not only did that, she made an appearance on the show and live tweeted about it. That is southern hospitality, ladies and gentlemen.

I thought her random appearances were cute. Who cares if it doesn't further her career (another complaint I read)? Kudos to you, Ms. Spears!

5. The Songs

Last, but certainly not least, I loved the songs. Sure, there were a couple different songs I would rather see performed, but overall, it was pretty solid. I only have one song complaint, which I'll detail below.

Generally, though, I have to say that minus the one blip, I think the song/character choices were perfect. I loved the recreation of the videos, and I couldn't wait to download all of the songs as soon as the episode was over. I even loved the one non-Britney song (Paramore's "Only Exception"), and I don't even like the original artist.

THE BAD

1. Missing Glee Club Members
Um... Where was Puck?? Where?? You cannot have a Puckless episode!

And the new guy who joined the club last week? They showed him in the locker room, but he was nowhere to be found during glee club practice.

And how did Quinn not utter a single line until that horrible scene with Finn at the end [more on that monstrosity later]?

Glaring omissions all around.

2. "Hit Me Baby, One More Time"
Love the song (now). Love Lea Michelle. I was not, however, loving the two of these together. Sorry, it's just not her genre. I get that the whole point was supposed to be Rachel stepping out of her comfort zone, but did she really have to step into a zone that actually makes her vocals sound bad? I can think of other Britney songs Lea Michelle could have easily rocked while still getting the whole Rachel-wants-to-be-bad message across ("Boys," anyone?). This just wasn't the right song. Sorry.

3. The Britney Spears Sex Riot
Usually, I love Sue Sylvester, but this whole thing was just weird and random.


THE UGLY
There was only one ugly of "Brittany/Britney," and that was the whole Rachel/Finn drama. I mean, seriously. The whole thing felt entirely forced. Rachel, who craves popularity more than anything and started her relationship while Finn was the star quarterback (and reveled in the status, as I recall) is now suddenly threatened by it? Hardly likely.
And sending Finn's recent ex-gf, with whom he thought for months he was having a baby, to "test" him? Sorry, that's too clueless and cruel even for a gal who sent a rival to "an inactive" crack house in the prior episode. And there is no way Quinn would have ever willingly agreed to that. What's her motive?
I get that there are studies that happy relationships kill shows [I don't agree with them, but whatever], but there is enough drama going on that Ryan Murphy and crew do not need to throw up character-inconsistent road blocks. I can easily think of fifteen different -- and consistent with the storyline -- ways that those two could fight/breakup. The first: Rachel is Rachel. End of story.
=-=-=
Overall, the good of this episode outweighed the bad and the ugly. It was a great hour-long escape from reality and a welcome departure from the usual Glee format.
Do I want to see more artist-devoted episodes? Not sure. I've enjoyed the three that have been done so far, but there's got to be a limit. While I would love a Timberlake-heavy episode -- assuming, of course it's done correctly -- could I really stomach, say, a Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus episode? Goodness no. I'd rather have my eyes gouged out.
In any event, I don't think "Brittany/Britney" deserved all the flack it received. This was easily one of the better, if not the best, episodes. And when you look at the horrible "Grilled Cheesus" episode that followed it [Puck solo aside], it truly could have been worse.
On another note, I want to thank those of you who patiently waited for this repost. Last week, a friend mentioned that she was anxiously waiting to read the defense of "Brittany/Britney," and my response was "Me, too."
As most of you with young children have probably experienced, sometimes the only way to get in your "leisure time" (what blogging is for me) is to keep it confined to the palm of your hand. Most of my posts are written on my trusty smartphone, little bits here and there. So imagine my disappointment when my blogging app deleted all but the first three paragraphs of this original post. I've tried to recapture my instantaneous impressions of the episode the best I could [Would you believe the original post was even longer than this??]. I'll admit, though, that it was a little difficult doing so when I felt "defeated" by the whole loss of text. So, again, I thank you all for you patience while I got over myself. :)
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

1 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

A Non-Texan's Guide to Texas - Lesson One (Debunking Basic Myths)

Consider this my PSA for the day.

When I was in law school, it amazed me how many otherwise intelligent people had misconceptions about Texas. In fact, I remember reading Jim Parsons lamenting the same thing in EW after he won the Emmy [people who thought he grew up riding horses to school in Houston].

The first misconception about Texas is that every city is completely backwards (thanks, GWB), rural (thanks, westerns), or covered with oil derricks and sleazy oil barons (thanks Dallas). People forget that Texas is home to three of the ten largest cities in the US [Houston - 4, San Antonio - 7, and Dallas - 9]; the home state or adopted home state of many beloved, non-C&W entertainers [Patrick Swayze, Beyoncé, Jim Parsons, Hilary Duff, Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Garner, the Quaids (sorry), Jaime Foxx, Nora Jones, Erykah Badu, Angie Harmon, Morgan Fairchild, the Jonas Brothers (again, sorry), Meat Loaf, Matthew McConaughey, the Wilson brothers, the Allen sisters, Sandra Bullock (an adopted Texan), Ethan Hawke, Joan Crawford, Farrah Fawcett, Sissy Spacek, Aaron Spelling, and Forest Whitaker... to name a very, very small few].

People also forget that Texas is home to that Mecca of technology and innovation, NASA. "Houston, we have a problem" wasn't a reference to some guy with the last name Houston. Oh, and Dell computers. We're also home to the "hippiest" grocery store chain in the nation, Whole Paycheck Foods. Just sayin'...

Not everyone here speaks with a twang or accent. Not everyone likes country or rodeos (I do, but I digress...). Yeah, we have our hicks, but so does Massachusetts.

One caveat [tangent], though: I love the word "y'all" and think everyone should use it. It's gender-neutral and convenient. Please, though, spell it correctly. It's not "ya'll". You + All = Y'all. You wouldn't write "coul'dnt," would you?
**Tangent Over**

There's also the political misconception about Texas. Just because it's a red state, don't assume everyone who lives here leans right (yes, this even applies to non-minorities and men). And don't assume every city here is red either.

Fun fact: Houston recently elected the first openly gay mayor in any city with a population over a million -- and she was a democrat running against another democrat, who happened to be a black man. Not exactly what you'd expect in a red state.

So I think I've covered the cultural and political misconceptions. Now there's the other big one -- the geographical misconception. I think a lot of people assume that all major cities in Texas are near each other. They're not. Not even close.

Most people conceptually get that Texas is a large state -- the second biggest; but that doesn't really translate into them comprehending just how big Texas really is.

I often get comments from people unfamiliar with Texas about how they could do something in Dallas and then "pop on over" to Houston. Or how it's good that I have a friend "so close" in Austin or San Antonio. Uh.... No.

Let me put this in perspective: the drive from Houston (in the east) to El Paso (in the west) is longer than the drive from Houston to Georgia and takes roughly the same amount of time as it would take me to drive from Houston to Missouri to see my in-laws.

[Editor's Note: Since this was originally published it has been pointed out that the mapquest estimate I got years ago - which calculated the trip as a day was very very wrong. Thanks, Valerie! And sorry everyone for the Texas-sized error The preceding paragraph has been now corrected for accuracy.]

There are 240 miles between Houston and Dallas. It's a 45-minute plane ride or four- to five-hour drive (depending on who's driving). There are 141 driving miles between Houston and Austin (25 minutes plane; 3 hours driving -- 4.5 if you take the ill-advised Onstar-selected route. Don't.). There are 275 driving miles between Houston and San Antonio (just a little longer than Dallas).

In most states, these distances would put you in a completely other state -- maybe even two. In Texas, an hour-long, highway-speed drive may not even get you out of your city's greater metro area.

As you can imagine, with great geographic distance comes great cultural differences. Please don't ever try to impress a Houstonian by talking about your love of the Cowboys; and correspondingly, no one from Dallas/Fort Worth wants to hear about what a great game Matt Schaub had.

That's the end of the Texas lesson for the day. I'm sure there will be more.

Y'all have any questions?

Posted from my iPhone, so please forgive any ducking typos.

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

2 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.

The (Unofficial) Swirly Baby Convention

Recently, my family made the trek from Houston to Austin for the one-year birthday party for the twins of one of my oldest friends. [aside: Texas geography lesson coming up]. I knew that Pop Culture Toddler wouldn't be the only biracial child there, because the G twins are also biracial. That meant there would be at least three biracial kids there. I knew the odds were that there would be at least a couple more, but I had no idea that we would be attending the unofficial Texas biracial baby convention.

From the second we walked in the door, we were surrounded by swirly toddlers. There were the two cuties at the craft table, who were undoubtedly part-black despite the fact that they were sitting with their white mother. There was the British couple in the corner (mom black, father white) with their gorgeous six month old daughter. There was the blonde "black" kid with the dreadlocks. There was the mother who appeared to be herself biracial or maybe Jewish (close call) with her two children, one of whom appeared to be Hispanic, the other of which appeared to be half-black (they were both, in fact, half-black). There was my friend's cousin, who I hadn't seen in over a decade, with her daughter who was undoubtedly half-white (confirmed after I met the hubby). It was amazing! And I swear more and more biracial kids popped up after our arrival. Even better, most of these kids were generally my daughter's age.

At one point, my friend checked on the hubby and I to see if we were having fun, and I confirmed that not only were we having a great time (well worth the three-and-a-half hour drive), but props to her on filling her house and backyard with so many mixed kids. Her response was something to the effect of, "Wild, right? It's like a little Swirly Baby Convention!" That was the perfect description.

I know that biracial families are not unusual these days. As I've previously blogged, even the media (PBS Kids in particular) is starting to catch on that families these days look a little different from what people may have seen 10 or 20 years ago. I know that my daughter is not even the only biracial child in her classroom. That all being said, I have seriously, never in my life, seen that many biracial couples or children in one place at one time, and I loved every minute of it.

My daughter isn't yet at the stage where she's aware of race, but she has learned her colors, and she is smart enough to observe differences in people's appearances. I know that when she says "Mommy, brown. Daddy, white. Caitie, white," she's merely reciting colors (and she hasn't yet learned "beige" or any other fancier color descriptions like "raw sienna"). I know that when she sees a picture of a darker Hispanic girl with curly hair, points to it and says her best friend's name, she's not being unintentionally racist; she really thinks it looks like her friend (who, incidentally, is also biracial/multicultural). At some point, these observations will turn into awareness of differences. While I hope this "some point" is later rather than sooner, I'm glad that it seems there will be enough kids around her age with family makeups like her own that it won't seem so unusual to her. Too bad almost all of these particular kids live so far away.

Speaking of... Check my next post for a Texas geography lesson.

Posted from my iPhone
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Technorati
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Sphinn
  • Propeller
  • Slashdot
  • Netvibes

0 comments:

Post a Comment

In keeping with our vow to the Mom Pledge, all comments will be moderated for tone. Any comments made outside the spirit of that Pledge or any comments made to invoke a reaction outside the scope of that Pledge will not be posted.