Enjoy! We certainly did.
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City Rabbits
12 years ago
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The Preparation for the Birthday Bash Pictures
Here are the pictures that show the family preparation for the birthday bash. The slide show fades kind of slowly so stick it out through all the pictures. The same is true of the party pictures.
Enjoy! We certainly did.
Enjoy! We certainly did.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Malcolm's First Birthday Bash
I am going to post more bithday pictures and more preparation pictures soon. This was an all-weekend, all family event. Boo is the center of everything, but I have to admit I had fun. I had not enjoyed putting together a theme party and gathering people together in many, many moons!
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
The latest Malcolm Stats
I took Malcolm to the doctor for his well baby visit today. Here are the latest stats. Our bouncy bundle of joy is now 11 1/2 month 31 1/2 inches long, and weighs almost 28 lbs-that is about 12.6 kilos for our friends in the metric system.
He is getting his one year old molars and that is why he has been cranky as cranky can be lately. Unfortunately, he also has a yeast infection and dry skin behind his ear. He is like his mama-a sensitive skin guy. So if any of you mommies out there have different recipes for soothing skin treatments for my maby lamb let me know. The doctor recommended browned flour which I am getting ready to cook up right now since he is sleeping. Poor guy had a hard day.
Since my car died in the recent snow storm we had to take the bus and in the case had to take Portland's slowest line. Then he had to get examined, have two shots and have his blood tested for anemia and lead. All of that with two huge teeth pushing through!
When we he wakes up though we have more adventures waiting for us. I am planning on taking him to get his first haircut.
He is getting his one year old molars and that is why he has been cranky as cranky can be lately. Unfortunately, he also has a yeast infection and dry skin behind his ear. He is like his mama-a sensitive skin guy. So if any of you mommies out there have different recipes for soothing skin treatments for my maby lamb let me know. The doctor recommended browned flour which I am getting ready to cook up right now since he is sleeping. Poor guy had a hard day.
Since my car died in the recent snow storm we had to take the bus and in the case had to take Portland's slowest line. Then he had to get examined, have two shots and have his blood tested for anemia and lead. All of that with two huge teeth pushing through!
When we he wakes up though we have more adventures waiting for us. I am planning on taking him to get his first haircut.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Martin Luther King Day 2007
Today is Martin Luther King, and I have a lot on my mind. In church today the pastor mentioned how extraordinary it is that forty years later we continue to celebrate the life of a man who himself only lived for thirty-nine years. She talked about how important it was for him to have a strong love of self in order be able to overcome all the injustices he would have to face, and to be able to resist the constant barrage of voices telling him that he would not be able to do anything, that he was lesser, than he was not a worthy human.
I thought about that a lot, and about how we could be able to arm Malcolm for life in this crazy world. Geoffrey is always wanting me to emphasize Malcolm's lineage. He wants to make sure that I am able to tell Malcolm want clan his comes from, and that he understands himself as simultaneously Kenyan and American. While this is a difficult feat to me because the lines of heritage seem so broad and complex that I wonder if I shall ever be able to understand them, I agree completely with their importance.
I have personally witnessed the loss that my people have had which is a result of namelessness, of lack of heritage. I have seen this in so many ways which I will discuss here, but it is ironic that it should exist at all because really the whole society that we are living in now was built by our ancestors. Every building should serve a testimony to that heritage. I am unsure why it does not.
When I was younger (and for the record I would like to assert that I am still not old) I saw this as a sort of an ache-the longing of a child for their lost mother-but now I have seen that the legacy of being robbed of a rightful sense of identity is a much deeper pain. It is more like walking around wounded, and having to live with chronic pain that is so deep and yet so constant that you must learn to cope with it, release it, or ignore it.
I have seen my method as a combination of all three, but I fall into pitfalls all the time. So the question is really-how do I give Malcolm that totally strong sense of self that will be enough to guide him through the hurdles that he will face in life? I guess this is every parent's question regardless of race or culture, but it seems especially daunting to me. There are so many times when I feel so small in the face of such a big task.
Parenting has opened me up in so many ways. It has been in many ways an open invitation to play and to remember love and joy, and yet I am always worried if I am doing things well enough to do justice to the life of our little ball of wonder. If I do this wrong he may end up angry and bitter and aimless like so many in this world, and that would be unbearably tragic because Malcolm's spirit is so pure and incredibly full of life. Every day he just seems to enter the world a little more and fill it with his powerful little presence with those sparkling eyes and infectious laughter. Of course he is my little universe, but others have also noticed his specialness. Somehow when he enters a room-even one filled with other children-he stands out every takes note.
In a couple of weeks he will be turning one. I am planning a birthday party for him, and some have said that I am going a little bit overboard and that the party is more about me than Malcolm at this age. I can't help though-since the moment I held him in my arms I have wanted to share him with the world. He is so beautiful and good. I want everyone to share the joy that he brings and I want to celebrate him and his birth and first year of life. Birthing him was the most transformational thing I ever did- I want to celebrate that and honor him again with the community similar to when he was born. The day he came home from the hospital was supposed to be the day of my blessingway. Since it did not happen like that women sat in our living room in case anyone came by to disturb me or the baby-sort of keeping watch over our little family and bearing witness to his beauty. I loved having him welcomed into a community like that, and somehow I think the answer to that strong sense of self, that connectedness and maintaining his spirit is tied up in that sense of community and support. Tricky business in the midst of all of our divisions, but somehow important nonetheless. Hopefully, in the next year Malcolm can teach me how to help him keep his little light shining.
I love you little one.
I thought about that a lot, and about how we could be able to arm Malcolm for life in this crazy world. Geoffrey is always wanting me to emphasize Malcolm's lineage. He wants to make sure that I am able to tell Malcolm want clan his comes from, and that he understands himself as simultaneously Kenyan and American. While this is a difficult feat to me because the lines of heritage seem so broad and complex that I wonder if I shall ever be able to understand them, I agree completely with their importance.
I have personally witnessed the loss that my people have had which is a result of namelessness, of lack of heritage. I have seen this in so many ways which I will discuss here, but it is ironic that it should exist at all because really the whole society that we are living in now was built by our ancestors. Every building should serve a testimony to that heritage. I am unsure why it does not.
When I was younger (and for the record I would like to assert that I am still not old) I saw this as a sort of an ache-the longing of a child for their lost mother-but now I have seen that the legacy of being robbed of a rightful sense of identity is a much deeper pain. It is more like walking around wounded, and having to live with chronic pain that is so deep and yet so constant that you must learn to cope with it, release it, or ignore it.
I have seen my method as a combination of all three, but I fall into pitfalls all the time. So the question is really-how do I give Malcolm that totally strong sense of self that will be enough to guide him through the hurdles that he will face in life? I guess this is every parent's question regardless of race or culture, but it seems especially daunting to me. There are so many times when I feel so small in the face of such a big task.
Parenting has opened me up in so many ways. It has been in many ways an open invitation to play and to remember love and joy, and yet I am always worried if I am doing things well enough to do justice to the life of our little ball of wonder. If I do this wrong he may end up angry and bitter and aimless like so many in this world, and that would be unbearably tragic because Malcolm's spirit is so pure and incredibly full of life. Every day he just seems to enter the world a little more and fill it with his powerful little presence with those sparkling eyes and infectious laughter. Of course he is my little universe, but others have also noticed his specialness. Somehow when he enters a room-even one filled with other children-he stands out every takes note.
In a couple of weeks he will be turning one. I am planning a birthday party for him, and some have said that I am going a little bit overboard and that the party is more about me than Malcolm at this age. I can't help though-since the moment I held him in my arms I have wanted to share him with the world. He is so beautiful and good. I want everyone to share the joy that he brings and I want to celebrate him and his birth and first year of life. Birthing him was the most transformational thing I ever did- I want to celebrate that and honor him again with the community similar to when he was born. The day he came home from the hospital was supposed to be the day of my blessingway. Since it did not happen like that women sat in our living room in case anyone came by to disturb me or the baby-sort of keeping watch over our little family and bearing witness to his beauty. I loved having him welcomed into a community like that, and somehow I think the answer to that strong sense of self, that connectedness and maintaining his spirit is tied up in that sense of community and support. Tricky business in the midst of all of our divisions, but somehow important nonetheless. Hopefully, in the next year Malcolm can teach me how to help him keep his little light shining.
I love you little one.
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