Today I have a lot to write, but I think that I will do it in two parts. First, I am going to write about our day today. We actually had a lot of fun. I took Malcolm to the Cafe Au Play. I read about the Cafe Au Play on urbanmamas.com which I highly recommend to any parents out there. It is a great way to learn about stuff that is going on for families in Portland.
Anyway, the Cafe Au Play is a coffeehouse that happens once a month and that hosts events for adults (complete with coffee) and children including music, puppet shows etc.
I was really excited to take Malcolm because I have not been able to get him into any kind of playgroup. I just have not found one that was for his age group that met in our area at a time when we could come. He loves other children and other grown-ups and music. I love all of those things plus getting to spend time with other mamas discussing things of monumental importance-like my baby's poop and what his first food should be.
The cafe au play was a lot of fun and I got to attend a free naturopathic parenting workshop and learn about a lot of herbs and supplements that I can use for him as well as useful tricks for bring fever down like using wet socks.
After Cafe Au Play I thought about taking him to the park, but it was hot enough to boil an egg on the sidewalk and I was really hungry so we went home. I put chicken in the oven, opened all of our windows and then brough the big metal basin that we have outside for Malcolm to play in the water.
The basin reminds of the old wash basins that African-American women used to wash clothes in the South many years ago. I have seen a ton of pictures of these and there was something that seemed very old fashioned about washing my baby outside near the tall grass, dying avocado tree, and abundant dandelions.
I took him out again in the evening. The water had warmed a bit in the sun so the coldness did not come as such a shock to him. The sun was starting to set. I could hear children in the distance and Malcolm contently sat in the water and watched the leaves and trees and bugs. I totally had a flash to Kenya. I could see Evelyn waching her baby at dusk while the older children play. I ached for the rhythmic sounds of Maragoli ( geoffrey's village). I could picture myself doing the very same thing there-washing Malcolm outside while his cousins played or tended to the animals and neighbors walked by. I wondered why I had not bought a clothes line yet so I could do this while watching the clothes dry in the breeze and why it was sirens I was hearing in the neighborhood instead of familiar greetings in Kiswahili and Kimaragoli. This was the most Kenyan moment I have had with Malcolm yet, but it was not only Kenyan because I could picture my greatgrandmother washing my grandmother the same way in the state of Georgia a long time ago. Everything was slow, and sticky and quiet. The only thing was it seemed like there should have been so many more people nearby.
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