Week 23 Day 5: Little bruiser

I got an email from my sister Christine that said, "I had a dream last night where I had to carry Gavin about 20 miles in the heat and I was scared he was going to get sick. Strangely, his hands turned into penguin flippers and he explained to me, in great detail, that he could swim home. He then asked me why he wasn't allowed to eat McDonalds."

Woah. And no, Christine doesn't do drugs. I'm glad to see that she went to extreme lengths to take care of my son in adverse conditions. But I am really glad that Gavin is not secretly a penguin. I've been to the Detroit Zoo Penguinarium. The smell is not pleasant. She is right about one thing, however. When Gavin wants to know why he isn't allowed to eat McDonalds I am totally going to Christine, a committed vegan, to explain it to him.

Gavin scraped his face today in a sidewalk mishap. Stacy had wandered over to a neighbor's house with him while my sister Amanda and I were getting ready to go to the grocery store (a fun family outting). And when I say "wandered over" I mean exactly that. Amanda and I were ready to leave but couldn't find her and Gavin anywhere. She told me she'd be right outside but then she wasn't. In any case, while she was over there she let him crawl around on the grass, but he's a quick little bugger and he took off toward the walk way and went over the single cement step to the sidewalk. It was a very, very minor scrape, but I have to say I did not like seeing blood on my boy's face. He cheeks are so, so soft and beautiful. I want no harm to befall them. He seemed really unfazed when they came home, smiling at me and Amanda. I think he's gonna make it. I've been told that boy babies get hurt more than girl babies. I don't know if that's actually true, but Gavin certainly is a daring little bear.

So yeah, we went to the grocery store. As a family. That's how we roll. I know, I know. We have a child now. We need to slow it down. It's not good for him to have such wild and crazy moms. He's a baby in the fast lane.

I woke up this morning to a story on NPR about Jackie and Scott Miller, a mother and her gay adopted son. It was a StoryCorps interview between the two of them. The love they had for each other is so evident. "I worry that you'll never know how deeply I love you and how scary it is sometimes to imagine life without you," Scott tells his mom, who is 73. Jackie replies, "That's something I can't make better for you. And I don't doubt that it will be tough, but you'll be OK. The thing that's been wonderful, Sweetheart, is that we spend a lot of time together, and you'll have those memories." I got all choked up. Granted, I almost always do when I hear NPR's StoryCorps pieces, but I can't help but think this one had a deeper impact on me now that I'm a mom and, by some accounts, the mom of an adopted son (though I certainly don't feel that way, DNA says otherwise). I really hope that Gavin and I have a relationship like Scott and Jackie's when I'm an old lady. And that I'll have such a good attitude about what will happen when I'm gone.

Lisa sent me a link to a video of a little boy climbing out of his crib with the message, "Don't show this to Gavin." The kid in the video is pretty adorable, I must say. And he does remind me of Gavin, although this kid is twice Gavin's age. The video title is "Adam Ernest climbs out of his crib for the first time," though I kind of doubt this is the first time. And if it is, who the hell is taping this and why don't they try to stop him? I mean, he does fall, after all. He isn't hurt, but if that was my kid I wouldn't wait to see what happens once he got his leg was swung over the rail. Just saying. Perhaps even more bizzare is just how many "kid climbs out of crib" videos there are on YouTube. Alongside the Adam Ernest video alone there are 18 listed. There's also a video called "Toddler dunks head in toilet" in which a one-year-old does, well, just that while someone obviously older than him, possibly his mother, films him and laughs. WTF? It speaks poorly of our society that this video has over 400,000 views. However, society is somewhat redeemed by the fact that the two highest rated comments for this video are, "If you dont want him to dunk his head in the toilet.....stop filming and grab him!" and "are his parents retarted?"