Read aloud
I’m reading A Little Princess to Noah as our nightly chapter book. I decided I better read it to him before he got old enough to get the misguided notion that there are boys’ books and girls’ books. I had trouble getting through the chapter where Sara’s father dies because I was getting choked up. I do voices when I read and being choked up worked when I was reading Sara’s part but it put a crimp in my Miss Minchin.
It’s gratifying to read my old books to Noah and have him enjoy them in the same way. And I’ll get to do it again for Madison, which is a nice to know.
Our visit with J’s mom and little sister was a bit of a whirlwind. It was fairly short and kind of action-packed, mostly because said little sister was so excited to be there. She’s just a year younger than Noah. They got along fairly well, I think, more carried away by their similar ages than anything else since they don’t share many interests. J.’s sister has had a faster growing up and then, too, she’s half-a-head taller than he is. Next to her, Noah seemed younger than he is.
J.’s mom said that seeing Madison and meeting us gave her peace. She’s very proud of J. and J. herself was beaming to get to show Madison off. She kept saying, “See? I told you it was all right!”
I know her mom was a bit worried about us.
I don’t know how J.’s mom feels about us being white. I know it was an issue for some extended family members but not for all of them. I do get the feeling that there is some concern about our ability to do Madison’s hair correctly.
Right now Madison doesn’t have much hair and it’s impossible to tell how curly it will be. There is a variety of textures in J.’s family and then, too, Madison is biracial. It’s strange not knowing what it’ll be like because I know that her hair is going to play a big part in dictating her life experiences as a woman of color. One of the first things J.’s mom did was talk about Madison’s skin tone, which is identical to her own, and what her hair might turn out to be like.
There was an article on salon.com a few years ago by a white mother of biracial daughters, about how special their hair-doing time together was. I’m not sure if the comments allow html, so I’ll just paste the url here:
http://dir.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/02/17/braids/index.html
I ams so glad the visit went well! Our daughter’s extended bfamily didn’t see her until she was 2 years old. It took them awhile to deal with the adoption. I know they let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw how well she was doing. They delighted in commenting on how beautiful and smart she was. No one commented on how she looked like her bparents until I did. Then the flood gates opened and I got to see all sorts of pictures and stories about the bparents as children. We are happy to have a relationship with them, and they act the same way about us.
On “The Little Princess” front, when you get through reading the book- encourage Noah to use his imagination- rent the movie. It was made I think in the early 90’s. Its a small film, never got much publicity. Its really wonderful. So is the film version of “Indian in the Cupboard” that came out around the same time. Other kid movies you may have missed because of Noah’s age- “Fly Away Home” “The Secret of Roan Inish.” You can find all of these at the video store.
Books- “The Wrinkle in Time” series, uh oh kids crying. Someone send me books on how to get 4 children to agree or at least disagree respectfully.
Garrett loved that book. He cried when she gets sent to the attic. HE loved the Secret Garden as well!
-d
That article in Salon was great. Thanks for posting it.
Ok, I have to admit that although I do like it, when it comes to “lets do your hair” time, Ky doesn’t it like it much, so unfortunately for us there ain’t nothing “special” about our time together when I do her hair…although I’m working on changing this!
Mostly because it is time consuming and she would rather “do” other things and partly because she is VERY tender headed and even minor pulling hurts. That aside, after you take the time to figure out what works best for Madison’s hair when she gets older (in terms of products and styles and keeping it moisturized)it really won’t be that much of an issue.
There are some good websites and books out there but practice is the key. Friends could also be a valuable resource or you could also talk to various beauty supply/salon people to get pointers when she gets older. I believe you’ll do fine!
Umm…I can spell my name…really I can!LOL
I LOVE that book! It’s been one of my two or three favorites since my mom first read it out loud to me when I was four. Sometimes, I still have dreams about the characters.
Your daughter is a vision of loveliness!
My sister has 5 bi-racial daughters with 5 different variations on curly hair (we are Caucasian) and the single most important thing has been leave-in-conditioner! It is great because it makes it easier to comb as well as keeping the curl together and helping with the frizzies.
A few basic tips, learned the hard way (my hair is so straight that when it’s long it can be used in cutting straight lines for construction.)
Number one: try to avoid having to brush her hair when it is dry (best to do it when it’s wet with the conditioner).
Number two: If you must brush her hair when it’s dry, always start from the bottom, you will save your self much agony (on both sides.