This is Walter

I was getting Walter ready for school today and this is how it went.  First, he was giggly and refused to turn over on his bed.
"Come on, Walt, turn over."
"I'm not Walter, I'm a kitty."
"Come on, Kitty, turn over."
"I'm Moki."
"Come on, Moki, turn over."
"Meow!"
"Let's get your underwear on."
"It's not underwear, it's pants."
"Ok, let's get your pants on."
"Your pants are gorgeous."
"I'm not gorgeous, I'm awesome."
"You're Awesome Man!"
"NO!  I'm just awesome!"
"You are.  You are just awesome.  Now socks."
"Shirt first!"
We wrassle around and wind up getting the shirt on - with tag on in front or back - it doesn't matter anymore.
"Now socks."
"Start over."
ARGG.

Playing Chess With Walter

Walter asked if I would play chess with him, and then promptly set up the board.  I hadn't yet sat down to play when he announced that he had already captured some of my pieces.  Oh!  I thought, I better get to the table.

I joined the game, already in progress, and he let me have the first turn.  I moved and he informed me that that wasn't an appropriate move and moved my piece one square back.  (For those of you who are unaware, my son Walter is 3, and he does not know how to play chess.  -Thought I would take this opportunity to share that little tidbit.)  Fine, I thought, I don't mind being in this spot on the board.  It was, after all, still a proper move for a pawn, and I thought I should stick to proper moves as he doesn't know all of them - or any of them, as the case may be - yet.  Then, for his turn, he picks up his "horse" and swoops across the board to take one of my pieces.  Huh?  I explain to him how a "horse" moves, and he listened.  Then he said, "Nope, nopity nope."  And just like that, I lost a horse.

It was my aim to continue to play fair, but very soon I discovered that that was an enormous waste of my time, so I started randomly taking his pieces.  (There was shockingly little pleasure in it, I have to say, but whatever.  I was losing FAST.)  Although, Walter wasn't going to let me take just any piece, and simply "recaptured" his queen and placed her on the board.  On my side of the board.  It was futile.  I took one of his pieces, and then in one turn he might take two of mine.  I informed him that he can't take two pieces at one time.  He acted like he couldn't hear me.

Then, with gall,  he boldly counted all of his pieces and compared that number to my 4 pawns on the board.  (Yes, I was forced to continue to play even though my king had been captured long ago.  Hell, for all I know, I might have started the game with the king captured...)  And he would say, "Look at all the pieces I captured!  I can't believe it!" 

Yeah.  Me neither.

 

clothes closet experience

(This is a repeat from my FB page)

Today I was at the clothes closet looking for sweaters to cut up and make into mittens.  While I was there a woman walked in and informed the cashiers that she had a "meeting with Sharon" at the Community Action Center later today, and would be picking out some clothes.  (For those of you who aren't aware, what presumably was occurring was that the customer was informing the cashiers that when she met with Sharon she would be receiving funds that she could then spend on clothes and household items from the clothes closet - and was there picking out what she needed.)  At that time, she noticed a doll on the cashier's counter, she fell in love with it, inquired about the price, found out that it cost $5, and reported to the cashier that she wanted it.  The cashier, much to my chagrin and disappointment, said loudly so that everyone could hear, "I don't think Sharon is going to let you buy a doll."

The customer didn't seem bothered at all by this, while I was fuming.  While I believe wholeheartedly that the cashier wasn't necessarily trying to be rude, she also wasn't at all thoughtful of the impact of her words - or what I thought the impact might be.  The customer reported that she would somehow find the money, and then later, before she left for her meeting she said less enthusiastically than she had been earlier that if someone else wanted the doll while she was gone, they could go ahead and sell it. 

I purchased my sweaters and left.  Fussed.  I went to the bank to continue my errands, and on my way I grumbled about the fact that the cashier seemed to have no qualms about announcing to the customer and everyone else in the store that the customer didn't have power like others, that the money that she would get came with conditions.  Basically, it didn’t matter how much she liked that doll, she wasn’t going to be the one who got to decide whether or not she could have it.

I’ve worked with poor people and seen how they are treated within the system, and overall , it’s disappointing and disparaging.  It certainly isn’t always, but more often than not, it is.  The most frustrating part for me is observing how the customer stops taking notice to the disrespectful way they are treated, as if it’s normal.  Well, I suppose that is because they are accustomed to being treated this way.

I remember having to go on WIC after Henry was born, and having some less than stellar experiences. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about this woman and that doll – which, by the way, was in my opinion, one seriously ugly doll.  That was the only part of this whole story that really brought me pleasure – that this doll was creepy – but by God, that woman really loved her.  I knew that the cashier was overstepping her boundary as she felt the need to monitor how CAC money is spent, and I knew that she was also correct that the money would be meant for household items or clothing. 

I drove back to the clothes closet, walked in and bought that crazy creepy doll, and told the cashiers to hold it for the customer.  I’d love to say it was because I’m an awesomely wonderful neighbor, but I did it because it’s so ridiculously uncool, unprofessional, and crazy disrespectful to remind people of their poverty (as if they might forget) and how they are considered powerless in our society because of it.  I bought that butt-ugly doll because the cashier appeared so careless in announcing to everyone there that this customer had to answer to someone else.  It was actually a total cop out, to be honest, because I would’ve liked to have had the guts to say all of this to the cashier. 

God of Allegiance

I haven't posted for a really, really long time - but I had to in this case.  Tonight, Henry was messing around and he folded his hands and began to pray - something I will admit, we don't do.  Or, to be more specific, we do only in dire crisis.  And this is how his prayer began, "God of allegiance".  I thought this was an amusing and fascinating mix of church and state...

I was listening to the boys playing while they were in the bath.  There seemed to be some sort of battle going on between Iron Man, the sand people, Yoda, Batman, and "Snowflake" the orca whale.

The boys packed bags to go to Aunt Amie's tomorrow.  Henry packed a modest backpack while Walter packed an over sized grocery bag.  He filled it with plastic animals, mostly dinosaurs, and hiked the straps of the bag up on his shoulder.  As he did this, the weight of the back shifted behind him turning Walter all the way around and knocking him down.  He then agreed that maybe he had packed too much and took out 3 toys....

Henry and Walter cuddled up next to Moki as he peered out our window. 
"He's looking for something to hunt," said Henry, "like a mouse, or a squirrel."
"Or a dinahoo," said Walter wistfully.

I was sad about something the other day and snuggling with Henry.  He looked me straight in the eye and told me that he came out of my belly to protect me.  I explained to him that he doesn't need to protect me, let him know that I can take care of myself and him too -- but I won't lie, I thought it was the sweetest thing he could say to me.

Stories

Henry asked to watch tv before school and we argued about it for a bit, and then finally I said he could watch for 2 minutes.  He left and returned 5 minutes later saying that he knew he could only watch for 2 minutes, so he had turned the tv (and the lights!) off and returned upstairs.  I gave him a high 5 and praised him for listening and being responsible.  "Way to go, Kid!  What a good listener you are!"
Henry smiled and said, "You know, that's the way you should talk."
That's right, Baby!

----
I woke Walter up and he said, "Why you woke me up?"
"Because it's a school day," I replied.
"The sun is out?"  He asked.
"Yep, it's out."
"Ok," he said and got out of bed too.