Well, last night we pulled off our surprise prayer vigil for Adria (Jess’s mother). She was diagnosed with lung cancer a couple months ago and is doing well. She’s only in her mid 60’s and has no major symptoms so her diagnosis isn’t entirely grim. That said, she has many times rolled her eyes at the idea that people would be praying for her. It’s just not her thing. So last night we had a surprise prayer vigil to rub salt in the wound! Hooray! I cooked a super big batch of greasy and tasty chicken wings (one of her favorites), and a whole slew of Adria-lovers joined us. Jess will write a post later better detailing how fun last night was with lots more photos. But for now, here’s a lovely photo of the wonderful Adria Susan Parker at her surprise prayer vigil.

I was just checking out some past postage and here’s something fun from jess:

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June 28, 2006
Rakin’ in the Loot

Yesterday Art and I were riding the bus when the man next to us asked, “Does he like bananas?” I said, “Yes! They’re his favorite!” and the man reached into his box of groceries and gave Art a banana! Later on in the ride a woman was talking to Art and said, “I have to have something in here for a baby…” and rummaged in her purse until she pulled out a lollipop. Man! But that wasn’t the first time Art has been showered with gifts from strangers. Once we were in Walgreens when Art was only a couple months old and a guy gave him a dollar! I said, “I’ll put it in his college fund!” and the guy reached back in his wallet, “Well, if he’s going to be educated, here’s another!”

"It's fun doing a puzzle with Lewis cause I get to do the whole puzzle."

I spent a couple hours at Art’s school today taking video (had the day off since it’s my BIRTHDAY!). Anyway, I recorded loads and loads of footage that will likely take more than a month to have the time to edit. But in the meantime, here’s a short clip of Si and Art that Jess and I just think is hilarious!

We tried this last year and Art often refused to even enter the water, let alone participate. This year something clicked and there’s no hesitation. He just jumps right in and learns. It’s even more reason to not stress about specific behaviors and realize that nearly everything impermanent.

Jessica came home with a stack of new books to read a couple days ago. Usually she has time to browse through to make sure they’re okay, but we either forgot or didn’t have time, and that was a mistake. For bedtime I offered to read Art a couple new books, and one we chose was called “Benny and the Binky”. I’m still pissed about it how awful and scary it was for Art.

The basic story is this little kid named Benny (actually, a pig) about Art’s age has a new little brother and Benny wants the binky. So he swipes it from his brother and runs away. “He’s not supposed to do that,” said Art. No, he’s not. But I read on thinking ok, no big deal, I’m sure something funny or redeeming will happen.

Then, Benny runs into three very mean looking bully pigs who tease him for using the binky. They say if he doesn’t stop using it they’re going to hit him in the face. I read this to Art but watered it down considerably. “bump him in the face,” I said, and “they’re just being silly”. But it didn’t matter, Art was scared and starting to sniffle. As I turned the page there was this horribly drawing of one of the pigs nailing Benny in the mouth and the binky was flying out. It confused and frightened Art and he started to get really scared and cry. I immediately said they were just pretending and quickly skipped past the page and flipped to the end where Benny and his brother were happy back with their mama. “Why did they hit Benny?” he said, scared. I didn’t know and tried to explain it was just a pretend story and that nobody was actually hit and that Benny got his binky back in the end and everyone was happy.

Because Art often looks at the blog with us I don’t wanna risk posting a photo from the book here. But I will link to it. Click here to see the bullies hitting Benny.

I honestly can’t figure out what the author was thinking. You get punished when you do mean things to your brother? That using a pacifier longer than your supposed to will cause bad things to happen? I dunno.

I have worked hard to protect Art from the reality that the world is often a mean and confusing place. I want him to be four, to not worry about bullies or mean people, to not have fear of being hurt. In some ways the book we read scared me, too. Art is so fragile and feels so deeply, and I can already feel the real world creeping in on his little fourness. I want to protect and shield him from all things bad, and of course I can’t. He couldn’t bear that Benny got hit and his gackoo taken away. “Papa, will you never read that bad book again?” he said through sniffles. “We will never ever read it again.”

These are some photos taken by Art’s preschool teacher Jen Boss of a recent school project. Art’s is the middle, and I’m guessing Evva’s is at right, the one loaded with pink.