Bagels, Boots and Black Babies

Sadie is blissfully back in school now that Christmas break is over, so today I had some great one on one time with Noah. He is such a different kid when you have him alone. They are calling for 5 inches of snow in Kentucky tomorrow. That is a HUGE deal around here. That much snow will shut down our city for at least 3 days. So Noah and I went consignmenting (is that a word?) to find snow boots for him and Sadie. Last year, we got about 5 inches of snow. I knew it was coming but I refused to buy snow boots for the kids. Around these parts, you may only get to wear them once and it just seemed like a big waste of money. If you know how cheap I am this will not surprise you. So I decked out my kids in my outgrown snowsuits from the 80's and tied plastic grocery bags around their tennis shoes to try to keep their shoes dry. They were the most ghetto looking kids I've ever seen. First of all, I made Sadie wear a size 4 snowsuit. Last winter she was a size 6. So a good 4 inches of leg was showing at the bottom. Add the plastic bags over the shoes and basically I just created a holding tank for the snow that seeped into their shoes. When we came in for a break my poor kids had drenched socks and purple feet. Not good. So this year I decided I should bite the bullet and get them some snow boots. We went to the store and they happened to have one pair left in Noah's size but it appeared that they didn't have any big enough for Sadie's feet. We walked around the store and came back to the shoes and evidently, someone had put back the most perfect snow boots of all times- because there they were- in all their size 1 glory: Leopard print snow boots all decked out with hot pink trim. Girlfriend is going to flip out when she sees them! I can't wait to give them to her. And all for the bargain price of $8!!!

Plus, while we were there, we picked up the most adorable black Cabbage Patch kid. She was $4.50. However, her white counterpart that was sitting right next to her was $10. And the white baby doll even had marker all over her arms. This devaluation of "blackness" just bugs me to death! I have noticed several times at Wal-Mart that the black baby dolls are much cheaper than the white dolls. And while I'm on this little soap box- did you know that it costs less to adopt black babies? Seriously. What does this say about equality and the value we place on skin color? That's just a tid- bit for you. But I'll probably just save this issue for another post, because, believe me- I have a LOT more to say about it.

So- back to my date with Noah... we had lunch out at Panera Bread, which is always our go to place when the 2 or us get to have a date. We load up on cinnamon crunch bagels and iced tea. We were joined on this lunch by Noah's imaginary friends. He refers to them in a generic collective by just calling them "my friends". They have no individual names. At home he will start screaming that his friends are coming and will make us open the door to let them in. Today, the "friends" had been bad and Noah wouldn't let them eat any lunch. We were talking away about any number of topics and all of a sudden Noah threw himself under the booth and onto the floor. I told him that he needed to get up off the floor and sit in his seat. He said that he couldn't do it because his friends were kicking him in the collarbone and he had to hide from them. Sadie's imaginary friends used to be mean to her too. She would just start crying uncontrollably and when we'd ask her what was wrong she would say that her imaginary friends were calling her names and they wouldn't let her play with them. I'm not sure what that says about me as a mother- that my children create these mean spirited alter egos, but somehow I just can't reason with them that they can just "pretend" that their imaginary friends are nice. It just doesn't occur to them that they have complete control over this! (For a previous post about the kids' imaginary friends, click HERE)

It was just freezing out today and we did a lot of getting in and out of the car. Once when we got into the store we were going to, Noah said, "I'm so freezing cold! Can we move into the nursing home? It's nice and toasty in there!" Instead of moving him into the nursing home (some days I'd like to!), I just bought a new portable heater for the kid's room. They each have their own rooms, but a few months ago, they decided that they wanted to start sleeping together in Noah's room. Now those 2 kids are sleeping in a tiny twin bed together. Basically, Noah talks Sadie's head off at night until she falls asleep. Then I suppose he gets bored and finally gives up and falls asleep, too.

In case you need a little humor today, here's a replay of a conversation I had with Noah in the car a couple of days ago.
Me: Noah, you sure are talking a lot today.
Noah: Yep, I guess my mouth just feels like dancing!

He's so cute it just kills me! Happy hump day!