A fine and private place
posted in Uncategorized |The bathroom. For most people, but not for me. As I’ve mentioned before, when I go in to take my morning shower, the dotter invariably soon comes in needing to use the toilet.
Furthermore, if she is pooping, she demands company. Hey, everyone’s got their quirks; I’m hoping that this one vanishes into the mists as she gets older.
To top it all off, this is where she tosses deep subjects at me. Not the car; the car is where she gets words defined.
This morning, she asked what a nanny does.
In the Chinese adoption world, a “nanny” is what everyone calls the workers in the orphanages. So I said that a nanny is someone who takes care of the children in the orphanage.
I have a story that I usually tell, but this time, it was time to sit down on the bathroom carpet while she did her stuff (”Ewww! Don’t look, Mommy!”) and talk to her somewhat more seriously–at a more advanced level–about the whole story.
She wanted to know whether they took care of her forever before we “picked her”.
I told her that she was found at the gates of a factory/power plant, and that her mommy in China took care of her for a week before that.
She wanted to know why she was left there. Oy. So I had to talk–very superficially–about how people in China were only allowed to have one child. She asked if that was why she was left there; I had to answer that I didn’t know, that there might be some other reason.
I also had to say that we didn’t “pick” her, but that she was chosen for us.
She asked if her first mommy was dead or sick; I said that I didn’t know, but I figured she was still alive and thought about her fairly often.
These conversations take place at odd moments. I just grab them when they come, and do my best. Just a few snippets, and then we move on to “Look, kiddo, aren’t you done yet?!” and dashing off to get hair combed and shoes on.
We’ve been trying to see lots of her buddies this past week and this week; when we were leaving to get together with K. at the park on Sunday, she exclaimed in a world-weary way, “Another playdate?!” ::sigh:: “I’m having all these playdates because we’re moving to Alaska.”
Yah, sweetie. Trying to cram them in. OAOTL on Saturday, K. on Sunday, a gymnastics class with S. on Monday…Lets her see her buds, and me have an hour or two of down time.
