Misheru

Today at the Desert Museum:

Ben: “Where are the turtles?”
Me: “The turtles are sleeping.”
Ben: “Can I see the wild cats?”
Daddy: “Sure.”
Ben: “Daddy’s girlfriend has lots of movies.”
Daddy and Me: “What?!?”

He now has tubes in his ears and is doing just fine.

You know, a lot of people have given me comfort since we found out Maya will have a cleft lip. Family, friends — you name it, people have really come through. I still get down, but lately I’ve done a lot of searching online, particularly since my doctor was practically worthless when I asked if there was a cleft lip/palate clinic in Tucson. She had no idea. Ironically, I found it on the Cleft Foundation’s website — and it’s two blocks from her office.

More importantly, I found a list of famous people who have had cleft lips. Tom Brokaw, Doc Holliday, Wendy Harmer, Rita McNeil and Jesse Jackson have all had cleft lips, but none of them really made any effect until I saw — Cheech Marin. Ahhhh, Cheech! How many times did my brother and sister sneak a Cheech & Chong movie in while my parents were out? I immediately felt better. Not that I want my daughter to make crass jokes and smoke weed for national audiences or anything, but, hey, it could be worse. She could want to be a cheerleader in high school. (more…)

I suppose Ben will probably be forever traumatized because I talked about his penis online, but honestly — Houston, we have a problem.

When Ben was born — no, before Ben was born — we knew he was a boy. Thus, we had to decide whether or not to circumcize him. My family was a wealth of opinions on the matter, of course, so I took the easy way out. I let Marti decide.

Marti decided no circumcision. I don’t know why. He just didn’t want to. And I didn’t like the idea of any part of my perfect, new-born baby boy getting cut off, for whatever reason. Too much like cutting off puppies tails and ears when they are born to suit my comfort level.

I have never regretted that decision until now. I mean, so his penis looked a little different from daddy’s and from the boys at school. It was a natural, normal-looking penis. A penis the way nature made a penis. That is, until the “evil shot-doctor.” (Ben’s name for our pediatrician).

(more…)

As I lumbered behind Ben and Marti, who were pushing a large cart from Lowe’s:

“We’re the train. Mama’s the freight car.”

After visiting friends that have a dog:

“I don’t have any pets. I want a baby doggie and a baby Maya.”