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Bionicles, cats and mice...oh my.

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Sep. 26th, 2006 | 08:00 am

Last Friday Andy and I headed straight for the McDonald's drive-thru for the first day of the new Bionicles Happy Meals. We sat in the car eating and watching the traffic on Main Street in Endwell.

"You know what, Mom?" Andy asked. "I wish the earth would live forever, even though people don't."

And then my reflective son smiled down at his Bionicle guy and was lost in the passion of new plastic. Really, his expression was nothing short of a True Love smile. :-)

We decided to visit the cats at Animal Care Council. We stayed for a while in one of the kitten enclosures, playing with two black kittens. Andy named the really super fast kitty Flash, and I named the kitty attached to me (hugging my neck!) Purr Machine. Andy tried to hold Purr Machine in his lap, but found her too tickly. And I remembered why I don't usually wear my velcro-strapped sandals to Animal Care Council! Kitties just loooove velcro anything- and toes.

We drove home to get Pandora, our black and white mom mousie who'd developed a mammary tumor. She'd finally shown signs of real discomfort, and we took her to the vet so they could help her to the Rainbow Bridge. Andy held her and gently kissed her goodbye, and then I cuddled her in my hands until it was time. We stayed with her through the brief procedure, and then Andy held her on top of a soft piece of fleece on the way home. He stroked her fur and examined all the mouse parts he could never touch before- her tiny teeth, her nose, and her feet.

"I just love her little feet," he said.

Andy asked if we could stop at the farm stand near our house and get some sweet corn. I had three dollars, and the guy cheerfully announced I could have NINE ears of corn, and enthusiastically shoved them all into the bag. NINE! I guessed the ratties and mice were going to feast on corn too.

Dave, Andy and I went out for pizza because we didn't feel like dealing with all the shucking, cleaning and cooking that night.

Andy and I DID, however, feel like playing beach ball soccer in the hallway, until we thought we'd been bonked enough by the ball. If you think beach ball soccer is not an extreme sport, play it in a narrow hallway with your 6-yr-old.

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Comments {2}

piseco

life and death

from: [info]piseco
date: Sep. 26th, 2006 12:41 pm (UTC)
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I've been thinking a lot lately about life and death, and how some people are very uncomfortable by C's take on it. He is very open, very curious about death, and will often tell the stories of the deaths he's aware of (mostly Sport, his Buszi, and Grandpa Ken). I haven't heard a direct comment but have been given looks or heard sideways remarks from people (even relatives and friends) who think he shouldn't talk about death. And I'm sure those same people would probably think you shouldn't have taken Andy with you to the vet, shouldn't have let him hold Pandora all the way home.

But death is a part of our experience here, and wouldn't we be short-changing our children to not deal with it? I don't think either of our boys are obsessed with it, but are gaining understanding and awareness at their own rates, and coming to terms with life and death as best they can.

C asked me yesterday, in fact, if we have 100 lives (like in a video game). He was a little shocked, and very pensive, after hearing that we only get one.

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Re: life and death

from: [info]cricketsong1967
date: Sep. 26th, 2006 01:03 pm (UTC)
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I completely agree that viewing death as a natural part of our existence is a healthy way to deal with it. We don't dwell on it unless he wants to talk about it; but he knows how we handle grief, and how we handle remembering, and how we handle our own curiosities and mixed feelings. I'm very comfortable talking about it and exploring feelings. I asked Andy if he wanted to stay in the room with Pandora- he did, and he found the procedure fascinating, and was able to ask questions; he was able to say goodbye and to know we were helping her out of her suffering, and he was able to hold her afterwards in a way which he couldn't before, because of his fear. He is also interested in exploring an animal's body after death sometime, and I will help him do that if I can find a way to stomach it myself. He is very curious about how bodies work and what they look like inside. I just remembered that I wanted to call a taxidermist and see if we can visit. He is sad when pets leave us, he talks about missing them- but he knows that rather than some mysterious "going away" or "being put to sleep" their bodies stopped working, and he is curious about that. It doesn't seem to disturb him- which is what people probably worry about when they make comments or feel we are being too "open." Personally I feel it's more damaging (usually, but depending on the child) to try and hide or deny death. I have always been wary of people telling their children that a pet "was put to sleep." I've heard stories of kids who were terrified of going to sleep because of this, thinking they'd never wake up again. I am careful to make that distinction with Andy- he knows that with Pandora (and our rat Simon earlier this year), the vet was gently helping their bodies die.

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