Monday, November 18, 2013

Mommy, she looks like me!

Last week, B and I were in the elevator and our Dominican neighbor and her daughter (who is exactly B's age, they share a birthday!) got in.  We see them all the time, but this day was different.

They got off the elevator, and B looked at me with wide eyes.  "Mommy" he said "She looks like me, that mommy looks like me".

"How does she look like you?" I asked, trying to clarify what he was seeing as well as take a minute to formulate my response. Even after 2 1/2 years of reading "The Colors of Us" with him and talking about all the beautiful and yummy colors different people are, this is the first time he's talked about this.

"She's brown like me" he said, rubbing the back of his gorgeous brown hand. "She has brown skin"

"She does" I said.  "Sometimes mommies and their babies have the same color skin and sometimes they don't."

"What color skin do I have", I asked?

"Yellow" was his response.

"What color skin does daddy have?" I asked.

"Brown" he said, "but not the same as me."

We talked about how daddy is chocolate brown and B is honey brown and the baby will probably be honey brown like B (and that mommy is yellow, he's sticking to that:-) and that people in families can be different colors and we are still a family.  I am his mommy even though our skin is different colors.

And then we went for our walk.

But he's talked about his brown skin and my yellow skin several times this week. it is clearly top of mind for him right now.

My sweet, sweet boy. I am and always will be your mommy.  You are adopted, which is very special, and often children who are adopted are a different color than their parents (just like Horace is spotted and his parents are striped, and just like Rosie is brown and her family is grey and Choco is a bird and Mrs Bear is his mama).

You'll see when the baby arrives, that even if you had been born from me, we would probably still be different colors. I could be purple and you could be green and daddy could be blue, and we would still be a family.

Mommy and Daddy love you so much and we are so proud to be your parents!!!