Art Star

It’s dang hot in LA today. The brain surgeon took the kiddies to the pool and my mom is here. I’m taking a break to blog and to edit a few news stories – one on baldness, one on cord clamping, one on children taking antihistamines and one on dopamine agonists.

It’s Saturday and usually BooBoo has mommy-or-daddy-and-me swimming lessons at the YMCA in the morning, but we skipped it because of her little cough. In the afternoon, there was a first birthday party for one of BooBoo’s friends, which we almost forgot after the chaos of the swim-tap-dance-art-contest-fair day. Instead, we were just very, very late.

Miss M had a serious scheduling conflict today. She had a tap dance performance at the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day. I have no idea why they call it “Healthy Kids Day” and then serve hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, pseudo-juice drinks and candy. Are they insane? It’s a total junk food fest.

Really, it is hard going to many of the events in LA that supply food, because it is always just crap. We bring our own, though we do get the occasional crap, but when every table we go check out offers candy, it makes my day challenging.

Anyway, Miss M had to miss her tap performance, which is a bummer, because she loves Teacher Michelle and her friends in tap. Today was also West Hollywood Kids Fair, and little Miss M won FIRST PLACE and a blue ribbon. We tried to race between both events, but they ended up delaying the art contest and Miss M had to choose. She chose to collect her prize.


Now, I hate to brag, but I must say I was shocked when I saw the sheer number of entries. This was the 20th anniversary of the art contest and my daughter beat out over 50 other kids. (Somehow it was the 20th annual art contest at the 13th annual Kids Fair, but whatever). Seriously! Could I be more proud?

AND...(could there be more to this fascinating story???)...it was her second time winning an art contest. I swear. I think the first one was rigged, but still...What are the odds?

More bragging: I can see why she won. Every other entrant, even the 6th-graders, used one medium for their project – crayon, colored pencils or colored pen. But not little Miss M. She used pencil, crayon, markers, glitter glue, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, craft sticks and more. She’s a flipping creative genius.

The theme was “What I Want to be When I Grow Up.” My daughter chose to be a cheerleader. Yes, Heroes fans, Save the Cheerleader, Save the World! But, she didn’t want to be a lily-white cheerleader to match her own fair skin. No. My daughter wants to grow up to be a black cheerleader.

Now there is irony in this. I grew up during the Cabbage Patch doll frenzy. My dear mother waited in long lines and spent way-too-much money getting me the coveted dolls. And I just had to have a black Cabbage Patch doll. Much like my daughter, I was somewhat oblivious to race or genes or how it all worked. I told my mother that when I grew up, I was definitely having a black baby and my mother said that would be great.

I didn’t. I married a man who is German and Italian – and quite pale at that, although he tans better than I. But if my daughter’s wish comes true (they often do), I’ll apparently have my black child someday – and she’ll be cheering for her favorite team.

Miss M did recently ask about skin tones and I explained melanin to her. She loves science (should I call her “Brain Surgeon’s Baby”?), and so she found the explanation of melanin fascinating.

Mostly, I love the innocence that is still in her at 5 years old. She has no concept of race or racial differences. Her friend Ava has a little more melanin than her; her friend Emma has a lot more; her friend Tabitha has less. That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less. They love each other for who they are, and when they fight, it’s over whose turn it is or who is first or who gets to sit where.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Toodles.