And here is a poem for Jan that’s been in circulation for a while. I thought it was fitting:

Dear World:

I bequeath to you today, one little boy in a crispy shirt with two blue eyes and happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of light blonde hair, that shines in the sunlight when he runs. I trust you’ll treat him well.

He’s slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to his first day at school. Never again will he be completely mine. Prim and proper he’ll wave a young independent hand this morning and say “goodbye”, and walk with little man steps to the classroom. Now, he’ll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for his name to be called. He’ll learn to tune his ears for the sounds of school bells and deadlines, and he’ll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way and he’ll learn to be jealous. Now he’ll learn how it is to feel hurt inside, and now he’ll learn how not to cry. No longer will he have time to sit on the front verandah on a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the pavement. No…now he’ll worry about important things like grades and which shirt to wear and whose best friend is whose, and the magic of books and learning.

For five full years now, I’ve been his sage and Santa Claus, pal & playmate, mother and friend. Now he’ll learn to share his worship with his teachers, which is only right. But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest woman in the whole world. Today when that school bell rings for the first time, he’ll learn what it means to be a ‘member’ of the group, with all it’s privileges and it’s disadvantages too. Today, he’ll learn for the first time that all who smile at him are not his friends, … and me? I’ll stand on the front verandah and watch him start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a man.

So world…I bequeath to you today, one little boy in a crispy shirt with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of light blonde hair that shines in the sunlight when he runs. I trust you will treat him well.

She does get asked why her colour is brown or “teased” (I don’t think the teasing is malicious though. It’s more of like she’s called “brown” because they can’t tease her on her built, height, weight or facial features — gets mo?) na “Bea has brown skin” (she sometimes tells me she gets hurt) and asks us how come she’s brown pero we tell her that skin colour doesn’t matter because we’re all equal and that when they get older, they will spend the rest of their days trying to get a tan and she doesn’t have to do anything! bwahahahaha