People's ideas of what is right and proper certainly change from one generation to the next. I was happy to email pictures showing off my (clothed) growing belly to relatives that lived far away when I was pregnant...but the grandparents I was sending those pictures to certainly would not have been so free in showing off their bellies, and my great-grandparents would not have even whispered the word "pregnant" in public.
I was talking to my grandma yesterday, and somehow we got on the subject of where she and her siblings were born. She is number six out of seven, and they were all born at home. She told me, "I was five when Albert was born, and Mama told me that the goats left him on the back porch." We Okies ain't got no need for storks. Goats bring our young'uns.
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| Ryan and cousin Connor at the Tulsa Zoo in 2008 |
I was laughing about the goats with my mom, and she texted the following story of her own:
I was about five or six and some family member was pregnant. My brother was staring at her belly. Granny said, "Don't be gawkin', that ain't nothing but a watermelon." I said, "No, I think that's a baby." Granny bopped me on top of the head and said "Now don't you be talkin' thata way!!!!"
So my great-grandmother, born in 1900, told her daughter that goats dropped off babies on back porches, and explained to her granddaughter that pregnant bellies were simply watermelons.
Oh how times change. Wonder what Granny Allie would think of this?
whirlwind. a spinning whirlwind.
Life has been a whirlwind at the Cliff household lately. The whirlwind is four years old and has a name, which I can not share due to CPS privacy rules. I can just tell you that although I still haven't said "He's a foster kid" to anyone, I have allowed myself a whispered, "He's a friend of ours." Is that breaking the spirit of my vow to not give him a label? Probably. But I am only human people. And it was a particularly rough day. In spite of the occasional difficulties, he is a beautiful little soul that we are privileged to try and love well. And my mom reminded me that my own children annoy and tire me sometimes too. Word.
In a totally unrelated thought, and mostly just because it makes me smile big, I bring you this awesome picture of my mom, and my grandmother, and myself taken at my friend Amy's wedding in the photo booth they had at the reception (how FUN is that?!?):
I'm Starr Cliff. A domestically-challenged mom, climbing over mountains of laundry to bring you my stray observations and amusing stories about my kids. (more)
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