Shades & Sharing

It seems that Hollywood has an oversized influence on perceptions of America in other countries. So it makes sense that Kate is embracing her new status as a US citizen with a cue from Hollywood: the indoor shades. First, she was chillin in the 'brary with the shades, and then little bro joined the fun to cruise the grocery store, similarly disguised from the paparazzi.

But seriously, it's actually a great thing that Kate likes her shades, because they'll play a prominent role in her future since she has albinism. Folks with albinism have less melanin than most people, so they have lighter skin & hair and often have low vision, since their eyes can't process light as well as others. And this also explains why our Chinese-born daughter has blonde hair. I read that 1 out of 17,000 people in the U.S. have albinism, and I think it's even more rare among Chinese.

This morning Sam was playing happily on his bed, when Kate picks up the plastic elephant.

Sam: "Mommy, I NEED the elephant."

"Sam, you don't need the elephant. Here, have a jaguar or a giraffe."

Sam: [quickly starting to fall apart, with unbearable pain evident in his facial expression] "No, I need the EL-EPH-ANT!" [each syllable is punctuated by a sob]

Obviously Sam was completely content and blissfully unaware of his dire need for the elephant, until Kate decided to play with it. The lessons of Eden are still true today: the most desirable object is the forbidden fruit. I gave Sam a little man-to-man talk about the wonderful variety of other toys in the house that he could play with, while he shared the elephant with Kate. But he wasn't really listening, because by then he was lusting over the blue microphone that Kate was playing with. "No, that's MY microphone!"

One hour later. Same song, second verse, different toy.
Dawn: "Sam, you are her brother, not her boss." "No, I AM her boss!"

So today was a challenging day, but we’ve had plenty of happy moments to balance it out.

Kate has been a champ at meal time. For the past few nights, she's devoured her first bowl of food and then made the sign for "more", with a huge grin. Sam finds it all very amusing, but continues his role as the carb king, focusing mostly on bread at dinner.

When I got back from my first day of work, I opened my arms to Kate to invite her for a hug. She stood there for a second or two, contemplating the offer, and then ran over and welcomed me home with a quick hug. What a moment!