Tooth Fairy Time

Ben (the heir apparent) will be seven in the end of March. Today I yanked his first baby tooth, and I warned him: he's my first child, I haven't done this before. We had several tries (it was an itty bitty tooth and really hard to get a good grip on), but finally I just used the brute force method, and out it came.

I believe this is a rite of passage for both of us. I feel so adult! And he's so excited about having the tooth fairy bring him money in exchange for his tooth tonight. What a wonderful time of life.

Motherhood and the Weapons of War

Sunday I made two shields. One was a hexagon, the other closer to a circle, with nice woven straps for the hand or arm, stapled in place. Tools: chop saw, staple gun, hammer, scissors.

Today I helped paint a toy tank, the same tank I glued together. It had three sets of wooden wheels and a turret at the top that spins, with a long snout coming out to fire at the enemy.

And I wonder if, in this progression, I will soon be capturing radioactive isotopes. I know there are instructions available in the public domain for making bombs.

I could have had girls. It's all a crap shoot.

Eternity and the Cat

I love this kitty and I want him to live forever, he says,

glistening tears in his big brown eyes, those eyes I spent

hours gazing at when he was an infant, eyes I wanted to dive into,

the eyes of my last child, my easiest child, the child I will not worry about.

How to understand a lifespan when you are five?

This cat is young now, only two, and he has known us for nearly a year.

I think of the concept of eternity, and how would you capture a life?

In its youth? Then it will not mellow over time, will not reach that comfortable place.

In its prime? Then it will miss the energy of youth, and so much of what was to come.

In its old age? Surely if eternity is to be spent in old age, a gaze will always be cast back

upon the days when life was faster, urges were stronger, when there were fights to be

had with the other Toms, when life and adventure lay ahead.

Here I am in midlife, one foot on each side of the apex, wondering what comes next,

and not yet faced with the reckoning of old age. I think again on this cat

and his amazing patience, his affability, his endurance; always wanting to be where the

children are, where the action is, and tolerant nearly to a fault. And I realize that for him,

it does not matter – eternity for this creature could be a snapshot taken at any point in his

life and the child would be happy, the cat would be happy. Eternity would hold no regrets.

And I wonder how I could possibly live to have the same

said of me.

Written 17 Oct 07

Dedicated to Tanner Michael Bennett and Atticus, the most perfect cat