11:45 a.m. - 2012-06-02
Chuck E. Cheese!
Chuck E. Cheese with Heather and the kids! And it was actually fun! (Gawd, I've turned into such a ... MOMMY).
Of course we were too busy chasing kids to spend much time paying attention to each other, but I think you can learn a lot about a person by spending some time with her kids.
Heather's kids are all girls, ages 7, a few weeks shy of 5, and 9 months. The oldest, J., is adopted; she was born very premature at 26 weeks and Heahter and her partner adopted her knowing she would very likely have some physical, learning and cognitive issues, which she does. She has some learning issues and unpredictable behavior a lot like Cashy's -- Heather has to watch her to make sure she doesn't decide to wander out of the place into the parking lot, which she did at one point. J is African-American (Heather is white; I don't know about her ex). The other two girls, S. and C., are biologically Heather's; dad is the same African-American donor.
I admit I am curious to know whether Liz, the ex, is black, but I haven't asked.
Heather is a very capable mom and not at all uptight with her kids -- something I feared because she homeschools her kids because she didn't think the public schools were doing a good job with J, the oldest. The baby, C., took an instant liking to me and spent a good deal of time balanced on my hip instead of Heather's, which hopefully earned me some points. Apparently C isn't all that fond of most strangers, but I've had a baby on my hip recently enough that my body remembers how to hold them. (I think successful baby-holding may come from never being completely still -- and if you have young children your body automatically reverts to that unconscious motion as soon as you pick a baby up.)
All of the kids are adorable, but especially the baby because she is tiny but has a full head of hair and big poofy pigtails -- she looks like a miniature five-year-old. When my kids were that age their newborn hair had fallen out and they were bald as pingpong balls. They were cute too, but in a very different way.
I like Heather. She is pretty laid-back with the kids, not a germ freak, feeds the baby bits of pizza ... and I really, really admire her for adopting J, knowing she will probably have special needs for the rest of her life, and then having two more kids.
I wonder what her ex is like.
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