Wednesday, June 13, 2012

My grandegg Mulan - an update


This is where Mulan spends most of her day, nestled in a soft bed made of a cigar box, cotton material and an upside-down strawberry crate. Henry got into the car yesterday in a grumpy mood, tired and unwilling to share what had happened that day. Henry is almost never in a bad mood, so when I gently probed, I learned that not only was he tired of dealing with his egg, but the whole project was getting boring and hard.


Tell me about it, I said, trying not to sound smug. Henry slumped further down in his seat, clutching Mulan's box. The money thing is just hard, he said, I'm tired of it. I just raised my eyebrows and murmured

The other night, at the school's fundraiser, I had commiserated with Henry's in-laws about the project. The father thought it was too negative as did a haughty French woman I'd met earlier in the day who I rather ineffectively argued with about being a thirteen year old parent. She was impossibly French, inferring confidently in the usual never-disappearing-French-accent-despite-years-and-years-of-living-in-the-United-States that with the proper amour, a baby can be a beautiful thing. She disapproved of making the whole baby thing so negative. When I pointed out that I was the loving mother of three and the only mother in the room, actually, and that I would of course, support, a baby if Henry were to have one, but that it would be an unequivocal disaster, as far as I'm concerned. Frankly, I wanted to say that if Henry were to have a baby, I would be hard put to not say Your life is fucked.


Oh la la.


So, the ride home in the car was pretty silent. Moods were grumpy enough that Oliver's pleas to play music from the station that rotates about six songs were ignored, and when we pulled up to Noah's house to drop him off, I cheerfully asked whether I could take a photo of Baby Brooklyn. Noah, who is a quiet guy and probably the sweetest kid on the planet, cheerfully uncovered Baby Brooklyn for his first photo:






Noah, I might remind you, is a single parent, and while I'm a little bit in debt, he told me, everything is pretty good.


Reader, I'll let you take that where you will.

Mulan, Part One
Mulan, Part Two

13 comments:

  1. I love this project. They did it at our high school but I wasn't in that class. Just watching my friends with eggs was enough for me to learn the lesson!

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  2. Well, this project, in my opinion, is blogging GOLD! I am loving reading about it. I think it's an excellent project and will be a real eye-opener for those kids.
    And I just got to meet Noah whom I fell in love with a little.

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  3. This is so hilarious and wonderful. I love the way you captured Le French Woman. You and Noah might be on to something.

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  4. i agree that no matter what - the project is great fader for the blog LOL!

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  5. This project sounds as if it is teaching an entire community much more than it was intended to do. I love that kind of serendipity, and agree with Ms. Moon that it's "blogging gold."

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  6. P.S. - I love "the French Connection ('Oh La La'). And thank you - THANK YOU! - for ordering from the fundraiser. You are so very generous, in so many ways.

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  7. And the Egg Project is doing its purpose! There is no way in hell you want to be a parent any time soon. As I said, when I did the project I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I did not want kids for a very long time.

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  8. Like everyone else I am loving this school project! Have you read Anne Lamott's recent book, "Some Assembly Required", about her son becoming a father at the age of nineteen? It is classic Anne Lamott. It did make me look forward to being a grandmother - in maybe ten years.

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  9. I feel the urge to host a baby shower for baby Mulan. Egg cups? Coddlers? Ceramic egg crates?

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  10. Love it! Ask Henry how he'd feel if his egg had special needs....

    On second thought, don't.

    I'm with you on the kids having kids thing.

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  11. Grandegg Mulan was in the back of my thoughts all day. Such a great project. I think back in junior high my sister's class did the same thing with bags of flour.

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  12. This just gets better and better. Reality sets in! After all, raising a child CAN be boring and hard. (Or so my mother frequently reminded us.)

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  13. noah looks like a sweetheart. and i'm with mrs. moon. blogging GOLD.

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