After studying for our To Kill A Mockingbird quiz on Monday for a few minutes, I called Cora to talk about English and math. After addressing our various questions, we talked for quite a while about childhood toys and memories. With the phone still in my hand, I jumped up and made my way to the pantry joining the garage to the house, where I recovered a box containing three of my remaining American Girl Dolls and their many outfits.
I pretty much freaked out when I saw these. What excited me most was their hair...it was still in such perfect condition! I pulled the top one out - her name is Elizabeth, she's from colonial times - and hugged her. I was seriously squealing. Then my phone died and I had to take care of that, call Cora back, all the while trying to hold back my excitement. About these dolls. They are just so cool! (It's good that I was home alone at the time, because I screamed so spiritedly at one point while talking to Cora that my parents would probably have been considerably alarmed...so clearly, I didn't do a very good job of holding back my excitement...why should I?) Right now, she's sitting on my bed, right where I left her. I didn't have the heart to stow her away again the box...not quite yet. You have to understand - these dolls are practically a monument to my childhood. And apparently I haven't quite gotten over them.
So, after hanging up the phone, I continued my raid of childhood memorabilia. I brought in the chest that went along with the "art doll" that my mom handmade for me; I searched for my Webkinz, but to no avail (and that's still bothering me, seeing as those little stuffed animals were the subjects of many hours on the computer and pleading looks up to my parents in bookstores); however, I did find the box of scrapbooking supplies my mom and I had been wondering about for a while. And I also pulled out a little box of memories that contained the numerous notes the "fairies" had written to me, along with two books with fairy stories and chants, and, even, my baby teeth, which the tooth fairy graciously let me keep (yes, they were thoroughly cleaned before being deposited in the box...besides, I hardly ever bled). As I looked at these things, and read a few of the notes, I was struck by the tenacity with which my mother took to making me happy, to giving me a blessed childhood.
And then I thought: what better Mother's Day present than to remind her of what a wonderful mother she's been? So I kept the box out, and later in the day, we looked through it together. We read the fairy stories and all of the little notes. And then she pulled out other books she has with drawings that I did when I was about 2 or 3, even poems I wrote, things I said...and a book of more fairy stories that she wrote and illustrated for me. When I think of the first 6 or 7 years of my life, I am filled with a warm, sunny, comfortable feeling...but actual memories are sparse. When I see the minuscule notes my mother left for me to find when I woke up in the morning, I remember more, like the fact that I was desperate for a watch, or that I hated the color green (well, I remembered that...). And then I saw that, in one of the books my mom pulled out, she had put together a collection of memories and words and drawings to remind me of my childhood, my parents, my friends, my experiences... And it was so touching, so incredible. I shared a very nice time with my mother today, a time of remembering and sharing and laughing and almost crying sometimes...because she is an amazing mother. An unimaginably amazing mother - and I could never dare to ask for anything more. So thank you, and happy Mother's Day.
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