![\"\"](\"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/9\/johatsm.jpg\" "\\"Hat\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We\u2019re sitting in a gluten-free bakery\/caf\u00e9 last weekend waiting for our \u201cpizza\u201d and nothing-at-all-like-mac-and-cheese-but-still-kind-of-good dish (you know, that\u2019s the key to gluten-free eating, just banish the thought of what it should taste like and you might really enjoy it). Anyway, the \u201cpizza\u201d crust held together by nutshells wasn\u2019t really good but that\u2019s a story for another time. We were relying on a completely stoned, dreadlocked barista who seemed overwhelmed by my Groupon, as if she hadn\u2019t seen 2,000 of them already, and things were not looking good. The food was taking for-ev-er.<\/p>\n
I use the word \u201csitting\u201d loosely. Jose is alternating between hiding under a neighbor\u2019s table playing peek-a-boo with strangers, and running down the long hall to the kitchen. Dining experiences need to be planned well in advance, prepared for with crayons and paper and toys and discussion. The restaurant should be kid friendly, the food fast, and no one should be hungry when the expedition first sets out. In short, it\u2019s never a good idea for us Ellises to \u201cstop in\u201d anywhere for food, but we seem to need to re-learn that over and over. We are doing a pretty good job of disrupting everyone\u2019s fine Sunday afternoon with our last minute decision to stop for lunch. Josie is somewhere in the general vicinity of our table when a black man sits nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cMommy, why is he brown?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence\u2026 [shit]\u2026 I thought she was supposed to ask that question when she was, like, 4. Damn it kid, I have 1.25 years to prepare my answer to that question!<\/em> Instead of coming up with a good response, I say, \u201cHey, let\u2019s read this book together.\u201d Smooth.<\/p>\n In the car many minutes later, I\u2019m ready. I ask her what color her skin is. Brown.<\/p>\n What color is Mommy\u2019s? White.<\/p>\n What color is Jada\u2019s? Brown. Alyssa\u2019s? Donnel\u2019s? Etc. Brown, brown, brown.<\/p>\n I make a mental note to put the Josie Book on top of her pile of bedtime books so we can revisit the pictures of her infancy and her birth mother.<\/p>\n What color is your hair? Black.<\/p>\n What color is Mommy\u2019s hair? You get the idea\u2026<\/p>\n I say something like, well, your skin is brown because some of your ancestors, your grandparents\u2019 grandparents\u2019 grandparents, were from Africa. Mommy looks more like some of her ancestors who were from Norway.<\/p>\n She\u2019s quiet for a minute. She stares out the window. Then: \u201cSometimes my ancestors… My ancestors, sometimes they blow bubbles for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re sitting in a gluten-free bakery\/caf\u00e9 last weekend waiting for our \u201cpizza\u201d and nothing-at-all-like-mac-and-cheese-but-still-kind-of-good dish (you know, that\u2019s the key to gluten-free eating, just banish the thought of what it should taste like and you might really enjoy it). Anyway, the \u201cpizza\u201d crust held together by nutshells wasn\u2019t really good but that\u2019s a story for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,10,16,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adoption","category-mom","category-bi-racial-family","category-food","category-parenting","category-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}