The Last Saskatchewan Pirate

On Saturday, we celebrated Lena’s third birthday. Her birthday isn’t until April 4, but knowing I am scheduled to have chemo two days before her birthday, we opted to do it this weekend. We had a small party with a few of her friends and their parents- toddlers don’t do parties solo yet! The kids ate ice cream and cake while the dad’s ran outside and hid Easter eggs in the grass. The kids put on their raincoats and boots and scampered through our soggy yard unphased by the cold and damp weather. They carried their Easter baskets and happily tromped across dead raspberry bushes and bright red heads of rhubarb peeking its way through the dirt. I think they might have killed our garlic and possibly the tulips that were just beginning to sprout, but that’s okay because they had fun. After they loaded their baskets with brightly covered plastic eggs, they came inside and unloaded their loot. One kid exclaimed it was just like Halloween stuffed into eggs. Lena had a marvelous time and asked me if we could do it again tomorrow.

Before the kids arrived, I had wished I had kept my hair one more week. I was worried that they’d ask questions and point out that Lena’s mom had no hair. Amazingly, not a single one said anything. Maybe they were too busy to even notice, maybe to a toddler, women without hair are just like men without hair. To see the world through the eyes of a toddler would be a wonderful thing. They observe differences in nearly everything--except people. I love that.

I wasn’t so lucky today while grocery shopping. I’ve been wearing a scarf lately instead of a hat and today I made the mistake of putting on hoop earrings. While wandering the frozen vegetable aisle, a kid about 8 years old grabbed me and yelled, “Look mom, a Pirate!” I wriggled free from his grips because honestly it freaked me out that he felt the need to grab me, and then I laughed and hurried along my way. However, I kept crossing paths with them in the store and each time, he would point at me and yell out “pirate!” I was torn between finding it humorous and annoying at the same time. I chose to find humor in it and on the drive home considered finding a fake parrot to mount on my shoulder for future outings.