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jumping and dancing on the bed
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made for a great photo op but kind of scary as I am sure if I had not shown up at that very moment he would have been out the window…
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As Stacie posted earlier, Sennet’s first time on a boat was the journeys back and forth across Lago de Atitlán, nestled between three volcanoes in the Guatemalan highlands (Los Altos). At one point I asked him if he liked it, and he nodded his head vigorously and said yes. Then he looked out at the water for a bit and quietly said, “I love it.”
The morning ride across the lake was under beautiful blue skies and the water was glassy. Perfect weather. During the morning and early afternoon, as we trekked to different lakeside villages, the clouds moved in, the wind picked up a bit, and it threatened to rain (it was the “rainy season” after all).
We never did encounter any rain while out on the lake, but the ride back across to Panajachel was a bit rougher. Sennet loved it. He kept laughing and cringing every time the spray would splash up over the bow and mist him.
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One night in Antigua while Tía D was with us, we all went out to dinner at restaurant El Sabor del Tiempo on one of the main streets just up from parque central. We sat in a window seat right on the sidewalk. During dinner kids and ladies kept coming up to the window to try to get us to buy crafts and handmade goods, especially wooden flutes. Through the whole dinner we constantly had to keep telling them, “No gracias.”
Once back at la casa, Sennet got out one of the wooden flutes that we had bought for him earlier in the trip. He began to play the flute and run around the table pretending to try to sell it to us, wanting us to tell him, “no gracias.”
Funny little man.
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For the second day in a row we took Sennet down to the Seattle Center for the Bumbershoot music festival. We took him to see Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, where he danced his ass off and had people coming out of the crowd to dance with him. We then took him to see local Seattle funk band Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme. Again, he was totally into it, this time grooving on daddy’s shoulders so he could see the band above the crowd.
(click to see larger image)
Later on we took him over to another stage to see the harmonica wizardry of Lee Oskar & Magic Dick. We parked ourselves off to one side, on the grass in the shade. Sennet was up and dancing to the music in no time. Eventually a lady came over and introduced herself as Lee Oskar’s girlfriend, Sri. She said she loved watching Sennet dance and wanted to give him a free CD from Lee. She went backstage and returned with a CD and a bumbersticker. We mentioned that we had thought about getting Sennet a harmonica, and she lit up and said she would send one of Lee’s signature harmonicas to him!! She took our names and address down, and hopefully Sennet will get yet another musical instrument to practice on here soon!
Here’s some video of him dancing to Lee Oskar & Magic Dick:
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If you have read or seen the movie “The Help”, this title line may seem familiar to you. If you haven’t read the book- do it now! It is really amazing. If you haven’t seen the movie- do that too but only after you read the book!
The book is about African American women who are “The Help” in southern homes in the 1950s-1960s (and before). The women raise the white children and love them as their own- and oftentimes more naturally and more completely than their white mothers.
In one case, the mother is quite awful to her young daughter (maybe two or three years old) because the little girl isn’t beautiful- as if that is a reason….
The maid always tells the little girl “you is kind, you is smart, you is important.” I found myself hoping with all my being that this fictional little girl would remember these words her entire life.
I also found myself wondering what my life would have been like if someone in my life had whispered these words to me when I was a little girl- or even made me feel like I was these words…
After I saw the movie, I decided to tell Sennet this simple yet powerful statement nightly at bedtime.
So each night that I put him to bed I starting saying “Sennet- you are kind, you are smart, you are important.”
When we were in Guatemala he got really upset when I started to say it and he said “no, I want to say it” so he told me “you are kind, you are smart, you are important.” He also wanted to get out of bed and tell Aunt D the same thing. It was pretty cool to say the least.
When I started vocalizing this little phrase to Sennet, I never knew how much it would mean to me when Sennet said it to me. Most nights now, Sennet likes to say it first but I always make sure to say it in return. Like the fictional little girl in the book, I think it will stay with me for a very long time.
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