MLK Day

We had visitors the night before Martin Luther King Jr. day. My mother in law and sister in law came over to watch the NFC Championship game. My mother in law loves the San Francisco 49ers, so it was natural that we would all be glued to the TV to see how the game would play out.

She cooked gumbo for everyone, which my husband was loving. He went a little over board with the food but that was to be expected since he loves to eat his mother's food.

In between cooking and watching the game, he went to the store to pick up some last minute ingredients for the gumbo. I don't know exactly how, but he managed to get his hands on a free shrimp sample. There is one thing you have to know about my husband. He LOVES to eat. I mean the man can eat. It's hard for him to turn down food especially when it's free. I always tell him, that he shouldn't eat half of the things that he does but you know, he brushes me off as the nagging wife and eats the stuff anyways. A couple of hours later, he began to complain that this stomach was hurting.

After my in laws left, he went straight to bed. I figured he was just tired and didn't think much about it. But a couple of hours later, he woke up and began vomiting  Oh the agony. I felt so bad for him. He must have visited the bathroom at least 5 times last night. I would wake up every time he went to the bathroom, and would check in on him. Poor guy. This went on all night. At one point, he just laid on the floor, of our bedroom, because he was too tired to make it to the bed.

I am pretty sure that the culprit in this story was the shrimp sample my husband ate at the store. Or at least all factors point to this assumption. Everyone is in good health except for my husband. And the only thing that he ate that we did not was the shrimp.

Needless to say, our plans for MLK day were changed. We were supposed to wake up early and watch the Presidential inauguration  We were supposed to participate in the Sacramento MLK march and community event.

But...

When situations like these arise, you just have to roll with it. Embrace the good & bad and hope for some sleep the next day. And laugh because you will lose your mind if you don't find humor in all of this.

Today was a really low key day. Doll Face and I spent the day alone and let the hubs rest. Poor Suga lips, he slept the day away. It kind of felt like a weekday. I checked in on him throughout the day. And even threatened to take him to the doctor if he didn't get better by tomorrow. So far so good. The rest has paid off and it seems he is getting better.

I feel bad that we didn't do anything historical to commemorate MLK day with Doll Face. I was banking on going to the march, so I didn't make a plan B. I am really bad with planning last minute activities. So our MLK day was not all that great. I swear I will make up for this during Black history month.

For bedtime we decided to read two MLK books from Doll Face's library. "The Story of Martin Luther King Jr." by Johnny Ray Moore and "Martin's Big Words" by Doreen Rappaport.

We really love both books.

"The Story of Martin Luther King Jr." by Johnny Ray Moore is a board book and is intended for very small children. We purchased this book when Doll Face was an infant and began reading it to her at that age. The text is really simple and easy to understand. My favorite parts of the book are all the illustrations and that the book takes you thru all of MLK's life. The illustrations are very cheerful and bright. Perfect for infant and toddlers. The narrative is very easy to follow but not so simple that parents will beating themselves over the head when they have to read it. Trust me, I have read Doll Face a couple of books with absolutely no substance. This book is definitely a must read if you want to introduce your children to MLK at a very early age.

And the book grows with your Children. Doll Face loves this book. She still takes it off the shelf and pretends to read it or tells her own story.

The second book "Martin's Big Words" by Doreen Rappaport is intended for older children. We purchased this book last year. The book was a bit long for a 2 year old but we wanted Doll Face to have this book in her collection. We kept reading the book to her and with time her interest in the book grew.

The illustrations are amazing but are a bit dark. Not in a bad way. The pictures have deep beautiful chocolate browns and red hues that make you feel like you are taking a trip in time. Perhaps, the rich colors were intentional but these colors don't keep my 3 year old's attention for a long time. We find that we have to put the book down several times and come back to it at a later time. Which is not a problem.

The book does a great job of highlighting key MLK quotes in bold large text. This is helpful because sometimes we just go thru the book and only read the quotes to Doll Face. She finds this amusing and almost always has more questions about the book when we do this. There really is no wrong or right way to read a book. At least, that's what I think. LOL

Here are my two favorite quotes of the book:

And this is how we spent our MLK day.

I have to add that today we witnessed the swearing in of President Obama at the Presidential Inauguration  50 years to the date that MLK spoke at the March on Washington. 150 years since Emancipation Proclamation. On MLK day. It just seems like all the stars aligned today. 

What did you do to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Did you participate or create anything fun? Please feel free to share. We love hearing from you!