Thank you, Mr. Rogers

Yesterday, my blogger buddy, Suldog, did a really great tribute to the late, very great man, Mr. Rogers. This was done because yesterday would have been the 81st birthday of Mr. Rogers -that wonderful, kind, generous, entertaining and very educational man and his program, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.



How many have never heard of him? Probably, across the world today, there are very few who haven't seen his show, who don't have some type of memory of that program and how he gently explained so many things to children of all ages -adults included in that too, ya know.

Well, Suldog said in his post that yesterday, everyone was being asked to wear a sweater to honor Mr. Rogers -his memory, his work. And, those of us who read Jim's blog were also supposed to take a picture of ourself, wearing the sweater choice of the day.

I remember very well my kids watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and that frequently I would watch bits and pieces of it too. I always loved how he tried to help kids work through various emotions, new things that are often a little or maybe even a lot, scary for kids -and even adults -to cope with. Such wisdom, such patience. Boy, how I envied him the latter of those qualities!

I mentioned the premise in Suldog's post to Mandy and with a smile, she said she'd have no problem wearing a sweater as a tribute to that show, to that man. When she got Maya dressed for school, I noticed she had pulled out one of Maya's sweaters to wear yesterday.

I didn't get any photos of Maya leaving for school but by the time she got home, I did have Mandy take a couple pictures of Maya and Grammy -both wearing sweaters then just because it was for Mr. Rogers, in his honor, to his memory, on his 81st birthday!

And since I rarely post any photos of myself on this blog -unless they tend to be really, really antique ones from way back in my much younger days -I'll even be brave and put all three of the pictures Mandy took of Miss Maya and me on Mr. Rogers Sweater Day!



And on another note here today too, from conversations yesterday, Kurtis seems to have picked up one of Maya's favorite words now. "Why?"

So now, he goes around saying that frequently however, he isn't doing it expecting any answers to his "Why?" questions like Maya does. Actually, he also answers his own question too now, with a loud and quite expressive "BECAUSE!"

It was too comical last night as we were eating supper and he was doing his usual, jabbering away. Then, out of the blue he says "Why?" -in a sort of whining type tone to his voice and almost immediately, he then pops out with that standard answer we adults frequently give when the "Why" questions become overwhelming. "BECAUSE!" And the emphasis in his voice, the inflection there, was just perfect.

It also provided some very much needed lightness and laughter to a day that was filled with many ups and downs and all kinds of "Whys" that each of us was asking over and over in our minds.

Thanks again to Jim for the "Sweater Day for Mr. Rogers." A tribute I wholeheartedly support. Thanks too to my many blogger friends who have commented, pouring out support in so many ways to me, to my son and to my entire family. It's very, very much appreciated.

And thanks too to a prescription I have for a little white tablet -good old Xanax -which helped to calm my nerves, my stomach, so much so that I was able to finally fall asleep last night and rested quite well.

The problems are still with me, with us -sure. Not gonna go away overnight, not even with that one little pill as there is no magic potion that will do that. But things will improve, things will change too and that's the important thing.

At least today, I don't have a major battlefield being fought over today in the depths of my gut!

And that is a really good feeling right there!