E's Wii Mii

Every time I see it, it cracks me up! I think it looks like Ethan all shrunk up and popped into the Wii. Ethan lost his hair when he was six years old due to Alopecia Universalis. It was a very difficult time, for me, not for him. He has always thought it was funny, cool and convenient. This is the kid who needed held down for haircuts and I always felt like his hair never looked quite right. It was a constant battle - then, he became bald - go figure! It's mostly a forgotten issue - that is, until some little kid loudly asks his mother "Why does that kid have no hair?" or a group of teenagers point, laugh and make jokes. Only once or twice have I heard a mom answer her kid with an appropriate answer. Mostly they sternly tell them to be quiet and to quit pointing. One time I heard a mom say, "Sometimes there are medicines that can make you lose your hair, but I am not sure." Seems reasonable, informative and non-chalant - a good approach in my book. One of the funniest incidents was a little boy in a supermarket who was way too far away from his mother for her to do anything about his outburst started yelling, "mom, check out this kid, hurry up, he's totally bald, no hair!!" He was standing right next to Ethan. His mother shot him a look to kill and through clenched teeth told him to "get over here, RIGHT NOW!" Ethan then piped up - "No, mom, look!! No hair - see!" He wasn't going to let it go until she acknowledged it! Way to turn it around, E! I have confronted my share of teenagers. Last summer it was at a fair and it went on so long, I eventually walked over and said to them, "Seriously, you really think it's that funny! You are all old enough to know better and should be incredibly ashamed of yourselves! Imagine if it were your family, or you - you all need to think long and hard after I'm gone about what kind of person you intend on being in this world." I don't know if I will ever have any impact in a situation like that, but there's a part of me that won't just walk away embarassed. We are not the ones who should feel embarassed. We have also had situations in public venues where people, assuming he has cancer (I think), have been very kind. Once, at a basketball game someone gave us jerseys for our kids for "all we have been through", free balloons, or free rides on rides. Although it used to make me very uncomfortable, I feel like it would put such a kibosh on a Random Act of Kindness on the part of those people, to decline their niceness and explain everything. I generally just smile and genuinely say thank you VERY much. I really just meant to write about E's cute Mii.