Annie awoke ready for school today feeling much better. I accompanied on her first school bus ride to kindergarten, ever. I'm glad she has many friends back home that take the school bus to school and s sees them come and go everyday without a problem. I think that gave her the extra courage she needed. However, mommy doesn't have anyone to give HER extra courage, so I accompanied her on her first day, to be sure she would understand the routine. Jim says he's taking a huge leap of faith allowing his baby to take a school bus to school in a foreign country. Sooooo, I'm not the only one. Annie understands Spanish fairly well, but doesn't speak it much, at least not at home. Her teacher at the Burnt Mills Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program may disagree. Annalise probably does better for her than she does for me. At least, I sure hope so.
A yellow minibus ("busetta") pulls up for her at 7:15 and the kids inside are surprised to see me hop on too. The driver jokes and tells them I am their new teacher and they'd better be on their best behavior. They chuckle, a little. I tell them, no, in fact it's my first day of kindergarten and I needed my daughter to accompany me to school so I wouldn't get lost. They cackled hysterically. The driver has his own children on the bus and his wife hops on during one of the stops. This makes me feel very well. Her teacher greets her with a hug and smooch (she greets all the kids like that). There is a boy who is obviously not wanting to go to school, and she brings him inside with a special song than convinces him to be there. He's not too thrilled though. My princess is ecstatic to be back in school. Much as she complains at home (sorry Mrs. daS and Mrs. A, nothing personal I'm sure), she's excited about her new school. Maybe just because it's new. Maybe just because people go out of their way to try to make her comfortable despite the language barrier on both sides. Maybe because it's such a pretty school, or because she gets to wear a uniform and ride a bus. I don't know. Whatever it is, she's happy, which makes both Jim and I very happy.
Have I mentioned that Annalise is in a private school? I don't remember. Who reads these things anyway ;-0 It's a school for what is considered upper middle class here. Whatever. It's called Ausubel School, and my very smart psychology friends will know who the famous Ausubel was. I had no clue. I had to look him up. Her full set of uniforms cost about $60, her books and materials $24 and monthly tuition is $160, which includes a snack and transportation. Yes, $160 a month. I'm sure we pay more than that in gas $$$ driving her back and forth to school in Maryland (it's 40 minutes away) between her grandmother and I. Holy cow, and what a blessing. She not only gets to continue her K education (and not be held back due to absence back home), but she gets to do it in Spanish which is consistent with her immersion program. In addition, there is the added benefit of being immersed in a new culture. Only children can adapt this well. I'm still trying to figure out which way is the center of town! She had a super day.
---------------------
This morning finally felt like a normal day, as normal as one can be away from home. I awoke to make Annie breakfast and pack her a lunch. Woke her up, dressed and groomed her. Made her all cute and spiffy for her first day back after bronchitis. Took her to school, and took a cab ride back home. Alejandro was happy chomping away at breakfast with Daddy. They were both dressed and ready to start the day.
I pack a diaper and goodie bag. Haven't done that in years. I take off to the mall in a cab, about 20 minutes away. It's a fantastic mall. Beautiful. Obviously upscale. How odd that this is where I would fit in. It just feels like an average mall back home. Alejandro loves being wheeled around in his umbrella stroller. Did I mention that the airlines broke a handle and then forced it back together? We didn't notice it until a week later when we finally used it. They don't sell umbrella strollers here, locally. This is an "el-cheapo" version, but at least it does the job well and is light-weight for me.
Before ditching it, we thought maybe we could find someone to weld the broken parts together. But where to find that? Well, yesterday, when Jim came home to give me a break, I took a walk to where he thought he had seen some metal welding places nearby. I asked them if they could fix it and they were up for the job. After working on it diligently for about half an hour, they returned it to me. Almost new condition. I asked what they wanted me to pay for it. He couldn't come up with a sum, and finally asked for $1, embarassed, as though that was too much to ask. Seriously? He just saved me $40 which is what the nearest version of it would cost. I paid him $4. Happiness all around. Awesome.
Food shopping next. Family dinner a challenge. Alejandro isn't happy with the meat selection. He doesn't fuss. He just hands me back the plate as to say, "what else you got?" We muddle through anyway. But I digress.
Back to today.
He loved the stroller ride through the mall. We stocked up on wooden puzzles, a ride-on car for baby boy, and Barbies and other girlie goodies for baby girl (who's not such a baby anymore).
So after the mall run and naptime, we were headed out the door to Ossitos to sign documents giving us temporary official custody of Alejandro. At that moment we receive a call from Dragon Lady. She's at the front door for a visit. She works for INFA, Instituto de la Ninez y Familia. I think it would come closest to our Child Protective Services back home. She is here on official business, to make an unnanounced site visit and check on Alejandro. Ok.
Have you ever seen the Bugs Bunny episode with "Michigan J. Frog"? It's the one where a man has a frog that he swears sings and dances and should be a star. However, when in public, he just sits there, and does nothing. That describes Alejandro during that visit.
She called him by his name, he wouldn't look. She asked him, "Where is mommy?" and "Where is daddy?" Nothing. He didn't want to interact with her. A true judge of character, I'd say. He kept playing on daddy's lap with his new bucket full of Leggos. She took notes. Then she asked us what we knew of him. I asked, what did she specifically mean? Did she mean what we had read on reports, etc? She just responded, just tell me what you know of him. So, after translating for Jim, I responded, something to the effect of:
"In addition to what we (meaning she and I, because she has copies of the same reports we received) know about him on paper, I can tell you that OUR SON, loves the river out back. He loves to stare at it in tranquility. He loves his bathtime and water play, so much, that it's hard to take him away from it. He says words, some of which he only learned today from us. He's quiet and easy going. He likes dogs, busses and car rides. He is very alert and notices even the most minor things around him. And so on, and so on. I filled a half-hour converstation about what we know about him in just six and a half days. That seemed to satisfy her, although she was not happy that we had been given custody after only two and a half days. What can I say. Things went better than anyone expected. The kid is a sound judge of character ;-)
Didn't get to go sign the custody papers. Will go tomorrow instead.
We instead stayed home and enjoyed some family time. We tickled, giggled, played, did homework, and played some more. During Annie's homework time, we gave Alejandro colored pencils and paper and let him have at it. Never too early to instill good study habits. We played with the wooden puzzles. Alejandro especially took joy in hiding the pieces away from me under his blanket on the bed, and then layed on them. He thought that was hilarious. We did too. I tried to mismatch the animals, but he knew where they should go. He's a fast learner. He learned some animal sounds today. He may have known them all along, but hadn't mimicked them yet.
Annie feels like such a big girl when she gets to do something for him, or teach him something. Yesterday, she gave him his bath, with me close by. Today she helped teach animal sounds. He already knows all his body parts. No teaching needed there. This is the fun part. Basking in family time. Thanks for sharing it with us.
BTW, I discovered why the Tias put the baby's footie pajamas on backwards. I checked on him before going to bed last night, and he had unzipped himself and taken his arms out of it. From now on, it goes on backwards.
Love, Lisandra.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.