Buena Vista

Last Friday, special visitor in tow, I went to pick up Ange after school with plans to hit one of our favorite hotspots for out-of-town guests, the sand dunes. When her teacher handed me something I'd really not prepared for at all, her first report card. It was a bit of a tense moment as Angie, Jon, and her teacher all watched me scan the results and digest the fact that Ange is basically failing English class. Her teacher comforted me that it's only the first of three reports for the semester, and told me that the biggest problem is that she's talking to her friends and not paying attention in class. (Strangely, she got great marks in the "Respects Teacher" category.)

So, we talked once again about how we're gonna speak more English at home, we discussed how she's not gonna talk to anyone during class, and we clarified that our fun trip to play at the sand dunes was not a reward for those grades. Then we scheduled her appointment to get her eyes checked something I'd been meaning to do for a couple months.

She whined and complained and threatened not to get out of the car on the way to the optometrist. She tried her best to read those little letters on the eye test, and she sulked a bit during the picking out frames phase. But I think it helped that I was so jealous that she gets to wear them and I don't, and it definitely didn't hurt that we ended up with the cutest little glasses in the world, and of course she's no less beautiful than ever wearing them. And then ironically, she whined and complained because I didn't get a chance to pick them up the very next day. I can't win!

Yesterday, she tried them out for the first time at school. Of course there was one little boy who made fun of her. Yet again my ignorance of Spanish saved me, as I wanted to say "who is he? I'll beat him up!" but didn't know how to translate that. So instead we talked about how much Jesus got made fun of, and how he loved his enemies anyway. A lesson that's easier to explain than do because loving the enemies of your child is a whole 'nother level of agape!