Winter Vacation

Or, in other words, "take your daughter to work week." When we're going to be traveling to the US for more than a week of her three week winter break from school, it didn't really make sense to get her into any kind of program. So, Ange is knitting in my office right now. Sometimes she's painting, she used to work on the computer until her laptop quit on us a couple days ago, sometimes she's running errands or teaching class with me, other times she's my surgical assistant (she's a pro!) And often she just tries to drive me crazy, bouncing around, squealing, asking me questions repetitively. How do you stay-at-home-moms do it??

Last week, we visited the dentist for her first time. She was not excited about this. Have you ever had your daughter who's been dreading her first dentist appointment so much that she cried outside the office stare at you from the end of the dentist chair while the dentist drills out your filling that needs to be replaced, or worse blows cold air in that cavity that's been bothering you? I would not recommend this in the least. (The purple on her teeth is a dye the dentist used to show her the plaque and teach her where to brush better! Don't ever let her know you saw this picture I'll be in big trouble.)

Speaking of mothering acts of strength, I had my first 2am "I think I'm gonna vomit" wake up. Holding your kiddo's hair back in the middle of the night's gotta be some kind of rite of passage, right? Next time we're gonna try to make it to the bathroom a little quicker though.

As we count down the days till the culture shock begins (3) what's making her nervous is flying, what's worrying me is English overload. There's not much we can do to practice for flying, so we'll just have to pray that goes well, but we're cramming for the English weeklong exam like she's taking the National Boards tomorrow. Kind of like when studying for boards, instead of trying to absorb all the material, we're focusing on what's most likely to be asked. Here are some of the questions you should be able to ask her and she may respond (if you make her feel comfortable, talk slowly, and use exactly the same accent I have) in such a way that you would never guess those are the only words she actually knows in English.

Hi (Hello, Good Morning, Good Afternoon), how are you?

What's your name?

How old are you?

Where are you from?

Do you like the United States? (She will probably answer "Yes" even if she's miserable, because this is all she's practiced.)

What is your favorite food?

What is your favorite color?

If you stray from this list, my guess is she will run to me and ask if she can play games on my cell phone for the rest of the night, so be gentle. And see you sooooon!