New Friends

Yesterday we met some new friends that own the potpurria on the corner. I had gone in last week to buy baby a snack on the way home from school. Here in Costa Rica they have these little stores on every corner, pretty much. These folks really found a great corner to put theirs on, as there was not one close. Anyway so baby and I went in to grab a snack. The owner guy asked me if she was cheena and if she was mine. I told him yes she was cheena and yes she was mine. I did not think anymore about it.

That evening the teens went over to buy something. When they got home they asked if I knew that the owners wife was cheena. You don't see that very often so I was surprised. It also made sense why the owner was so surprised to see us. So yesterday when hubby was walking baby home from school the owners waved him over. They went over and met the owner and his wife, their daughter was still at school and they wanted baby to come over later and meet her.

After changing her out of her uniform we walked back over to meet her new friend. The little girl is very shy and a year younger than baby. It took a little while for them to warm up but soon we were invited up to their apartment above the store. Now I know the people here are poor, but I am always surprised at how little they actually live with.

In their apartment there was only a bench to sit on, and a few cooking things in the kitchen. They did have beds and a little table and chair for their little girl to sit at to eat. She did have a few toys to play with and they had a good time with that. We talked the best we could as the mom only speaks mandarin and spanish.

When we got ready to leave the girls were looking at some cheena dresses the little girl had. Her mom asked me if baby had any cheena dresses. I tried to explain that no she had not gotten on yet. She went into the bedroom and brought out a new one, still wrapped and gave it to baby. Baby was so thrilled she insisted on wearing it home. Boy did she get stared at on the way home, as you can see by the picture she looked stunning! Of course she did not have the cowboy hat for the walk home, kind of Jackie Chans it don't you think?

TO HOMESCHOOL OR NOT TO

I have been tossing around the idea of homeschooling the baby next year. She went to pre-kinder this year and has learned her Spanish very well. She can pretty much communicate with anyone who talks to her and even says her prayers in Spanish now. That was the goal with sending her. Now that she understands what they are saying I feel compelled to take her out of school.

Part of it is I have taught all six of my other children to be patriotic. I love America and have taught and worked hard to instill this patriotism in all of my children. When I watched her the other day pledging allegiance to the Costa Rican flag I realized this is not what I wanted for her.

I have also been working with her on reading and she is getting a little confused. I feel strongly that she needs to learn to read in English before moving on to Spanish. I also want her to take Mandarin lessons and we don't have time with her schedule right now. I want her to take dance classes and swimming lessons, again no time with her school schedule what it is right now.

The draw back was that she is the baby and therefore has no one to play with during the day when her niece is in school. I guess we will just have to keep her so busy with school work, which she really loves by the way, that she does not miss her friends.

I have not told her that we are considering keeping her home next year and am not sure how she will feel about it, but we will wait until school is over for this year in Dec. Pre-kinder is fun and I want her to enjoy dancing and playing and coloring all she can before she actually has to start working on learning to read. That is said tongue in cheek, because she begs me for reading lessons everyday. This will be fun!