I swear.... That polar bear!

Kiddo has a “bestie” at school.  Her name is H.  H is a good kid.  Sweet.  She’s been over a couple of times, had dinner with us a couple of times, and J and I like her.  Kiddo has also gone over to H’s place a few times.  They play at the playground a few days a week also.  

H is cool.  She rolls with the uniqueness of our family.  She’s down with Poley and always giggles when I do the Poley voice and talk to Kiddo as Poley.  Last week, she was over for a day and was going to be having dinner with us.  Kiddo, of course, needed to check in on Poley and see how things were going.  Poley, for his part, was hangry and wanted to eat 7 salmon, but Kiddo would only let him half 2 so he didn’t ruin his dinner.  As a polar bear is wont to do, he called Kiddo a Butthead.  Kiddo, for her part, told him that if he kept that up, he would be punished and wouldn’t get any salmon.  As you can imagine, Poley was not thrilled with this.  However, he didn’t say butthead again.  He did say b word, which we all know is short for butthead anyway.  

I forgot, however, that H didn’t know this.  Her eyes went WIDE!  So, I explained to her that b word, in our house, means butthead.  She then told me that she knows another B word.  Being puckish, I played dumb.  Really, H…. There’s another B word.  What is it?  I wish I had video of it.  H clapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head.  Vehemently.  “I can’t say it…. It’s a swear!”

H is a good kid.  Funny.  

In talking with Kiddo yesterday after school, she told me that H had told her something, but it was a secret.  I took a wild flier on it and asked if H had told Kiddo that she had a crush on a boy.  Kiddo looked at me dumbfound.  “How did you KNOW that?”  I must be a mind reader.  Kiddo did make me promise that I would NOT tell H that I knew.  Ya know, because I sit around and chat with H so often.  I then asked Kiddo if H wanted to hold hands with her crush or give him a kiss.  Kiddo was shocked that I would even suggest such a thing, but did proceed to tell me that H had seen kids at her school kissing before.  She then put her arm around my shoulder and told me that her and H both have seen some of the high school kids walking around “like this”.  As a final touch, Kiddo told me, “I go to a very romantic school.”  You had to hear it.

Speaking of having to hear it…. Kiddo is doing her Chinese homework.  She’s getting good.  She can count to 100.  And she knows the months.  Hello, goodbye, thank you, please, and a few other small words and phrases.  I didn’t get it on video, I should soon, but I turned on the translator app that I use and had Kiddo speak to it.  It was translating the numbers that she was telling me she was going to say.  Amazing!

Also amazing is how quickly Kiddo is growing.  Look at this smile.

She’s still our little girl, though.  Her and J took a walk this weekend and I was at home doing my own thing and having a little time for myself.  The ladies were off to a park to play.  I was opening to house for some fresh air and I saw them walking.  I had to get a series of pics to show J.  I told her, I can hear Kiddo chatting her ear off in the pics, just from the hands and body language.  She also had a good time at the park.  And made a friend there as well.  Kiddo is hoping this coming weekend that maybe the girl is there again to play more because she was a lot of fun.

She also got to go to Y’s house on Friday.  She went up to Y’s to ask if she could play, but Y’s mom thought it was too cold out, so she invited Kiddo up.  It was half days all last week and I was a bit over Kiddo by Friday, so I was happy to have 90 min to myself.  She always has a blast with Y.  She also always comes home with some craft or thing that they made.  Y’s mom is very hands on and very crafty.  It’s cool.

Before I go… 

It was 4 years ago now that we started this adventure.  Not the leaving part, but the looking.  J had her profile up on the job sites and boards and we were making plans to leave.  A few people told us to calm down.  Biden won and “we got this” or “things will be back to normal soon” and even “Trump will be gone or in jail in a year.”  We kept telling those people that normal was 1000000 miles off and that Trump would never see a jail cell.  Prescient of us.

Also, how is this normal?  How has any of the last 4 years been normal?  The system has failed America and the Constitution has been circumvented and manipulated for so long that half the country doesn’t know, care, or even realize it any longer.

So, do I have anything to say?

No.  We are here, we have each other, we have friends, we watch Kiddo make friends and learn Chinese and become more than she could be had we stayed.  We are enjoying this life and the cultures we are learning.  We are enjoying this life and wish only, that we would have started it sooner.  

Let’s go, Kiddo….. Yesterday was your ECA and Thursday is drum lessons, so we have to keep on top of the homework.  We can have a bit more of the halloween candy tonight after dinner, assuming you eat a good dinner, and then after shower, you get more reading time; either alone with your new book or with Mumma and the Ivy and Bean book.  Hopefully, this weekend, the weather will be sunnier and we can finally take the train so you and Mumma can see and experience that.  Find a dumpling place or noodle place for lunch.  Whatever happens, we will keep exploring and experiencing it all and we’ll keep having a great time of it as we do.