Week 9 - Things are not always what they seem to be

March 12-18

This week was a week was pretty normal and uneventful but almost every day I felt like I was eating my words or having back track a thought.  It wasn't until the end of the week that I really put it all together but once I did it was like one of those 'aaa ha' moments.  Like when I went to the grocery store and passed a display of water and immediately thought it was a display of vodka...so totally not even close to reality but for some reason I had it in my head it was vodka.  Needless to say I was very disappointed when I went over to get a bottle and realized it was water.



There was nothing very special about the week really.  On Wednesday I got to go on a field trip with Lino's class to Mariana Bay Gardens.  It was a true experience.  It is amazing how teachers survive all day with a classroom full of loud nasty kids.  I mean most of the kids in Lino's class were pretty good but there were a few (Lino mainly) who were just always looking for trouble. 
I guess that is what you do at that age and I could laugh about it when it was happening but I'm not so sure I would be laughing if it was happening every day. 
Mrs Brooks who I thought was pretty calm and cool also has a little temper on her which was very funny to see too.  I couldn't blame her, but I didn't expect it either.  So basically the trip was an Open Minds trip which apparently the school does every year for G1-G6 (I think).  The kids get to go to 4 different places for open learning.  This one was about differences...and they used the plants as a measure.  It was pretty awesome I must say but the kids were not as impresses as expected.  The gardens were nice and quiet so that was also nice for us too.  It was funny watching Lino interact with is friends...he is such a class clown.  I knew this already but seeing is always believing.  I also found out that a couple girls have a small crush on him and he seems to be going along with it too.  He has told me about a couple girls that he said he likes but it seems like the names keep changing every time I ask.  So to me it looks like he has a revolving door of 'girl friends' but the girls think that they are the one and only.  Such a mess...its funny now because they are young but we will have to talk to him about this soon because it won't be cool to do that when he gets older. 

So anyway I was one of the parent helpers for the day and I got to meet a few other moms which was nice too.  By the end of the day I realized that Lino was always hanging around this one girl from China.  She doesn't speak much English and one of the other kids is always translating for her but then I realized by the end of the day that Lino is also acting as a translator for her too.  Now this kids has only been exposed to Chinese since we moved to Singapore but he is acting like he speaks enough to be able to translate to her.  It was the funniest thing I've ever seen...I never would have thought he would be acting as an interpreter but here is is saying stuff to the girl in some broken non Chinese but Chinese like way.  She must understand his gibberish enough to get the point because she didn't seem bothered by his butchering of her language.  They were actually together most of the day and she would even look to him for some clarification when her real interpreter wasn't around...so interesting.  I can't tell if Lino kind of likes her or if he likes to be one of the kids who knows things like a know it all and that is why he is trying to help her?  I didn't ask him because I really didn't know how to formulate that question without it just coming out completely negative...anyway...a nice learning experience for me.  

The next thing was an email on Thursday from Shaun's teacher telling me that his language acquisition teacher would like to talk to me about his class.  So immediately I start thinking that they are going to kick Shaun out of the bilingual program because he isn't picking it up fast enough compared to the other kids.  I have been so worried about this because I keep saying that Shaun is my special child because he is.  He is not one to focus on things for to long and sometimes I wonder if he has hit his head to many times that it might have caused him some actual harm.  He had a big fall as a baby and I have always worried that there would be something wrong because of it.  I mean he is a pretty smart boy and I know that but he isn't the same as Lino and I need to stop comparing but still I don't want to miss something because I just discount everything as being different from Lino.  Anyway, parents of multiple kids understand my dilemma.  So I get the email on Thursday morning and they want me to come talk to them after school but I have to check in with Lino first and I was going to be late so they say to wait until Friday.  Of course now I am getting nervous and just want to know what this is all about already so I respond to them and ask if I could know what it was about and all I got was "its about Shaun's language acquisition'.  Really...that's as much clarification as I'm going to get?  Just a more elaborate way to say what you originally said?  I was so annoyed but didn't want to push it to much so I just left it.  I was already starting to prepare myself for the fight because it has only been less than 2 months and there is no way they could have such a strong recommendation to move him out of the program so soon.  I was thinking up all the different excuses and explanations that I could come up with...I was even thinking about getting him into a tutor which me & Mike talked about before so it wouldn't be out of the question and could help him to get on track if that is all that he needed.  I was just building my ammunition which isn't what I wanted to do but I didn't want to go into the discussion unprepared either.  So while the meeting was moved to the next day I had to pick up Shaun anyway so I asked his teacher what the meeting was about and she gave me more details.  And it wasn't about his language really but more about his behavior...well thank the good lord (now I can exhale).  Apparently Shaun is a little disruptive in class and making it difficult for the teacher to teach.  This is the specific language class that kids from other classes come to for their Chinese lessons.  Shaun of course isn't following the rules and is distracting the kids from learning so they wanted to talk to me about this and let Shaun know that I have met with his language teacher so maybe he would behave better.  Well that I can deal with...I was so glad it wasn't what I was thinking.  Although I didn't know if there was still an issue with his language because she didn't say anything about that only about his behavior.  So I had to wait another day to get the full scoop and if I didn't just take my foot out of my mouth about being prepared to fight these people about taking Shaun out of the language program I would have had to put both feet and a fist into my mouth because I was totally wrong about Shaun's ability.  They start the meeting off by saying how amazing Shaun is in his Chinese.  Not just his understanding but he also has very good pronunciation.  That was shocker number 1 and 2.  Then the language teacher goes on to do a demonstration for me and I am just floored.  He is 'reading' the Chinese characters (and pictures) and saying it all in Chinese.  Then he has to say a sentence and he says it with no problem.  The teacher talks to him some more in Chinese and he responds (in English of course) and is apparently fully understanding what she is asking him.  Shocker #3!  So while I am worried that he is going to be kicked out he is actually doing very well for his less than 2 months in the program.  They said he has an ear for language...shocker #4.  I would have never thought that my Shauny would have an ear for language but apparently he does.  I guess I makes a little sense because he has an ear for music and isn't that all about the same?  Anyway, he is good a language/Chinese but bad at being good in class.  Go figure...I guess you can't have it all so I will take it and deal with the behavior issue and will chalk this up as another 'aa ha' moment for me.  I really do need to give my kids a lot more credit...they are not as messed up as I sometimes think they are...don't get me wrong they are messed up for sure but they are not completely messed up...not completely hopeless. 



The boys were killing each other before bed on Friday and I just knew that someone was going to get hurt so when they finally got quite (after I had to threaten their lives and take their night lights and all the other usual threats) I go into the room to see these 2 boxers entangled in a strange sleeping arrangement.  I never understand how they end up ontop of each other after fighting for an hour about who was touching who but I guess that is the way of siblings...its cute.

Friday ended up being a great day after that meeting with Shaun's teachers and the weekend was pretty good too.  On Saturday ee went to a new place called Wheeler's Estate for brunch after the boys soccer/swimming.  It was at an old military base way up north and the boys complained the whole time going there but they enjoyed it.  The location was pretty cool and open and very green which was nice.  There was a aircraft playground that the boys couldn't get enough of which is one of the reasons we went there.  The food was pretty good too and we tried to have some Irish beer to celebrate St Patrick's day but they didn't have any on tap. 
Shaun had another birthday party and I ended up taking Lino with me because Mike had been sore the last few days and wanted to stay off of his feet...and the party was a pool party so I didn't think it would be to major to include Lino.  Of course Lino was excited to go but he drove me nuts when we were about to leave and I almost left him at home...that boy can push some buttons that is for sure.  The party was great and I got to chat to some other parents that I didn't know which was nice too.  After that we had to get food so headed to the mall to eat and do a little shopping where we lost poor Shaun in the grocery store for like 10min...of course he didn't realize he was lost because he was to busy playing with some toys he found.  Oh Shaun.   At least I got my Irish beer before the day was over so I could partially celebrate St Paddy's day.  Sunday Lino went to a Black History event for the kids of the SIS group and I think he enjoyed it.  It was a little funny not funny telling him about Black History because I realized that I haven't discussed being "black" to him at all.  It is a really tough conversation because on one hand I don't want him to have to associate who he is with a race but on the other hand in the US and a lot of other places around the world people will associate him with his race.  So when I told him he was going to this event he asked why he was going because he wasn't black...well what could I say to that...he's right and wrong.  So I told him that I'm black and he is my kid so that means he is black to...its more of a culture than a color.  He seemed to take that for now but I know that it won't hold water for long.  When we got there Lino saw some kids from his school and the condo so I think all doubt was gone at that point.  While he was at his event we went shopping for some pots & pans in Orchard.  This isn't the place to get stuff like this but we need them and we have been putting it off long enough.  The plan was to do a little window shopping then decide later what to get but when they did a demonstration for one of these ionized woks I had to have it...so I got it.  I think we actually got a pretty good deal.  I didn't want to have the non-stick pans anymore because we are dealing with that now and all the stainless steal sets were not what I wanted but this group had a customization set and we got 2 of the pots at a discount so it was way cheaper than we thought it would be.  It was little fun shopping for pots & pans...and then it was not fun at the same time.  For dinner we went to Spize which is a really good cheap eats place...I think it is probably best for late night snacking but there were plenty of people there for dinner too so it must be OK to enjoy it during the day ours too.  

What a week. I am really going to start working on my pre-judgement of things because this week completely took me by surprise.

Bug in rice update:

Still fighting the good fight and trying out a few new things to see if it helps.  I think this batch of rice will have to go but I want to test out the new methods anyway just to know if its my method or the rice itself.