Chinese

This morning, being a Wednesday, I once again volunteered at Sofia’s school for a little while to work on the computers with the kids. We were working on a section called “Who am I?” where the kids answer questions about themselves and in the process can draw a boy or a girl that looks like them. They get to choose the hair type, the color of the skin, the eyes, etc. One of Sofia’s friends, as he was in the process of drawing the face, brightly said “I look Chinese”. When I looked at his screen, I realized his face did not really have eyes yet. What he was looking at were the eyebrows that were included by default. Oops! But he meant well…

Percentages

Percentages are everywhere in our daily lives. They are used to measure success (100%) ... and failure (0%). They help us make decisions by representing the likelihood of something happening (10% chance, 50% chance, etc.). They even help us distribute time and resources (15% here, 20% there).

Today, when we were on our way to pick up Bella, I found myself thinking about this and wondering what percentages would I give to my job satisfaction. This is what I came up with:

60% of the time I am happy with it. I am glad I work, I enjoy what I do, and get mental satisfaction out of it.
10% of the time I am frustrated by having to deal with unhelpful people or with a difficult system.
10% of the time I feel like what I do doesn't really matter. After all, it is not like somebody will die if I forget to write that one memo.
20% of the time I miss my children too much and resent the fact that I go to work Vs staying with them.

So my immediate conclusion is that working part time would probably be the ideal situation for me. I will have to keep pushing for it. Maybe next year...

The 7 continents?

Growing up in Mexico we were taught that there are 5 continents: America, Africa, Asia, Europa, and Oceania. Everybody knew that. That knowledge seemed to be validated by the fact that there are 5 Olympic rings.

In the US, however, children are taught that there are 7 continents. I am not really sure where they got those two extra ones, but since I live here I guess I have to accept it for what it is, even though it seems so wrong to me. This is probably not going to be the last time my girls learn something different or maybe even opposite to what I learned as a kid.

Big girl

Bella has been doing so well with potty training that daycare has officially sent home all the diapers and baby wipes they had there. Instead, they had requested backup underwear in the event she has an accident which, we are told, is quite rare.

We are also having a lot of success at home. When she wakes up we take her night diaper off, put her in the potty, and put underwear on. We still don't fully trust her when she is sitting on the couch or when she is playing outside, but for the most part she really does not have many accidents at home either. She is probably still going to wear her diaper at night for a while, but that is Ok. We are not in any rush.

My child's wisdom

Yesterday, when Sofia and I went to pick up Bella, it was raining once again. That inspired the following quick exchange.

Sofia: "Mami, did you know that the rain is the cloud's spit?"
Me: "I don't think so nena"
Sofia: "For real mami, for real"
Me: [laughs]

Sofia's priorities

Two days ago, when Sofia and I picked up Bella from school, it started raining. So I told Sofia: "Hurry up. Get inside the car so you don't get wet", to which she replied:  "Because I have pretty clothes on right?"

Rainbow

This evening, when Sofia and I were on our way to pick up Bella, the weather was kind of stormy. There were some big dark clouds in the sky, with only a few pockets of sunshine coming through. But that was enough to form a rainbow, which was really, really cool. It was an amazing view.