Attitude

We had parent-teacher conferences last week. Joe and I got to experience our first conference on the parent side. It seems Sophia's teacher had some concerns about her. First, apparently, our daughter can't run. Joe and I have both seen her run, so we are thinking she is just being lazy at school. Second, she has an "attitude." She doesn't listen to the paraprofessionals and she does things when she's "in the mood." Third, she's pretty good at self-skills like dressing herself, but she has a little trouble pulling up her pants because she's like "you know." (Imagine hand gestures showing how wide Sophia's booty is.)

Well, these are the things to work on. On a positive note, she knows her whole alphabet and they aren't even supposed to be working on that. She knows numbers and shapes, and has a thirty-minute attention span. Not too bad. She takes turns too. We've had a pretty good laugh over the negative things because they aren't surprises, and she is two. It was fun to hear about her. We're going to work on some of those social skills. Oh, I forgot one. She doesn't say hello to strange people. She just stares at them. I guess we'll try to get her to say hello, but I don't want her talking to strangers anyway.

Today, there is finally good weather again. We went for a little walk and to the grocery store. Later we will go to the playground. Gotta practice that running, you know. Ha, ha... We tried a new grocery store today that some other teachers say they always shop at. We looked around, and then just as I made up my mind to do my shopping there, I saw a big ol' rat scurrying across the bananas, up the pillar and into the vent. Oh, man. Meanwhile, I'm looking around at the fruit, bread, prepared foods...Joe pointed out that probably each of the grocery stores we go to has rats. I had to agree. We got our food and went on our way. I will not be buying ANY prepared food there, though. Not that I ever want to anyway. It all makes me squimish.

As usual, there are all the interesting foods around us. Half of the stuff in the grocery store is a total mystery. I want to send Sophia to school with a simple milk box, but even that is hard to do. There are all these mystery drinks with Chinese writing. I think I picked out a soy drink for her today. It's hard to know what things are and what's in them.

The street fruit vendors have been selling pineapples left and right. They have special knives shaped like a long rectangle that they use to quickly peel the pineapples. Then, they cut out the knobby parts in a spiral. They'll cut off the top for you, too. They are really fresh and yummy. There's a pineapple seller at least every block. I bought one today for 4 RMB, about 60 cents. It's nice to buy fruit seasonally that's really fresh.

Sophia's putting on her shoes for the playground, so I guess we're off.