Two Weeks Away

When you're with your family day-to-day, it's hard to notice how your kids are changing, since each day they grow in very subtle ways. Friends whom you haven't seen in a while will often remark how your kids have grown, or something similar, but rarely do I get to have this perspective on my kids. Being back in SF for two weeks, plus the novel experience for Bryce and Laurel living in Mexico has given me a rare opportunity to see how they change in time-warp.

Laurel is doing really well here. We asked her how she likes her school, and she gave it a 9 out of 10. Burke's (her school in SF) is a 9 3/4 out of 10. So not bad. But the coolest thing is that she is really learning a lot of vocabulary, and is starting to use it conversationally. I've had to ask her how to say a few things recently, which delights me. She's also starting to play with the Mexican kids in school.

Bryce has had a harder time adjusting, as he is much more of a creature of habit. At first, he was resisting learning Spanish because he thought that it would cause him to forget English, but he seems over that by now. Two weeks ago he just started to gain the courage to buy something using his Spanish, but upon my return he is comfortable buying things, and even asking a waiter where the bathroom is. (He used to insist on having me come to the bathroom with him in public, but seems to have gotten over that as well. Often this would occur in restaurants just as my food arrived.)

It's hard to know what to expect as far as our pursuit of bilingualism goes, but we're going to just give Bryce and Laurel the best possible experience, and hope that as much of it sticks as possible.

Oh.. and Sue. She rarely does things on her own, but with me away she has made friends with some of the local families here. She's doing mercado dates with Adrianna, (who is a friend of a friend, and has lived here for a while), as well as hanging out with some of the other new expat families, which I'll talk about in another post.

Me? I still remember my Spanish. It wasn't too hard to readjust coming back to San Miguel. I find the life here really comfortable, and I'll be disappointed when we finally have to leave.