June 3, 2011

Wow! It feels like this past month flew by! I’ve been spending some time looking for stuff for Andrés to do this summer besides staying up until 3:00am playing PS3 and waking up at noon to start the day. No more “Big Daddy” summers. I need my beauty rest. I guess summer school is an option, but I think I’d rather have a more positive spin on learning.

That being said, he’s learning how to cook and sew at school. It’s not going too well. From one perspective it’s funny that his little machisto attitude is taking over. He doesn’t think this class should be for boys. He’s really dead serious about it! Besides the domestic spin on school, he’s trying hard in most of his other classes. School is tough on so many levels. Socially he said kids call him a “Dirty Mexican” on the bus. Really he might be dirty, but he’s Colombian, kids. Get it straight. All joking aside, it is sad that kids have to be so cruel. It’s even worse that most of them learn this shit from us, their parents. My mantra this month is to teach tolerance. Unfortunately, people seem to have so many excuses as to why they think what they think. Why is it easier to hate than to accept or at least understand? That being said, my parental advice was to go egg that kid’s house and his parent’s cars. We didn’t. Really.

One more thing that has been making me wonder is Andrés concept of time. He has none. I’m not sure if this is unique to him, his upbringing, or something else. Time, dates, calendars are like from another world to him. He has no idea what 5 mins is, feels like, looks like, etc. When I say something is on Sunday, for example, I have to go through the entire week for him to “get it”. Same thing with the months and seasons. He’s not sure which season goes with which month nor does he seem to understand the order of them. At first I thought it was a translation thing. Now I’m not so sure!

I love Andrés’ random questions. Here are some he’s asked over the course of the last few weeks:

Mom, is it illegal for a woman to ask a man to marry her?

Mom, the cashier didn’t charge you for some stuff. Isn’t that stealing?

Mom, what would happen if I slept under my bed all night with my ipod and you found out?

Mom, what would you give me if I don’t tell Grandma that you did that?

As always, thanks for reading.