Being Four

I simply cannot believe that another week has gone by. It wasn't exactly fast - but I still wonder where it all went. I've been slightly overwhelmed with working from home while the kids are out of school. The catch-22 is that school is supposed to be starting on Monday and I've been so overwhelmed with working while they're on break, that I haven't had a chance to figure out where they're even going to attend school. :( I'm trying not to allow myself the constant US v. Mexico comparisons - but this is one that is too obvious to ignore. I sure miss the sweet, close, free, amazing public elementary school that Guthrie was able to go to last year for those few months in the states. I'm about to start my quest to bargain the principal down from $6k+ for the year to hopefully around $4k. It was just too much last year and we couldn't keep up with the payments. Keep your fingers crossed for us that they'll give us a discount for all the free advertising they got out of us last year (the billboard with Addie's picture at the mall, her face splashed over the front of their brochure and her cute little mug on the front of their website).

I understand why they wanted to use her face because she's pretty "american" looking, and it is the American Academy after all. While I agree that she is cute, lately I'm thinking she's funnier than anything.

Guthrie has been taking some Tae Kwan Do (sorry - how the heck do you spell that?) lessons with our neighbor. Adeline is SO jealous and tries to mimic everything Guthrie does when he comes home to show us what he learned. His teacher has told him that he needs to practice saying "Yes, sir/ma'am," and "No, sir/ma'am." A common dialogue in our house will now go something like this:
Me: Guthrie, get your shoes off the stairs and put them in your closet please.
G: Yes, ma'am.
A: Yes, lady.
G: No, Addie. You're supposed to say 'yes, ma'am.'
A: No, I call her 'lady.' She's a lady.
G: That's wrong - say 'yes, ma'am.'
A: Fine - (yelling) Yes, man!
No wonder she was resisting - she knows I'm not a man.

She also cracked me up yesterday when we were parking the car before church. Kyle refuses to pull into the small church parking lot because the next ward isn't very courteous about making sure we can get out after church. He parks along the curb outside the church instead. Yesterday Guthrie expressed concern because when we came out of church to get in the car, we would be headed the wrong direction on the road. Addie: "Don't worry Guthrie, we can do a flipayoowee." ummm - what? That's right - a "flip a U-y." I just love that her little four-year-old mind is showing some independet thinking and trying to figure things out on her own - even if she gets it wrong sometimes.

Guthrie was always very different. He would ask a billion questions to make sure he got something right before he expressed himself. Even now I can tell when he is asking leading questions and fishing for just enough information from me, without me giving away the whole point of his questioning. He's not big on the whole "learn from our mistakes" idea. He just wants to get it right the first time.

Anyway - I finally found a girl to help nanny/clean so I should be able to run to the school today and see what I can figure out. The kids probably won't be ready to start school Monday because it will take me longer than that to go get uniforms and supplies (remember this fiasco from last year?) but hopefully we'll at least be able to get them enrolled.