Tweens and China

OMG I have tweens. Rebecca and her friend Reid were making cookies all by themselves and singing Taylor Swift songs, to which they know the words. That seems fine but how on earth to they know who Justin Biber is dating?

Rebecca: I don’t understand this Justin Biber thing. First it was Michael Jackon, then Taylor Swift then Justin Biber.
Jonathan: He does have a nice haircut.
Rebecca He is sooooooo creeeeeepy
Reid: I hope Celina ditches him.
Joanthan: But hopefully he wont start dating Celine Dion

The tweens went on to wonder if Taylor can afford her own band which led naturally into their assertion that their music teachers must be very rich. Why? Because they get lots and lots of checks.

The real excitement of the week was that Manuel got home twelve hours earlier than we expected. I’m not quite sure how neither of us noticed that his flight from Seoul was about 27 hours... I’m feeling pretty proud of myself for flying solo for seventeen days without doing anything terrible to my kids or having a total meltdown. I yelled at them a few times, and was even less productive than usual. There were of course some low moments. For example I tried to get the kids enthused for bike riding practice by explaining that bikes are the way to get in China the result was a combo triple meltdown followed by a Lerdau children impersonation of a forced death march. The night when Oedipus one and two fought for the spot next to me at 3:00 am definitely sucked.

Manuel came back with a Chinese Bank Card, Chinese Money (every single bill has a picture of Mau on it) and a weird assortment of Chinese treats. We tried the oatmeal for middle aged and elderly people today. Eli liked it but the other two hated it. I have not yet sampled the tea for “getting skinny” and “getting soft skin” yet. When I do I’m sure I’ll look at least ten years younger. The second grade is conveniently studying China this month so some of the things will go to school. This has also prompted all kinds of questions about China.

The kids are both excited and nervous. We’re getting lots of questions. Eli is especially concerned about who will take care of octopus and yellow dog. (a stuffed animal and a yellow plastic dog) Jonathan is worried about what he’ll eat for breakfast. Rebecca is worried about house details; what color will it be? Who will she play with? We officially got the trip prep ball rolling by vaccinating the children. Rebecca was characteristically stoic. Jonathan put up a fight; but it seemed a matter of principle; a kind of “I know when we get shots that I curl up in the fetal position under a chair and scream for a bit.” All three of them have sore arms from the typhoid shot and we have prescriptions for enough drugs to start our own hospital.