Lines Online

So How About Them Line Boys?

Weston had a rough start to the school year. His class seemed to be full of kids from wealthy Mexican families who were seriously lacking in parental discipline. He was bullied non stop, money stolen from him, money tricked out of him ("hey, the cafeteria ladies only speak Spanish so if you want me to help you order you'll have to pay me 20 pesos"... yea, the cafeteria ladies speak enough English to give out food). This was happening when we were in the hotel and packing good lunches was difficult so we had to send money sometimes.

Also he was the only native English speaker so he had a hard time making friends at all and when he would try to talk to him they'd answer in Spanish teasing him. Weston was a kid who loved going to school until we got here. Kris and I tried to help him learn some skills to deal with the bullies but he was just not having a good time and it wasn't doing any good to try and help him handle it.

I called the school several times. We finally got a phone call from one of the Deans who asked if it would be ok if Weston was switched into another class. We said 'absolutely' and he was in a new class the next day. While talking to the Dean I asked "what is going to be done about these kids who have been giving him such a bad time, especially the ones who stole money?" She said "In all honesty this is the only thing we can do because these are powerful parents from the top of Mexico City's society we are dealing with and they are worse than their kids, it is easier if we just take him out of the class". Wish I had some ideas to get back at these parents but it would just be a huge waste of my time.

His new class is a lot better. He comes home from school saying "I had the best day today!" He has many friends and both Kris and I are extremely relieved. Now, having said that, there is still quite a bit of drama going on. In his new class, there has been a rash of thefts; pencils, lunchboxes, notebooks, personal items. One girl brought a stuffed animal for show and tell and it was stolen and returned at the end of the day to her desk with its ears cut off. I sent out a note to all the parent's through e-mail telling them that the school may be trying to keep us in the dark about what is going on but I felt that all parent's needed to know about what was going on. That was sent out at 10pm. At 8am the next morning, Kris received a phone call from Principal Hunt who assured him that he was now aware of the situation and it would be dealt with. He went into the classroom and spoke to the kids. Later on that day a note was found on a child's desk, written in Spanish, that said "Ha Ha, I'm going to keep on stealing!". The teacher and principal have an idea of who it is but they aren't sure. I'm hoping that if they do find out who it is that this urchin is kicked out of the school. It's a private school for crying out loud and kids can be kicked out thank goodness.

All of that aside, Weston still looks forward to going to school everyday, learning Spanish, being with friends and he has found that the library is a fun place to hang out during recess with some other kids...(egads! He's definitely Kris' kid when it comes to that!) He bombards Kris, Braedon and I with countless facts about outer space, black holes, solar systems and the cosmos in general. He's enamored with the material makeup of each planet's core and all sorts of other info that, while I try to encourage him, really makes my eyes glaze over.



Braedon, I hope, isn't driving his teachers too crazy with his silly antics. He's made so many friends and has gotten them into trouble already because they spend a lot of time laughing at what he says. We've received a note or two.

We were walking into the JW Marriott (we were told they had a great dinner buffet) when Braedon saw one of his friends. He ran over to him and we caught up. Thanks to him, we have met a fantastic family that we were able to spend some time with yesterday. They are from Switzerland and here with Philip Morris (no, they don't smoke either). They are a family of 4 boys perfect ages to match up with ours. The kids were exhausted, Braedon and Jack made a play date for our house this coming Saturday and we think we'll be seeing a lot of them while we live here.

Braedon has also been tossed into the world of homework and hasn't quite grasped that it doesn't matter if you don't want to do it...you still have to do it. It's a never ending battle with him. He's picking up Spanish a lot faster than I expected and I know it's just a matter of time before he learns all sorts of naughty potty phrases. What is it with little boys and underwear jokes?

Nothing distracts the 'Zen Master', not even cops on Segways.





Jamison
is still the General. He can undo what I have done in half the time when it comes to beds that have been made, laundry that was folded or toilet paper rolls that have been re-rolled for the Xth time. His screech can stop traffic, he can reduce both brothers to tears over demolished Lego creations (yes, the General is THAT powerful!) and if he can fall off it, he will climb it.

He's lucky he's so charming the rest of the time, otherwise we'd stick him on the street to sell chiclets. He's a momma's boy 100% and will tolerate daddy if there are treats involved. We are currently getting him off the 'ungy' (say 'hungry' without the 'h' and 'r', it's been the Line family word for pacifier since Weston) and I believe a lot of his behavior is in retaliation to this.

Cute video of him "playing" guitar: