And more ch-ch-changes
posted in Chinese culture, Dance, OmegaDotter, Parenting, Wah |The Chinese name request lasted two days, tops. She’s still interested; there was an interesting discussion about how she figured she would still be her even if she had a different name (Shakespeare, anyone?), but the question of having friends call her OmegaDotter and others call her ChineseName bothered her. I suggested that when she starts school we could talk with her teacher, and maybe her teacher could call her by her Chinese name. She’s dubious at this point, but she realizes that we can do this any time she wants.
Maybe that’s all she was after—that reassurance?
Chinese camp was a blast for her. There was a performance on Saturday that included a demonstration of Chinese yo-yoing by a one-time Taiwanese yo-yo champion (who had been teaching the kids), a variety of dances that were quite well done and very long for 7-10 year olds, and a potluck.
Here’s the “Happy Farmer” dance the kids performed. It’s –>six<— minutes long, so only watch if you’re really interested!
I was overjoyed at the prospect of no longer driving an hour to Big City, an hour back, working, then driving another hour to Big City and an hour back.
So now that Chinese camp was over and done with, the next big project began. OmegaDotter has been agitating for redecoration of her bedroom. Sunday, she and I went to the local bedroom furniture shop and purchased a new bed and mattress for her, and then went off to Target and bought a zebra-stripe comforter and bright pink sheets…the original plan was to do her bedroom in orcas, but she decided she loved the zebra-stripe and that her stuffed orca collection would go well with it.
Every day since then we have been going through the (HUGE. MONSTROUS. APPALLING.) mess conglomeration of stuff in her room, sorting it into “keep”, “donate”, and “throw out” bags, a couple of hours a day.
It has been emotionally wrenching for me.
She put her Polly Pockets into the donate bag.
She said, “None of my friends my age plays with My Little Ponies any more,” and *poof* went the MLP collection into the donation pile.
She went through her collection of horsies with ruthlessness, culling her herd to half its size.
Tonight, we went through a box of her old schoolwork and artwork. All I can say is: “WAAAAAAH!!!!”
There were kindergarten projects. Pictures. Old notes to and from friends. A sign she had designed for the TV cooking show she and OmegaDad were going to do. An illustrated “mennyoo” with idiosyncratic spellings. Various stories. She was ruthless there, too—keeping much less of it than I had expected. Some things I grabbed for myself, many she “gave” to me to avoid saying she didn’t want to keep them but sort of did want to keep them at the same time.
The old bed gets listed on Craigslist for this weekend; the new bed gets delivered soon.
Folks, it’s the end of an era…
