The kids

Gabe and Jordan are having a great time--credit given to their ability to live almost completley in the moment. As long as what is happening right now is working out for them, it's all good. And for the most part, other than having to put their dishes away, get their shoes on or go to bed, activities clearly not unique to Australia, their life is pretty much good for them most of the time.

One thing happening that has nothing to do with Australia is that their school back in Colorado is not going to be in existence next fall. They will not return to their old school in January as we'd hoped. And to make matters worse, Jordan's two closest friends will not be attending the school we are considering sending them to. Gabe's closest friends will be. We haven't talked to them about this yet. I'm thinking we'll wait until we get home next year before we break any of that news. No use ruining their moment with bad news from the future. Childhood is a sacred time, I believe. So when they aren't listening, Mark and I are having tough conversations about where they may be attending school come next January. Not an easy discussion to have while the schools we are considering are on the other side of the globe.

The school here, on the other hand, is a gold mine. We take a lot more baths here in Australia than we ever did in Colorado as they come home just filthy most days--covered in mud, dirt, sand, water, and brown butterflies painted on faces from natural, plant-derived face paint that they pick and mash and paint with all right there in their "playground." When I pick them up in the afternoon, Jordan sometimes comes to the gate munching on fresh beans picked from the garden. They both will bring me treats of hand made rolls they baked with their classes. Gabe is working on a breadboard in his woodworking class. They like to tell stories of the resident cow, Dulcie and her calf, Daisy and where the two of them ended up laying that day--smack dab in front of the house Gabe and his friends were building was the funniest. They had to find somewhere else to play that day.

Gabe came up with a list of 8 friends from school he'd like to invite to his birthday party in a few weeks. We'll have the party in this big open space in Blackbutt Reserve, right down the street from our house where the koalas and kangaroos and a huge array of local birds live. And we'll play sports, he says. Games and sports. So he invited only the boys in his class who like to do that. No one standing around, he says. I look forward to getting to know these kids a bit more and their parents.

Jordan continues to talk about her designated friends--PollyAnna and Elsa. She's added Altea to the list though she reportedly plays with many different girls, she just won't call them "friends'. This morning she told me that Asha has been pinching her and that she'd like some help to get her to stop so we'll deal with that. She is quite fond of her three teachers and enjoys the friends she has grown to like. She still struggles with parting from me in the mornings but we talk a lot about that and we're working on building courage. One of these days she's going to run away from me without looking back so I'm in no hurry for her to "get over" this one; though it is tough to watch her teachers have to physically move her away from me and try to distract her while I go.

Both kids are speaking Australian but very subtly. They will come home from school using the same rhythm as the kids in their classes with the lift at the end of each sentence. Sometimes you'll hear a word come out of their mouth said with an Aussie accent. They sometimes notice themselves speaking differently and find that entertaining. "Did you hear me? I just said "hhh" instead of "her". Or, "Nor" instead of "No". The Aussies have the strangest way of saying the word "no". They say it without really finishing the word. No. Period. Americans have a beginning and end to that little word. Aussies sort of let it fade away and often add an 'r' sound to the end. You have to almost let your bottom lip just hang there after you are done saying the word. They definitely don't pucker their lips into the shape of an 'o' like we do when we say 'no'. It is nearly impossible for me to describe it, as I'm still trying to master that one. The kids' favorite Aussie word that they hear all the time at school is "heaps" as in "We need heaps of sticks to build this house. " But of course, it is pronounced, "hipes".
That's Susie, by the way. She's 20 years old and very picky about what she eats. That's why they hand feed her. She was completley unimpressed by us but we were very excited to pet a koala and find out that they really are as soft as they look.

One of the things that just thrills me is to listen to them talk about all the things they know becaues of their time here. Things that at their age, or even at my age, I would have never known because I hadn't been exposed. I hear them think about what country is directly on the other side of Australia. I hear them naming birds and spiders and bugs and plants that I've never heard of. They teach me about the habits of some of the bugs that they've learned about from their friends at school. Detailed and fascinating stuff. Who knows if any of it is true, mind you, but it could very well be! They know about cultural differences and language differences. Just today Gabe asked which country was founded first, Australia or America. I said I thought it was America (hoping I was right and obviously not bringing up the issue of native peoples being here long before any place was "founded") and he said, "then why do Australians use the right words for things and America uses the wrong words?"
"Like what, sweetheart?" I asked.
"Like 'maths' and 'math'. Since maths comes from mathematics and there is an 's' at the end of mathematics, then maths is right and math is wrong."
It was a good opportunity to talk about how America actually has it right and anything Australia does differently is wrong. Okay, kidding. We talked about how everything is open to interpretation and different cultures look at things differently and that there are no rights and wrongs. For example, who is right, the countries who drive on the right side of the road or those who drive on the wrong, I mean left side of the road. Kidding again, I didn't say that to him.

Okay, my point being that it is wonderful to be having these serious conversations with my kids about things that I would never have given any thought to at that age. Jordan asked me the other night if we were going to travel to every country in the world. I asked, "would you like to?" She said, "I don't know. Sure." Then she said, "It might take until the rest of our lives." Indeed. She's grasping the concept.

So the summary here, in case you are skimming, is that the kids are good and I am really glad that we've taken them to Australia this year. Periodically, we check in with each other and ask each other how we are liking this experience and how we feel about not being home. Recently, I asked the kids if they were to chose right now where they would live, here or Colorado, what would they choose and they both didn't hesitate to say, "Colorado." When I asked why they both said because of their friends.