Let's start with the SuperBowl party...it truly was a success. Thank you all for bringing great dishes to share and let's give a hand to Jonna for providing the SuperBowl Challenge! We had lots of fun and except for a couple lost balls over the fence, even the kids enjoyed themselves. Even Rosie got in on the festivites by wearing team colors, thanks to Desiree!
Pia had a couple of her buddies, Xavier and Elaina, to hang with the last two weekends (so that opened up some time for me to get some fundraising duties done at home) and we loved having them over. Last week, we signed her up with Scouts for Soccer and she is pretty excited. One of her buddies (Xavier) is also signed up with her and he is a huge soccer fan and lucky for her has some experience. Having no experience playing soccer, which she knew, Pia didn't really think we were qualified to giver her pointers. Lucky for us, our friend, Isaias, volunteered to spend some time coaching her and getting her ready to play with the team. Her first practice was this past Sunday and, I think, she did pretty good. He had her (Xavier, Jonathon, and his own niece) doing footwork, drills, sprinting, and taking laps. I thought for sure, she was going to tell me it wasn't worth it, but not only did she do everything he told her to, she smiled doing it. She loved it, even when she was coming up last behind the boys! Isaias did a great job keeping the kids motivated and learning while also enjoying themselves. Thank you, Isaias!!!
Last week, Pia had a particularly emotionally painful day. At a birthday party, she had her feelings hurt when she was deliberately alienated by some other girls. When I spoke to the other child's mother about it, Pia still came to the girl's defense so she wouldn't get in trouble. Luckily, her friend, Xavier, was there and she made the best of the situation. After expressing my own feelings with some of my friends, it's clear that Pia is definitely made of sterner stuff than I am. I am incredibly proud of her.
Adam and I have been concerned about the negativeness of other childrens behaviors and it has came to a head this week at school, when she was bullied by another child. She cried a lot, but we were able to convince her that she is not to blame, no matter how little these children understand her, and that bullies are and should be ignored and reported to us or her teachers. Needless to say, I am worried and angry. Pia is such a positively happy child and I'm worried that too much at once is going to wear her down emotionally. I am angry that parents either just don't notice or don't care that their children are bullies. I don't want you to be confused either by my meaning of bullies. If you're my age, bullies used to beat you up or tease you mercilessly and their friends would laugh at you. These days, there is still some of that, but there is also the passive aggressive kind, where they push you out and alienate you or don't give you the time of day when you speak to them in front of others...other kids pick up on that and those behaviors spread.
This week was the first week I wanted to tell her "forget ignoring them, just slap her!", but I restrained myself because 1) I don't want to teach her violence and 2) I don't want her to be the one that gets in trouble in a confrontation. Instead, we signed her up for karate classes. She is pretty excited and before I even told her why, she told me it's good to know because it will keep her healthy and she will be able to defend herself against others. That girl is very smart. Lucky for us, Xavier will be joining her in her karate class, too! He is such a blessing. These days he's her champion and we couldn't be prouder of him, not just of because of that, but because he has more compassion, tolerance, and self-awareness than most adults I know.
0 comments:
Post a Comment