Today was a very beautiful, sunny day. It was a very bright spot (pun intended) in an otherwise sickness filled week. Titus was back in school and I was back in to work even though we both still have congestion and coughs. As I dropped Titus off at school I heard other kids with similar symptoms as his so two things ran through my mind: 1) I’m glad it’s not just us and 2) I don’t feel so bad bringing my recovering kid to school. I thought for sure he would be sad after another week out of school and he was for a moment, but he was quick to jump in to the class and play with toys. Bethany called me around lunch time after she picked up Titus from school and told me all about his day. Apparently the class walked to the fire station (which is literally across the street from our apartment) and got to play with the fire hose. Titus said that they “pretended the big tree was a fire and squirted it with the hose.” Sounds like fun if you ask me! He said he enjoyed it so that’s definitely a bonus.
Later this afternoon Titus and I had an appointment to get hair cuts which we did and Bethany ended up walking over with Avery to meet us for ice cream. We’re glad it’s both warm enough for ice cream and the little shop that we like is open. We ended up just staying outside in the sun for a while and enjoyed our ice cream and just hung out on the benches in the town square. The kids love running around the big fountain there and since other kids were around playing they just ran around with their “friends” (any kid that’s in Titus’ vicinity is his friend). While out and about we ran into the English speaking mom I met a while back at Titus’ school and Bethany had never met her before. They were introduced and we were talking for a bit near the town square while all of our kids were playing.
She has two kids, a girl and a boy who are both very close in age to our kids. Her son and Titus are actually in the same class and he speaks English! This turned out to be very interesting when I walked up to him and talked with him and he said, “Did you know that Titus hits us at school?” Oh boy…come again? “Yeah, it’s not all the time but he hits us.” Of course I looked to Titus when the boy was sharing this insight and he denied it, but then began to say that they boys hit each other. “They hit me too, Dad.” This turned into a longer chat with Titus and then of course with Bethany as to how to process forward with this new revelation. Pray for us. I don’t say this jokingly, but we always need prayer as parents in regards to wisdom and handling situations and these are new for us. Like any parent, you don’t love to hear your kid is hitting other kids and you definitely don’t want to let it go un dealt with. Things just get a little more complicated when you add a language barrier between us, the teachers, the other parents, and the other kids.
With that I’m off to bed. I’ve got a bit of sinus pressure that won’t go away at the moment and it’s causing a headache. On the bright side, I was able to taste that ice cream this afternoon which is the first thing I’ve been able to enjoy for a few days now. Sadly, my taste went away again around dinner…oh well. Such is life.
