Todd Cummings Family

March 21st was Mother's Day here in Jordan. Gotta love living in a foreign country because then we can celebrate two Mother's Days each year.

Red's kindergarten class put on a little program for the moms. He is in the back row, center--the only one with blond hair.



After the program outdoors, we all went inside to their classrooms where we were presented with gifts from the children. Here's a picture of Red with the gifts.



Now--I'm trying to put this tactfully as Red can read and I don't want him reading this and thinking I don't appreciate the gifts. These Mother's Day gifts are just one of the "issues" we've had with this school. Take a look at the gifts. Pretty good for a kindergartner, huh? Yet still cheesy as kindergarten gifts to parents should be. The issue I have is that Red didn't make them. The teacher's assistant made them. Well, I take that back. Red did get to soak his hand in paint and press down on paper to make his handprint for the flowerpot. And he wrote his name and class in Arabic on the inside of the card. But beyond that, all the cutting, pasting, etc. was done by the assistant. Even his little head band thingy was completely done by the assistant.

Then there's the inside of the card. I'm all about Red writing in Arabic as it shows something he's learning. The top part was written by him. But the bottom part is pasted on and I asked Red to translate but he couldn't even translate it. This has been pretty typical of this school. Even though it's supposed to be an "English speaking" school we've found this not to be the case. So I received a card for Mother's Day from Red's teacher's assistant that I can't read. Priceless.



Here's a picture of Red and I together after the presentation. I know, I know. Bad pic of me--cute of Red with no front teeth. But I'm hoping this will be the last picture you see of me in eyeglasses as later that day I had LASIK surgery. (My Christmas/birthday/anniversary/Mother's Day-Jordan/Mother's Day-America gift) They only did the surgery on one eye--something about my age, having one eye be nearsighted and the other farsighted, my brain adapting, avoiding reading glasses in a few years, etc. All I know is my brain still has not adapted as I can see great out of the eye that had surgery and the other eye is all fuzzy and blurry. It's like I'm walking around with only one contact in or something. Very annoying. I'm told it'll take 4-6 weeks to trick my brain into seeing one clear image whether I'm looking up close or far away. I'm counting the days.