Hola, me llamo la madre mal!

Hola! Quieres hablar conmigo? No? (do you want to talk with me?)

That's ok. Neither does Urban Kid 1.

For a few years now, U-Kid 1 has been taking Spanish over at Language Stars,. Once a week, she goes into a class that allows only a maximum of eight students per class and is full-immersion for 75 minutes. Several families sign up for more -- you could do twice a week, or three hours once a week or even three hours twice a week. But LS is our big-ticket extra-curricular item, so we stick with once a week and supplement in whatever way her gringo mother can find. (spanishtoys.com has Dora videos that allow you to switch languages -- which I can't find anywhere else!)

Now that we're past the Mommy & Me phase, I drop her off. And since she doesn't go to school, I've made it a point to not jack around her schedule so that she can get to know her classmates.

Ok.... a bit more backstory..... I posted once that I did some work for LS, and earned 50% of U-Kid 1's tuition for the Fall session. It was fun to do anyway, and I was loving the savings. But here's the deal -- if your kid's class is full, and a full-tuition-paying family wants into that class, the Parent Volunteer's kid gets bumped. The friend who turned me onto the PV program had been doing it for a few years and had never had it happen. Thus my confidence back in the summer.

And U-Kid 1 has a New Best Friend in Spanish class. NBF lives in the South Loop, which is not near where we live. Yet another reason to not switch classes.

Then... you saw this coming, right?... it happened. A full-tuition-paying family wanted into U-Kid's class. And to LS's credit, they made it clear to this family that there were other smaller classes available. But noooooo, OUR day was the only one they could do. And so U-Kid 1 was bumped.

I tried to explain to U-Kid 1 how this played out, why we had to go to a different day. And her only response was, "but I want to be with NBF! Why can't I be with NBF? I don't want a new class! I want MY class!"

My response was to channel Jack Bauer inside my head (dammitdammitdammit).

Me: I know, honey. Mommy is the one that got us into this. I'm so sorry. But you'll meet some new friends. Won't that be fun? (my voice slips way too high at the end there, thus fully alerting her BS detectors. it's all i can do to not say, "i know, honey. mommy tried to save a few bucks and now you're s-o-l. mommy totally bites!")

Her: I want NBF! Will I at least have my same teacher?

Me: Errrrr, ummmm, I don't, uh, really know. (grrrrrrrrrrr....dammit!)

Her: I'm not going!!!

Me: Put on your shoes, sweetie. We have to go now.

Her. NO! I'm. Not! GOING!!!!

THUNK! (sound of me putting my head through the wall)

But there's hope. We had two make-ups from a couple of visits to Best Namma Ever! sitting in our back pocket. There was room in her old class (they hold spots for make-ups), so we used one last week. And it was perfect, because it was the day after her new class, so it looked kind of like a "reward" for going to the new one. And the second make-up is scheduled for her old class next week. I guess it's really kind of semantics at this point, since we're so close to the Fall session ending just before Christmas.

And I confirmed with NBF's model-nanny that NBF is indeed in the same class for the Winter/Spring session. And model-nanny said that NBF gushes about seeing U-Kid 1 at Spanish class. So it's a two-way love-fest and not just U-Kid 1 stalking some poor child. (whew) I gave her my info in the hopes of arranging a play-date for the month that the girls won't see each other in class.

And we are paid in full for the Winter/Spring session for her original class.

It's only dinero, si?