Monday was an odd day. I had my blood test (8 tubes) at 8am, fasted. Then had to stopped eating by 930am to get back to lab for ultrasound at 2pm. I was so hungry by 1pm. Sigh….. then after finishing lunch at 2:50pm, I got a coffee at a local coffee shop which was the best coffee I’ve had so far in Brasilia before picking up Lizzy from school.
Well…. that coffee killed my quality sleep last night. First, I wasn’t sleepy by the time I got to bed at my usual time. Then I woke up 2:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep.
Lesson learned. Never have coffee after 12pm. Well.. at least I learned a lesson. Not the end of the world to spare one night of sleep to finally learn it.
It’s less than 3 weeks before school ends. I can feel summer approaching. So excited. The most exciting part to me, which I told Lizzy, is to have 3 weeks solo trip with her. She’s the funniest and cutest person around.
Last night after she got back from swimming, while she had dinner, she told me stories in a high spirit. Then she asked me: do you think I’m pretty?
Me: yes, you are pretty and cute. why?
Lizzy: because today a teacher from another class told me I am pretty.
Me: yes, why are you surprised?
Lizzy: well… I think shoulder up I’m pretty, shoulder down, not so much, then show me her belly (which is so cute).
I hesitated before knowing what to answer.
Me: well… body needs to be strong, functional, not pretty. Look how strong you are, my little swimmer.
…….
She is 10 and started to be conscious of her appearance. It is even more important moment to learn that our body carries us daily, allows us to perform, to do daily tasks, we need to take care of it because of that, not because it would/need to look a certain way.
I wish I learned the lesson earlier. I think if I had been into sport, it would have helped. Hopefully that is the case with my girls.
Our New Journey 
Ah, good answer, Coco! Lizzy is learning from you that bodies need to be strong and function well to do all the things we want to do.
It’s good that she has swimming to teach her this lesson too. Her body needs to be more than a decorative “model” body, it needs to be useful and strong to get those swimming medals!
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