Next Wednesday, 29 January, marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the year of the wood snake. If you are in any Chinatown, Little Saigon, or related East Asia “town,” it will be pretty obvious this is a special time of year for these cultures when you see all the red lanterns, red envelopes, and Lunar New Year decorations all over walls and hanging everywhere. Given that Kaia’s school will be closed next Wednesday and Thursday, they held their Lunar New Year kids’ performance and lunch party at school today. The kids have been preparing for the performance since the new (Gregorian) year began. Parents and caregivers were invited for the performance as well as lunch (which we either were expected to bring food for, or donate $20 for). I booked my nearby co-working space to attend easily today and do early pickup.

They had the performances by class, so first the Pre-K (4s) class, then Kaia’s class, 3K, and finally, the 2s class. As cute as it was with most of the kids wearing red or traditional Chinese clothes, it was pretty even that across all three classes, only half (at best) of the kids were actually getting into the dance. The others either stood there, picked their noses, or covered their faces. At least they had fun music to listen to and got to see all of our smiling faces.

As for how Kaia did, she wanted to run to me immediately when she saw me, but the teacher motioned for her to go to her spot on the performance floor. When she did, she did a little dancing and twirling for the first half, then decided that she wanted to cover her eyes and face for the second half. I wasn’t sure if her left eye was actually irritated, or if she was just rebelling and didn’t want to participate anymore. Her bestie stood there the whole time, mugging at all of us in the audience, then started picking her nose.

Well, at least my kid wasn’t the one who just picked her nose up on stage, glaring at us.