i love that tae seems to read my mind sometimes.
yes, i may be afraid of how she will grow up and what gender will mean to her. but, today, she picked up a cat with a purple hat, a bow, and a purple and blue polka dot dress. she called the cat, "BOY CAT."
rock on tae.
nowadays when she sees a letter, she asks what it's "for." T is for tae, M is for mommy, P is for pop-pop, G is for gi-gi, J is for aunt jen, and A is for apah.
today, she asked me what B was for. the first thing that came to mind was...tae is at that age where often the answer to every question is, "NO!" and so, i tried to trick her:
"tae, are you all done?"
"NO."
"tae, are you not all done?"
"yes."
"tae, are you not not all done?"
"NO."
"hey tae, are you not all done?"
"yes."
"tae, are you not not not all done?"
"NO."
hah. mommy always wins, in the end.
my sister tells me there was a 1 in 16 chance that she would get the first four questions right. however, the psychologist in me realizes that she was just alternating answers because she probably knows that that drives me bonkers (when usually, i just ask her the same question to double check what she actually means).
but still, my sister and i had a good laugh over this one.
so i've gone and totally confused tae. usually when she counts, she starts of with 1 and then skips to 6, 7, 8. we'll be counting something, and she'll say proudly, "1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11!!" she can get up to 13 pretty consistently, but clearly, she's still a little confused.
and then it dawned on me. when we sing together, i often start us off with a little count, which always happens to start with "5, 6, 7, 8!"
against my better judgement, i let tae hang out in the bedroom by herself while i made lunch today. it was blissful to be in the kitchen without tae's constant "helping."
i thought tae was reading to herself. all of a sudden, she calls out to me, "MOMMY!" (just in her usual way, not in a distressed way.)
i walk over to the bedroom and poke my head in the doorway.
there she is, looking at me upside down through her legs. and, she's BUTT NAKED. when she sees me, she just bursts out laughing.
tae had her first brush with the law yesterday at my parents' house. we were in my parents' room, and tae discovered a phone down at her height. she picked it up and was playing around with it. suddenly, i heard three tones - i didn't worry because i figured she couldn't call anyone with three numbers. and then i realized it. she had pressed the speed dial for 911. i quickly hung up the phone - i didn't think that the call went through.
and then, about a minute later, the phone rings. my mom answers it and was talking in a very serious voice. i heard her say, "i think my granddaighter called by accident."
accident, or no accident, i guess the town has policy that they have to follow up on all 911 calls.
so, about 15 minutes later, a policeman (who my mother would later describe as young) shows up at my parents' house. he was in good spirits, commented on how beautiful the house was and how cute tae was. i was holding tae because she gets a little antsy when there's people at the door.
then, the policeman looked at me and said, "OH, SO IS THIS YOUR LITTLE SISTER?"
(it's not what you think. seriously.)
on saturday, we went to the peabody essex museum to visit yin yu tang, a house that was brought to salem, ma from china. at the museum, tae and i were looking at books that had both chinese and english in them, and i was telling her what some of the words were in chinese. i told her that the books were about zhong guo (china).
this morning, i remembered that the boston public library has a dial-a-story line (617-859-2262) where the stories are all read in chinese (cantonese). on a whim, i dialed the number, and let tae listen. she listened with a deep look of concentration on her face. and then, with a big smile on her face, she says, "CHING CHONG!"
and i swear, my heart skipped a beat - where in the world did she get that one from? who had been talking to her? what had them been talking about.
she said it again, and it sounded a little more like "chong chong," which i think was actually just how she was saying "zhong guo." either that or she mixed up zhong guo and chinese - since they kind of refer to the same things. i don't know. she still has funny ways of saying words - cereal has become "nu-nu." so, i hope that's how she got ching chong. i hope.
clarification: i have been trying to speak to tae in mandarin, which is all the chinese i know (despite the fact that my grandparents speak two different dialects of cantonese). i'm spelling the words in mandarin according to pin yin, which is one standard way of writing chinese words with the roman alphabet. in pin yun, zh- is used for "j" sounds, as in "just." so, zhong actually doesn't sound too different from chong.
tae is too little to sit down on her potty like a normal little kid. instead, she faces the potty, climbs on to it, stnads up on it, and then sits down and manuevers her butt on to the seat. this is how tiny she still is.
recently however, she's given up on the sitting part, and just squats on the seat. she's even peed this way. but here's the thing - it's not like i stand and squat on the toilet. where would a little kid pick this up? she doesn't even watch tv. my mom thinks that it's in her genes.
someone else told me though that this was a good thing and potentially a lot better for when i need to plop her down on dirty public toilets. but, tae's so little that i don't think she could squat on them without falling in.
my theory is just that tae is really curious about watching herself pee, and this position allows her a better view.
one night, i showed tae the full moon outside out kitchen window. the next morning, she was a little distraught when she went back to the window and the moon was gone.
so, i explained it to her as simply as i could. with my left hand, i made the earth (a fist), and with my right hand, i made the moon (with my fingers pinched together). then i told her, "the moon goes around the earth" so you can't always see the moon from earth. she giggles when i say "the moon goes around the earth." she tries to repeat after me, but it comes out as "moon. earf."
however, today she said "moon. earf. POW!" and burst into hysterical laughter. (she tries to mimic the way i make the moon and the earth, but with POW! she suddenly exploded her hands and threw her arms out wide.)
"moon. earf. POW!" she said it over and over. i have no idea what that means.
tae is practicing for her upcoming birthday. the big 2.
Recent Comments