Me: Remi! Tell Boone he cannot say shut up at school. Ask him if he knows what it means.
Remi: Chinese mumble chumble
Boone: More Chinese mumble chumble
Me: What did he say?
Remi: He say when he says it to the other kids they close their mouths.
Me: Oh, I guess he does know what that means. Wonder where he heard that?
Fast forward a few days. I was trying to talk to my girlfriend on the phone. Kids were running all around me, and I hear myself scream . . . "Shut up!!!!!" Well...
The other day Mike said Boone told him, "I love you." Mike then told me he wasn't sure Boone even knew what he was saying. I said I thought he did, because I tell Boone "wo ai ni" (Chinese for "I love you") and then say it in English. Mike then told me that after Boone said "I love you" he immediately told Mike, "be good!" The next day I realized when Boone gets out of the car every morning when I drop him off at school I tell him, "I love you! Be good!"
Boone is starting to like American food a little better. OK, that's Mexican food--but as much as we eat at this restaurant, it's American as far as I'm concerned. Pryor and I are still been having some problems.
Boone is also learning other English. Today he said, "Momma go potty, yeah." He calls Lyric Lyrica, and I heard him say, "Lyrica, come on! We got to go." He does a lot of sign language trying to tell me things. Some time I get it and other times I just call Arden or Remi. People always act like it is a must to have someone to speak Chinese to them. When we adopted Arden she was 11 y.o. and we had no one in the house that spoke Chinese. We bought her a translator and it did help, but to me it isn't a big deal either way. They learn English within 3 to 6 months and in the meantime they tend to let you know what they need.
When we were at the Marriott Hotel in China, Boone hated bacon. At the 5 star hotels in China you can get American foods. That wasn't so the first time we went to China in 1998, but I'm glad it is now. They also now have a lot of fast food restaurants (lots of McDonald's and KFC) and American pizza chains (Papa John's and Pizza Hut). Of course, orphans do not ever eat at them.
Remember in China I was fighting him to use utensils? : - )
