While Stephen and I slave away studying language an hour or two a day, these kiddos are picking up English in our day-to-day interactions.
Lay Tah Oo, here playing telephone with our broken shower head, is becoming a little genius. He can do two number puzzles on his own! I can tell him a certain number of cars he is allowed to play with and when to clean up one toy before the next. He also learned to adorably repeat, “Bye, buddy!”
All of the kids are spectacular at negotiations, so when I say no to something–no puzzles today or no to Cinderella again this week–they will ask if we can do it tomorrow. But they have learned “tomorrow” from us saying “See you tomorrow!” when they leave at night. So now they are all asking, “Cinderella see you tomorrow?” Or telling us, “School see you tomorrow,” as they show us their homework.
When I come back from a run, I usually let the kids listen to a few minutes on my iPod. Tonight Yuh Meh Oo held the earphone up to her ear, listened a minute and then shouted, “Hallelujah, Jesus, I LOVE YOU!” It was a worship song by All Sons & Daughters with the line, “Glory, glory, hallelujah; Jesus you are good.” After a few minutes she was singing along, “Mmmm, mmmm, HALLELUJAH! Jesus you are oooo….” It was so cute how she said it!
