spring saturday

What a great day we had today. After several days of rainy weather, we ventured out in the brisk wind to the Middlebury Post Office so that Dalia could have 2 passport photos taken. No, I didn't need to do this today -but soon, so why not? We waited in line. Thankfully there was a poster at about her height featuring doggies and kitties on the stamps to be released later this month. One of the photos looked just like Garfield, our cat, and one looked a lot like Jackson, Blair's dog. We passed the time with barking and meowing, or, "Yeow" as Dalia says, since she can't really say "M" yet.

Many people have asked what language she speaks. She understands most of what I say when I speak Mandarin to her. She doesn't speak any Chinese words except making a sound, "Guh" which sounds something like "Gei [gay]" which means "Give [me]". In Tianshui, where she is from, they speak "dialect," i.e. some Mandarin and some words and sounds and pronunciations different from standard Mandarin. So, there are words she is accustomed to hearing that I have likely not ever heard.

She is definately starting to understand English. We've been teaching her, and she's been repeating as best she can, words for nose, eye, mouth. She received the most beautiful set of blocks from our friends Jill, John, and Nina which on one side have images of something with the pin yin, or pronunciation in Chinese using roman alphabet underneath. For example, there is a drawing of a mouth with a tongue sticking out with the letters, "she" (pronounced "shuh") underneath. So, I pick up the block, show it to her, say the word several times, and then say it in English. (The other sides of the blocks show how to write the character, have a number on one side, and pieces of a puzzle on the other, etc.). The day after I did this with her, I was in the kitchen and she brought a block into me, and pointed at her tongue. Never mind that it was the block for "chicken;" she remembered that we had learned the word for tongue. She just hasn't learned to make that sound yet.

Tal and Calder were in Ft. Ann, NY all day for soccer -- Tal coaching and Calder playing his heart out. I was dying to get out of the house, see people, and just do something, So, we took a second trip into Middlebury to go to the last 20 minutes of the College Men's Lacrosse game (Panthers lost to the Bowdoin Bears). She sat quietly on my lap for the first 15 minutes -- a rare and treasured time. Then we saw our friend, Sue Ritter, and dashed down the steps closer to the field and sat down next to her. Aunt Sue was thrilled! After a few minutes, Dalia reached for Sue. Also saw friends Pam Quinn and the Marlows. The sun was shining, the sky was clear blue, the view of the Green Mountains was as always from unparalleled. Dalia's first day at Youngman Field.

Tal came home at around 7 and took Dalia outside to feed the chickens, along with Gus, the friendly yellow lab we are watching for a few days. An hour later, I looked out the window of her room where I was straightening up to see Dalia being pushed in the wheelbarrow.

She is well, we are fortunate.