I wanted to share just a few of the funny things Joy has said recently!
The funniest, to her at least, is "Gigi go to the bathroom?" It is always accompanied by absolute squeals of delight!
I finally figured out that she was hearing "Did you need to go to the bathroom?" So everytime I'd ask her that, she would just break into laughter. "Gigi" must mean something recognizable to her, but I have no idea what. I tried today to get her to say "did you", but it came out "gigi" anyway!
She has several Hello Kitty things, including her new suitcase. Hello Kitty is Japanese, but it is all over Asia. Joy, however, calls it "Hello Tikky". It's hysterical! She has a headband that has the Hello Kitty kitty on it, and she was sitting on my lap singing a song about "hello Tikky"!
We are learning all sorts of new words, but sometimes the final consonants don't happen. We heard a song in a cartoon, "B - O - O - T - S. BOOTS!" She sings it every time she has to put on her snow boots. But the final S in the word doesn't happen. So I was trying to get her to say "ts". I decided it wasn't working when she found it hilarious to splatter spittle all over my face!
Katrina and Joy are best friends, although sometimes Katrina just wonders why this little creature won't leave her tail or her ears alone. Although Joy knows how to say "Katrina", she loves to say it any number of ways, her favorite being "babuba". Then when I ask her if that's Katrina's name, she giggles and says, "yes!"
Scarpia's name is a bit harder. He has been "scarpoo", "sarpi", "carpa" and "scapa". He has been a great dog! She has draped her blanket over him almost every time he lays down. When he gets up, the blanket is still there, and he just calmly walks around with it on his back. He lets her sit down next to him and lay on his stomach, or pet his muzzle. He just looks at me with those eyes that say, "see, I can be a good dog". Yes, Scarpia, or whatever she calls you, you're a good dog!
After being so shy on the phone the other day, she has decided that the dominoes we have out are cell phones. She puts one next to her ear, says "moshi, moshi" which in Japanese means hello. (We heard it in Taiwan as well.) Then she lays down on the couch with the domino between her shoulder and her ear and talks. Sometimes she pretends to listen then explains, "wow! cool!". When she's ready to end her call, she always says, "Goodbye!". You know she's not going to be happy with a play phone - she's going to want the real thing before I know it!
One of the funniest things to me is how she just has this Chinese/Babble mix burst out of her! She goes outside with the dogs in the back yard, runs up and down the yard screaming almost at the top of her lungs (although just when I think she's at her loudest, she gets louder!) this explosion of words. I think most of them are made up. Sometimes there is a song in there. Sometimes there are English words embedded in there as well. She's just as happy as she could be though, so unless it's at night, I just let her go!
Joy is also learning about turning lights on and off, closing and opening doors, saying hello and goodbye constantly. She gets great delight out of following me to the bathroom, only to turn out the light and close the door. Then she will knock on the door and when I say, Come in, she'll bound in with HI! Then turn around and close the door behind her and say GOODBYE!
Singing is a constant with her. She makes up things all the time. Then she'll sing something recognizable (like Jingle Bells). Every once in a while I'll hear about bit of something we've heard on tv that day. I sat down with her at the piano and we played some Christmas Carols. She had heard "O Come All Ye Faithful", but didn't have words for it. She had never heard "The First Nowell" I think, but wanted to hear it again and again. She loves to make sounds at the piano and is very good about not banging. I let her play whatever she wants and as long as she is using her fingers and not her arm or her palms, she's allowed to play as loudly as she wants. The only problem is that she wants to sit in my lap while I play. My arms just aren't that long! She was very upset when she couldn't stand on the bench next to me either!
Right now, she's telling herself a story, complete with hand gestures, sighs and inflections. Obviously, a creative mind going wild in there! Can't wait for the language skills to catch up to it!
