Gioia Stories

Some Gioia stories from this weekend:-

For the second time in just as many days, there was an unfortunate incident. One that involved a naked kiddo running straight to the crib after using the potty. Yuck. The sheet that had been washed the day before was MIA, and Chris was searching the apartment. "Where is the sheet Gioia," he asked. Two seconds later, she comes running up. "Daddy, Daddy - in here!" And she pulls out the stuffed Starbucks sheep from Easter. Now I'll give her that - distinguishing between 'sheet' and 'sheep' is very difficult. But the crazy thing is this: Mr. Sheep basically has been sitting on her shelf since April. He hasn't been touched or played with, not at all. He certainly isn't part of the inner circle, the special menagerie who sleep in her crib. So how did she know where and what he was after all this time?

We have been trying to get Gioia to speak English on the weekends with us because the rest of her week is basically conducted all in Chinese. Often when she speaks to me in Chinese, I tell her to "Please speak English because Mommy doesn't speak Chinese." So yesterday, we were riding home from Church when Gioia says to Chris in Chinese, "I want to eat food." He says, you should tell your mommy. To which she sadly responds, "Mama ting bu dong." Which essentially means, Mommy doesn't understand. Bwah. Ting de dong, silly billy (I DO understand). But you can ask me in English too.

Lest you think it is all fun and games around here, though, let me assure you that is not the case. We have been working very hard on "please" lately. She much prefers to scream MORE MORE MORE. Come to think of it, screaming is par for the course these days.