How many times I have sat down to start another blog post? A dozen? Will this one be completed?
We started off our Chinese New Year celebration yesterday with home-cooked chicken stir-fry & spicy green beans, and not so home-cooked egg rolls. We topped it off with non-traditional apple pie and ice cream. Today we worked on a few holiday related crafts. But the big news of today was SNOW! Enough snow to make a 6 foot high, 8 foot wide igloo. Mayana was so excited! Imagine having never seen snow, and now seeing inches and inches of it.
Today marks the first time Mayana repeated an entire sentence, getting every word right: "May I have a banana please?" She goes back and forth between having a great attitude toward learning English and having a ornery attitude, purposefully mispronouncing words and laughing about it. "Banan. Banan. Banan. Banan. Hah, hah!" For now, we act like she really can't get it and smile patiently. That seems to be sufficiently annoying to her.
I'm starting to realize that I need to pace myself when it comes to bonding and language instruction. At first I was watching for every opportunity -- to make it a meaninful experience, both language rich and emotionally positive, with the right amount of physical touch, nurturing, and eye contact. I put aside my agenda and my personal time for "bonding time" and extra language practice (like playing a game with her). And I was getting emotionally exhausted! I can't keep that up for the next 6-12 months. There's way too much else going on around here! So, I'm opting for a more gradual approach, trying to just relax while getting a few really good connecting moments in each day, and not stressing that language takes time.
If you are still following, come back later on, as I have lots of general thoughts about adoption, travel, etc. .... to share sometime soon. Most of it is already written and ready to post. Wish me luck.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment