Count Down

Yipeee…just three more days for my parents and sister to arrive in Singapore! They are coming for just ten measly days, but it’s better than nothing.

Hooty and I are counting the days. With ten days to go, I held up both my hands and asked, “How may more days for Puncha, Kiri Amma and Kiri Aththa to come?” She counted my fingers and declared. “Ten!”

So for the past few days I’ve been folding one finger at a time each day and got her to count down. You know what? She doesn’t get it! After the 5th day, she keeps on insisting that I hold up both the hands. And today when I held up three fingers, she insisted that I hold up the entire hand saying there are five more days to go!

But she is definitely exited. Today in the morning while getting ready for day care, she started practising ‘hugging’ them. She said, “I’ll first hug Puncha, then Kiri Amma, and then Kiri Aththa,” while showing hugging actions.

Trilingual

These days we are trying to speak with Hooty in our native language ‘Sinhala’. She can understand what we say, but finds it hard to form sentences in Sinhala, as she is used to conversing in English.

At day care, she learns in English, but they have Chinese as a subject where her teacher only speaks in Chinese. Last week at the Parent’s teacher’s meeting, she told us that Hooty understands what’s been told and can follow all the instructions in Chinese. When Hooty comes home, she sometimes tries to teach Hubs and me some Chinese words. She would point to something blue and say, “Say after me Amme, ‘Lansya’.” (At least I think that’s what it sounds like). She would even sing Chinese songs to her self and gets highly annoyed when we don’t respond to something when she says it in Chinese.

Now I think she is highly confused about the two languages. When she wants us to tell her a word in Singhala, she says, ‘say in in Chinese Ammi.’
And yesterday when we spoke to her in Sinhala she answered back in Chinese!

'Buss' off

Today while getting ready for work and school;

Me: “Hootyiiiiii. Please hurry up. Ammi was late these past few days. My boss will scold me.”
N: “Does the ‘bus’ have a mouth?”
Me: “Of course she does”
N: (complaining to Thaaththi) “Thaaththi Ammi says her ‘bus’ has a mouth!!”

Then only did we realise that she thought we were talking about a BUS and not a BOSS. So we tried explaining what a boss was. That there was a ‘big’ person we work for.

Hubby: “Well, when you are at home, Ammi and Thaaththi are your bosses. And when you are in school, your teacher is your boss.”
N: “When I have a brother and a sister can they be my boss?”

Oh well, she doesn’t know she is actually the boss in our family ;o)