That's right, Aubrey is saying her first Chinese word! This week she started to say "Ayi" (pronounced ahh ee) which means "aunt". Now you might be thinking to yourself that we are just making this up... but we're not. In Chinese culture it is typical for people to address others with a family title rather then only there name. And for kids they will always address older people as either; brother/sister, aunt/uncle, grandma/grandpa. So it is very common for Chinese people to try and teach her this word. Also, the women who helps us with our girls when Heather is in class, the girls call "Ayi". Anyways, since she first started saying this she has now said it a lot. It's cool to watch her grow up speaking/learning another language.
Also other news in our world is the arrival of our very own playhouse! A couple months ago Heather and I talked about getting a playhouse for the girls to put in their room. Well through one of our teachers here we were able to get in contact with a carpenter here who has done work in the Xian Opera house. Since our teacher and her family have been friends with this carpenter for a long time my teacher was able to get us a really good deal on building it. I will upload pictures soon, but we want to paint it first before putting pics up. I will say this, it is two floors with the top floor doubling as a bed, the stairs that go up to the second floor are also cabinet drawers. It's really cool and will provide our family and our girls friends with a place to play for a long time!
Sydney stories:
Tonight I (Matt) was playing dolls with Sydney (which is what a Dad does when he has daughters) and I was playing the man doll. I think it was when I saved the princess doll that Sydney exclaimed something to the effect of "Thank you Matthew" directed towards the guy doll that rescued her girl doll. What made this even cuter was that she pronounced "Matthew", "Mathphew". I've never heard her say "Matthew" before and it made me laugh pretty hard.
Lastly, yesterday Sydney woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream. Heather brought her into our bed and went to Sydney's bed to go back to sleep. In the morning Sydney woke up and I was surprised that she didn't run to go eat or play as she normally does. Then she asks me "Daddy, do you love me?", to which I respond "Of course I love you" (or something like that). Then a moment later she hands me her stuffed bear and I notice it's wet so I tell her to hold on to it, figuring it was because she was sucking on it. She informs me that the bear had peed... And then the pieces start to fall into place for me and when I pulled back the comforter I discovered a pee spot the size of Sydney. Wow I didn't know kids could pee that much, I guess I know now.
The end.
matt, heather, sydney and aubrey (our little "ayi" princess)
P.S. I added new pics that you can find on the right of our blog titled 2009.05.21 - Family Pictures. Click on it to go to the newest uploaded pictures going back to Aubrey's 1st Birthday. Or click here to go there directly, http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017550&id=1196491857&l=80622a1985.
