Friday, January 16, 2009

Smarty Pants

Jason and I just knew that Ayi would love Kyle the most. In general, the Chinese have no problems playing favorites. Ayi loves JR like he's her own, and since Kyle looks exactly like JR (pacifier and all) we knew he would be the favorite. One thing we didn't count on is that Kyle doesn't have the same personality as JR. Ayi keeps saying that in all the pictures and video she's seen Reed was always crying and Kyle always looked happy, but in real life, Kyle is fussier and Reed is happier. And she's right. Kyle takes a great picture, the camera comes out and he starts to pose. Reed, who is usually always happy, looks scared and pitiful eveytime he sees a camera. Needless to say, Reed is really winning her over. Reed "dances" everytime he hears music (which she thinks is hilerous), and is also more active than Kyle. So after spending all of about 6 hours with them, Ayi decided that Reed is the smart one. The real kicker was that she spent all day yesterday trying to teach them to say "Ayi". Over and over
again I would hear "I-eeeee", "I-eeeee". Reed got the "I" part (really he already had the "I" part down before she got here), so of course she thought Reed was trying to say "Ayi". Yep, smarter one. But wait...Not so fast! Oh how quickly things can change! Kyle is now back in the race for smartest and favorite. As of this morning, she's decided that Kyle can understand Chinese better than Reed. Now I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but we were sitting in the playroom and she was talking to the babies. All I understood was the last word "huátī" which means "slide". As soon as she said "huátī", Kyle crawled out of my lap and went over and started climbing up the slide. Now maybe Kyle just felt like sliding at that very moment, but in Ayi's world, Kyle can understand Chinese. Reed was still playing at the coffee table, and since he can only say "I" of "Ayi" and Kyle understands "huátī" means "slide" (in her mind anyway) guess who's the new smarter one...it'll be interesting to see who wins out in the end!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know those babies are loving Ayi. Cute pictures. Maw Maw

Anonymous said...

Regardless of who wins, I am certain in her mind, none - and when I say NONE, I mean NONE - can compare to the genius they have for an older brother. I am certain she has him pegged for college next year - skip the imaterial grades inbetween and lets get this child where he belongs! It appears that she has won them all over. She has to be in Chinese heaven, surrounded by 3 BOYS!!!!
GS