On day three I had this idea that our
D was going to be super excited to learn English. Of course my
baseline was Phil who was making note cards in Latvian the day we
decided to host and often can spit out an appropriate Latvian
endearment because he is studious. I am not. As you may know my
scheduled English lesson went out the window on day one. We have
developed our own communication of uh huh’s, ut uhnn’s, occasionally a nee, but mostly lots of non verbal communication
delivered with just the right amount of emphasis to know if we are on
base or way off the charts. At times a yes involves smiles,
sparkling eyes and lots of head bobs. Other times it’s a small
shoulder shrug that means “yes, but don’t get too thrilled you
crazy people”. Sometimes it’s a look that I swear could kill
James Bond himself. It’s working for us.
One of the perks of living with a non
verbal person (Peter is really non verbal, not just I don’t wanna
talk non verbal) is that we don’t put much emphasis on hearing
words such as our names. Another family might be hurt to never hear
their host child address them by anything but we are used to it and
it has become a non-issue really. I read other posts about families
and the kiddos calling them mom and dad. It’s strange but I feel
more honored that she told me you are not my mother. It means
something is cracking. I believe when a heart breaks out of sorrow,
grief or trauma that wound, given time to heal, makes a bit more room
to grow a bigger heart.
Today D agreed to go out. We shopped at
my friend Cathy’s house because she has the most amazing eBay store
and has small sizes. We sorted through the uh huh’s a lot of UT
UHNNN (that’s teen age for "no stinking way") accompanied by major
scowl. Bottom line we had a few winter basics and a beach cover up.
Stopped at Target and actually purchased things for hair and nails. I
tortured and embarrassed her in the underwear section by selecting
giant granny panties and saying “PERFECT” really loud!
Home for a quick
nap…favorite part of my day. And meet up with friends at a
Russian deli in the area. D was very quick to smile when the owner
spoke to her in Russian and she selected some Russian potato salad
from the menu asking of course does it have onions? It didn’t. We
also had a cold borscht and cabbage and noodles. Yummy!
It was still early and while finishing
up the meal she typed into the translator ”could we go to Linda’s?”
Linda and Wayne have graciously shared their swimming pool and home
for her half birthday party! I was astounded; this was the first time
she used anyone’s name! We scooted home, changed in swim suits and
drove like batman for a refreshing evening dip. It was super; Linda
was out and Wayne was busy, D and I floated in the water then had
sword fights with the noodles, made elephant trunks and noises and
finally filled the water pistols and planned for the arrival of Phil.
He came on down and was welcomed by two
girls and water pistols…total shock attack. But we weren’t
done…Phil went to change and we positioned ourselves D behind the
truck, me flattened against the garage. We were like a SWAT team. We
even did the counting sign thing…. We chased Phil into the pool and
the water fight continued. He was a great sport!
Today was a big UH HUH day. Yup. MMMMM Uh
Huh.
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