Thursday, June 15, 2006

The Influence of the Orphanage

Amy told me she bumped into one of the daycare workers at the local
park the other day, and that through her she got the real skinny on
how Jada's doing in daycare.

First, the person asked if Jada had ever been in daycare before, since
she did so good right off the bat, as opposed to most kids who cry and
cry and cry when they first go. Amy told her Jada was in an orphanage
from age 3 days to 7 ½ months, so in a sense, she'd had already some
experience under her belt.

Then the person wondered what language we spoke to Jada, because while
they had heard Jada talk plenty, they still couldn't understand what
language she was speaking. Amy explained it was all her own language,
the result of hearing mostly Mandarin for her first 7 ½ months and
then a mish-mash of languages (mostly English) since then.

Finally, the person told Amy she was impressed at Jada's appetite, and
that if the other kids were too slow with their portions, Jada would
mooch a little off them. Of course, this makes perfect sense to Amy
and me, since this exact thing happened in her orphanage, only she was
always the one who was too slow.

In the end, Amy thanked the daycare worker for the report, and then
smiled to herself, thinking how funny all of this would be when she
reported it to me. Funny how Jada's orphanage days still have their
influence.

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