As a parent you get used to your kids parroting your verbal ticks back at you, not to mention your non-verbal ones. I find it exceedingly cute that Margaret will wag her pointed finger at me saying, "no no no," if I have done something that displeases her. What I didn't expect was to hear a verbal tick back from another person in the house who is learning English...

A couple of times Hongmei has been holding Duncan and has asked him, "Who is the boy?" It sounds odd, said the way she says it, as if she's actually asking him a question. I say "Who's the boy," to Duncan a dozen times a day, but I guess the mommy-talking-to-tiny-infant affect doesn't translate exactly.

I'm not sure that Hongmei ever actually puts Duncan down.