This morning while I was reading Curious George to Jamie, Toby suddenly cut in,

pointing to the illustration, and said, “Ok, so, three….two…. Christmas tree.”

(He doesn’t know the plural form yet.) Jamie told me that he was imitating

Teacher Sean telling a story.

Recently I’ve been quite surprised at Toby’s improvement and interest in speaking

English. From time to time he would just pop a few questions such as “Mommy,

do you like cheese cake?” or “Mommy, how many wheels?” And then, similar

questions would go on and on, and I would have to answer him “Yes, I do.” or

“No, I don’t.”

One day, Toby and I were playing the “Do you like” game again. After several

Q & As, Toby asked, “Mommy, do you like black egg?” (referring to 皮蛋,

which we call 黑黑蛋 in our home. It is one of Toby’s favorite foods.)

Toby doesn’t know how to say 皮蛋 in English, but he does know the words

“black” and “egg”. That’s why and how he combined the two words.

It did make sense! This WAS real communication, wasn’t it?