weinraub’s words

We just had an interesting little episode here.

We were all swimming in a Pa Ut’s pool. Very small pool, probably 10 yards long by 5 yards wide, approx five feet deep all the way. Becca is now pretty comfortable with a standard life preserver ring, Benjamin has one of those double-rings with web straps that form a seat. It’s a small pool so we’re all pretty close together, some of the neighborhood kids (Pi Benz, Pi Sa), Annie’s daughter Jang (who is staying with us now), Becca, Benjamin, and me.

I take my eye of Benjamin for five seconds, and BANG!, he flips over face forward, slides head-first out of his ring/seat/floater, totally submerged. Annie shrieks at me and I dive under the water and pull him up. He was only under the water for a few seconds, but potentially scary stuff.

Benjamin himself coughed a bit but didn’t cry at all. And within a few minutes, he was ready to get back in the water. Amazing. If it was Becca, not only would she have cried, but she’d still be crying, and in a month, she would still be bringing it up. They sure do have different dispositions in that regard.

And, they sure are right when they say those flotation devices still require adult supervision.

We actually laughed about it pretty soon afterward – it happened and got handled so fast that there was no time to be freaked, at least I didn’t feel freaked – so I don’t want to over-dramatize it. But it was certainly a bit of excitement.

I’ve been singing Becca the ABC song since she came out of the chute. Although she certainly sings along, I had not seen much progress on actually learning the letters themselves. She’s shown little interest and focus, so I’ve let it slide, not wanting to turn her off to it by pushing her too hard.

I had certainly never observed Annie working with her on the Thai alphabet, which they efer to to as Gaw Gai, Kaw Kai,? Kaw Kuat… in reference to the first letter of thethe words for chicken, egg, bottle, etc.

Now that she is finishing her first term of school (Pre-K, what they call here anubaan), she is being tested on both her Thai and English.

The other day, she was sitting at her little work table that displays both alphabets on is surface and to my shoc, she recited right through the Thai alphabet. Her pronunciation was indistinct in many places and she missed a few, but she knew the overwhelming majority of the letters, including the Ngo Ngu, the first letter in the Thai word for snake.

Naturally, I began to well up with tears.? What a softy I am!

Her teacher informs me that she is just as competent with her ABC’s, though I have yet to see it.? She writes A’s, B’s, O’s, occasional D’s and P’s, and recently added some E’s. Not consistent or perfectly correct, but definitely recognizable.

Way to go Becca!