That was today's phrase of the day. Of course Ben picked it up from Kari. His English has been steadily improving since he arrived here, but lately his progress seems to have shifted into high gear.

When we were in China, he hardly learned any English beyond a very few basics. I actually had picked up more Chinese during those two weeks. Once we arrived in the US, the shoe was on the other foot of course, and Ben began to rapidly build his English vocabulary. He quickly learned the name of everyone in the house, picked up his ABCs, and figured out the names of some of his favorite foods all within the first few days.,

But still, were were speaking like cavemen for the first couple of weeks. By his third week here, Ben was beginning to string together phrases ("Baba drives the car," "Sam and Buddy go 'arf'"), but still pretty basic. After a month or so he was using his American name almost exclusively and his pronunciation was beginning to improve.¹

During the past couple of weeks (perhaps this can be attributed to the beginning of his preschool attendance) he seems to be picking up something new everyday. Last week he began telling us all of the things he likes, food, toys, tv shows, whatever; "I like this one!" he'll say. He'll turn your words around on you, too. Lately he's been telling us, "Don't yell at me."

Big and small, long and short, loud and quiet, fast and slow have all been getting a lot of play as well. If you ask him, he'll tell you how Sam's tail moves fast, while Buddy's tail moves sloooow.