Bu Yao, Xie Xie

Yesterday we went to a very fun wedding of a local friend and a Canadian friend. Bennett went to the ceremony, while Xiao Ji kept Austin and my neighbor's kids and then we switched. I took Bennett back (the hotel was a block from our apartment!) and Xiao Ji put him to bed and Austin came to the dinner/reception.

At the reception I think Austin had a real breakthrough moment in his defensive stance to all Chinese strangers. Lately he has been especially sensitive to all the attention and screaming and running away whenever anyone comes near him. He keeps saying "Mommy, I can't be kind all the time." I have been teaching him that its ok to not want them to hold him or talk a lot, but it is not polite or ok to just scream. So I have been encouraging him to say "Bu yao, xie xie" which means, "I don't want (whatever they are trying to do...hold him, touch him etc.), thank you". He has refused to say it (and most Chinese phrases) up until yesterday. But then at the reception a waitress was actually trying to help him down a step (which he of course wants to do by himself) but he looked at me, then at the waitress, then with a little coy smile said "Bu yao, xie xie!" I was so proud of him and Chris and I heaped on the praise.

Well, then he kept running up to her and smiling and saying "bu yao xie xie" even when she wasn't trying to talk to him. He ended up hugging her. THEN he started running around and going up to random Asians and just saying "Bu yao xie xie" to people who were not paying any attention to him, including the pastor who officiated the wedding. Most people thought he was cute and a lot of them couldn't understand him because he wouldn't say it very loudly or look at them. BUT I was thankful he took this step and hope it is the beginning of him feeling less stressed by the culture. And it was pretty funny too.