Hello Baby

So I don't think I told you all about Lilly's first night in Grand Cayman. We did what anyone might do right after they adopted a Chinese Baby. We went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant for dinner of course. Lilly loves fried rice and we have the pictures to show just how much. I'm sure that night the wait staff was thinking - they must be babysitting that baby & figured bring her for Chinese food. Why would they think that besides the obvious difference in our ethnicity? Well, because we took her w/out a bib and she was covered, the high chair was covered, the floor was covered and everything else around her was covered w/ fried rice. So I apologized for the mess and wrapped Lilly in a blanket and giggled the whole way out to the parking lot where I sat down on the curb still giggling while I brushed all the rice from her body as she stood in it in her little socks which were also covered in rice. I think even Lilly saw the humor in this. And Aunt Barbie caught it all in pictures. Very funny. In the words of a song from Fred Eaglesmith . . . "When exactly did we become white trash . . . " It was very funny all around. Unless of course you worked in the restaurant and had to clean up after Lilly - then maybe not so much.

Well tonight we went to eat Chinese again - but this time I went prepared. I even had a new bib which had a pocket at the bottom to catch the stray rice. And it did. It caught about 1/2 cup of fried rice that missed Lilly's mouth. My friend Kerri said next time I need to put a little ziplock baggie inside the pocket so I can take it home as a leftover. Note to self.

But none of the above is what prompted me to blog tonight. Tonight I have to tell you about our waitress. She was Chinese and we've learned from many other occasions her English is quite limited. So tonight Scott started asking her where she was from in China and finally he said "are you Mandarin or Cantonese?" To which she promptly replied, "Yes." So Scott just gave up and said "Lilly is Mandarin. You should talk to her." So the waitress went very lovingly to Lilly bent down near her face and said in English, "Hello Baby." Priceless. I love that.

She did finally say something in Chinese and Lilly did nod yes, so it's anyone's guess what she asked her, but Lilly seemed happy w/ her fried rice, so we didn't bother her to fill us in.

So remember when in doubt when talking to Lilly a "Hello Lilly" in English is always appropriate. And while it may or may not be understood by our little one, it is much appreciated as long as it's followed by a bowl of fried rice.

The End.

The Graubards