Mixed up HomeStay

[Ishigreensa]

Robert Childs was happily married to Erica and together they had an eight year old daughter by the name of Alexis.  For the most part, they were a pretty happy family.  Robert was a businessman who was pretty successful, so successful in fact, that he was now the regional manager and while that mean some weekends, he worked very hard, it also meant a lot of short shifts where he'd just go in at nine in the morning and get back home by one in the afternoon.

One day, while Robert was talking to some important people, he learned about a program where they could adopt a foreign student for ten days, and while he had not seen the advantage of that right away, eventually, his colleague had sold him on the benefits that having someone from another world visit his daughter, who was around her age.  She would learn more about the world, possible learn some of the language, and she would be more cultured than many of her peers.  

After a year of thinking about it, at that time, his daughter was seven when he first heard about it, he and his wife thought that it might be worth the rewards that the program had to offer, and not only that, but if their daughter chose to do a homestay in another country when she was old enough, in America, that meant in high school, then she might already have a bit of knowledge about a place she'd like to go, and she might be positively influenced by such an experience.

So, this year, still with some reservations about how much they would benefit from the program as apposed to how much they would have to do for a child that might not understand them that well, and that they were likely not to understand at all, he decided that ten days wasn't really that long.

 

As sometimes happens with government work, papers were mixed up however, and the family was not getting an eight year old for ten days, but rather, they were getting a girl by the name of Bao Ya'An.  Her last name was Xusun.  While they still didn't know that this girl was not eight years old for things had happened so quickly with mixups, not only with the Childs family, but with several other kids and misunderstandings, that it was too late to even tell the Child's how old the child was that was coming to stay with them, and there was no time to communicate that rather than ten days, Bao Ya'An was due to stay six months.  The upside was that the city was going to pay the Child's family some child rearing expense for each month that Bao Ya'An was with them.  

Robert smiled at Erica as they parked their car in the middle school parking lot.  There were certainly a lot of people parked, and they had two signs clearly marked for the host families to devide themselves into.  The temporary ten day stay families were supposed to go to one side of the parking lot and the six month stay families were supposed to meet at the other end of the parking lot.

Robert started out going towards the ten day side as that was what he thought they had been signed up for, but as child after child disappeared with families, and as people looked around for who was missing a family or who was missing an exchange student, it soon became evident that there were no children in the ten day stay program for the Childs.  Robert was a little upset that they had wasted two hours to come and not get a child until by some happy chance, a middle school teacher came to the younger children's section to see if any parents had gotten lost.

"Excuse me," a black hair teacher with blue eyes called to the Childs.  "Are you supposed to get Bao Ya'an?" She pronounced the name like Bow yawn.  "Her last name is XuSun."

Robert looked at his folder and saw that indeed it was that girl.

"Yes, that's us."

The teacher smiled and pulled a girl from around her back who was looking really shy.  Actually, as short as she was, she could be mistaken for a nine or ten year old even at twelve years old because some Chinese were a lot shorter than Americans, but then there were some Chinese that were a lot taller as well.

"I have the rest of the papers for you to fill out if you'll come to the correct section over there...."

Robert looked at Erica.  They were pointing them to the middle school section rather than the elementary school section students, and he was certain that it was for longer stay students.

"Erica?"

[Shy-Diapers]

Erica was very excited to have a homestay student come stay with them for a while. She wasn’t too sure about Alexis ever traveling on homestay, but liked the idea of having one come to their house. Even if it didn’t work out well, it would only be 10 days. 

Alexis, was 8 years old with lots of freckles and bouncy orange hair. She was thrilled to have a girl around her age come to stay with them. It would be like having a big sister! Plus she hoped to have a pen pal or email buddy when the girl would have to go home. She really wanted to be with her parents when they went to pick up the girl, but she had dance class and her parents didn’t want her to miss it. Plus they figured it would be better to not have the commotion of Alexis being excited when they first meet the girl. 

After waiting for such a long time, Erica was happy to find their charge. When they were being led to the middle school area, she was thoroughly confused. “There must be a mistake. We’re suppsoed to have an elementary school girl. We were told she was ten years old.” She spoke up. The little girl seemed small, but she couldn’t tell her age. She knew Asian girls were often much younger looking, so she couldn’t tell. 

“The girl matches our pictures, but why are we going to the middle school? Isn’t she a fifth grader?”

[Ishigreensa]

The teacher shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry, but I thought they sent you the correct information.  There was a mix up and you were supposed to have an updated file come a couple of days ago.  She's actually in Seventh grade here."

Robert shook his head.

"We were told she was supposed to be like ten years old.  How is a ten year old...."

"She's actually twelve," the teacher cut across him.  "Actually, there was another girl by the name Xusun whose name was really close to Bao Ya'An, but is only slightly off.  That has caused some of the confusion.  I think the ten year old might have been promised to two families at once while the twelve year old was promised the opportunity to come, so it's either you take her, even if just for ten days and force her to go back, or you miss this time around.  I don't make the rules, I just give you what I have.  I'm sorry."

Bao Ya'An lowered her head.  She couldn't follow when they spoke so fast, but she did understand enough that there was some kind of problem with her, and that she might not be wanted after all.  She felt a tear in the corner of her eye as she thought about having to get right back on the plane the next day and go home.  That had happened a couple of times to Chinese children, so she knew it was possible.  Her teachers told all the kids to understand that people in other countries have an image in mind, and if you don't fit that image they might send you back especially if you are a girl.  Though China had come a long way recently in progressive thinking, there were still places where girls were thought that their only importance, was in birthing children some day.

She stayed quiet as she walked next to the teacher.

"Well, we weren't exactly set up to have someone long term," Robert explained to the teacher.  "How long would she be with us if we let her stay her whole tour?"

"Six months."

He looked over at Erica wondering how that was going to work.  This girl was much older than little Lexi to begin with, and then they would have to take care of her for the next six months!  Money wasn't even a problem, and they had not yet told them that they would be reimbursed financially.  Robert had plenty of money.  He just didn't have an appropriate bedroom set up for her since they thought the elementary school girls would like to share a room, however, a middle school girl is not likely to want to share a room, is she?"

He also knew that they didn't have any age appropriate toys for a twelve year old because their own child was only eight!  

[Shy-Diapers]

“Well, can we just get her situated and talk about this? We can get in touch before the ten days is up. Then we will have decided if we can house her for six months.” Erica said with a sigh. “We just suddenly feel so unprepared. We expected a ten year old close to our daughter’s age. But we don’t want to deny this girl the opportunity.”

She sighed and looked to her husband. “Would that work? We can try and figure things out. We don’t want to send her back but we also don’t want to make her experience unpleasant if we can’t handle her.” 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert nodded and agreed with his wife.  He was sure she would have to do all the arranging because the girl was too old for him to talk to her about certain things or to help her with certain things, so it was really up to her if she could cope with that or not.  And He also knew that their own daughter might not like a bigger girl there especially if they had to share a bedroom.

"What my wife said?  Can we take her short term and get back to you before the ten days are up.  At the very least, that gives you time to find her another host family if things don't work out...."

The teacher nodded.

"Come and sign the forms for the ten day stay then, and take the long term stay papers with you.  You can fill them out when you decide if you want to keep her.  By the way, the state will pay you $400 a month to keep her."

"Four hundred?" he asked.  "Isn't that a lot of money to use for something that we volunteer for?"

"Yes, but it is necessary, otherwise, we wouldn't have such a turn out of people willing to do this.  It is good for international relations."

Robert shrugged.  Four hundred dollars, even once, would solve the problems of having the funds to get her more age appropriate things, and maybe help them turn his home office into another bedroom for their guest, if they kept her....

Bao Ya'An looked up at the teacher and then the two people walking next to them.

"Ni Hao.  That means Heh row in Chinese.  I am name is Bao Ya An.  Bow as in like how English mean to bend to king.  Yah as like some people in Amer'ca say you, and An as in how name in Amer'ca is Anne.  I happy that I meet nice people like you."

She then bowed with her hands together towards them as if praying to them.

[Shy-Diapers]

“Ok. Thank you for working with us. We just don’t want to commit to something we can’t come through on. We don’t want to make her experiences negative.” Erica said smiling. 

“Hi Bao Ya’an.” She said smiling. “I’m Erica, and this is my husband Robert. Our daughter Alexis is busy but should be home when we get there.” She said as they headed to fill out the paperwork. She hoped they’d be able to keep her for six months, because that’s what the girl expected. 

Shortly after finishing the papers, Erica got a message from Alexis’s friend’s mom, who had agreed to pick her up from dance. “Robert, Sarah’s mom said that they’re at the house. Do you want to just have them wait or have them drop Lexi off here?”

[Ishigreensa]

"Um..., Lexi's mom has a key, doesn't she?  It might be best if Lexi sees her at home because we are sure to get a reaction to the fact that her big sister is a lot older than she thought she was going to be.  They probably won't even be able to share the same bedroom."

Bao Ya'An looked up at the couple.

"Do I make you trouble?" she asked.

"No, not at all," Robert said.  "You did nothing wrong at all.  The state made some trouble for all of us, not just Erica and me, but you too, Bao... um.. .Bao yo ya?" he wasn't used to her name yet even though he had seen it written out a lot, he had not really heard it until now.  And it felt really strange on his tongue.  "I'm sorry.  Can you say your name for me again?"

"Bao Ya ' An."

He smiled.  "That's a very pretty name even if I can't say it right at the moment.

Bao smiled up at him.  "If you find it easy, you can just say Bao and Ya'An like Yawn.  Some of the teacher today said my name like it."

He nodded.  "So, Bao Yawn?"

She nodded.

They finished writing out the forms for the ten day stay, and he pushed it over for Erica to sign it as it needed both their signatures these days because of problems of the past.

[Shy-Diapers]

Erica nodded and texted Sarah’s mother back. It was nice to have another parent and friend to help out sometimes, especially since Lexi loved riding with her friends. 

Erica signed the papers and turned to Bao Ya’an. “You didn’t cause any trouble honey. Things just got confused. But we’ll figure it out.” She said with a smile. 

Once they were sure everything was settled, she helped Bao into the car and made sure she was buckled. She climbed into the passenger seat and smiled at the girl. “We’re gonna head back home, our daughter Lexi will be there waiting.”

[Ishigreensa]

As Erica helped Bao into the car and got her settled, Robert climbed into the front and started it.  Summer was upon them, so it wasn't like it was uncomfortable for anyone, but he did feel a need to rush home before Lexi felt abandoned even if she was with her friends.  

Bao was wearing something that she thought was very stylish for Americans because she had seen it on music television.  She had on a dark almost black purple top that sort of sparkled in the light.  Under that, she wore a skirt that was a little high, and probably actually forbidden in most American middle schools though when she went to school, it was actually forbidden there, too.  And under the very short skirt, she wore some leotards that hugged her thighs and her bottom rather tightly causing a lot of heat down there.  She was told that the plane could get cold and so though that this would keep her warm and also make her stylish when she met her homestay family.

On top of the tight polyester clothing, she had a lot more soda on the plane than she was used to because they would bring her a drink with every meal, and anytime she got thirsty, she would have to flag down an attendant and while they did have water, the minute the flight attendant rattled off the choices to her, soda was more appealing.  She was particularly drinking a lot of coca cola on the flights.

if that were not bad enough, another thing that she didn't see a problem with at the time and no one cautioned her about, was that because she was right next to the window and there were two other people next to her to disturb whenever she got up, not to mention air turbulences and other flight problems, though she never peed her pants while in the air, she did avoid getting up when she should have.

She climbed into the back seat and sat on the seat feeling that her leotards felt damp in the butt.  She had definitely not peed though.  It was likely just sweat.  Her teacher had come to the car with her, and had helped load the bags into the car.

Robert looked over when Erica finally got into the car and smiled.

"Well, let's get our new addition home and figure out where she's going to sleep," he told her.  "I doubt we can expect her to sleep with Lexi now that we know she's twelve and not ten years old, and I'll need to clean out my office before we can turn it back into a spare bedroom for her."

[Shy-Diapers]

Erica nodded and started to think. “Maybe Lexi can sleep with us until you get your office cleaned out enough for the roll away.” She said, referring to a folding bed on wheels they kept in the attic for when relatives came to stay. “Or we can always set up the air mattress somewhere.”

She was really trying to consider what to do. She felt guilty sending the girl home after ten days, but she didn’t want to make it a negative experience for six months. 

When they arrived, Sarah’s mother left with her daughter, wanting to give the family some space while they adjusted to the new girl. Lexi was at the table with some cookies and milk, her favorite snack after dance class. She had already changed into some play clothes, not wanting to keep her dance clothes on. She was wearing a red romper with white stars on it, her long orange hair wild and free after she had removed her ballet bun. 

Lexi set her cookies down and ran to the door, excited. “Is she here? Is she here?” She asked when her parents walked in. She was thrilled to have this new girl in her house, she already planned so much stuff out. 

When she saw Bao, she immediately ran up and gave the girl a hug, too excited to remember what her parents said about letting girl adjust. “Hi! I’m Lexi! I’m so excited to see you!” She squealed. When she let go however, she was surprised to see the girl dressed almost like a teenager. 

[Ishigreensa]

Bao Ya An was a little taken aback when the girl suddenly ran at her and hugged her.  Though she could see that the child had innocent intentions, she was just not used to having small children running up and hugging her for now reason other than to meet her.  She wasn't sure what to think, and held stiffly still until the girl let her go.

"Yeah, I think we can probably do that, put Lexi with us.  That way, Bao Lawn or whatever her name is will have a space for herself if even for only ten days.  But if you are serious about trying to make this work, then we should decide to just do it.  I'm sure it can't be any worse with having us unprepared than sending her home early with her dreams dashed or putting her with someone else who had little time to prepare, right?"

He smiled at his wife and looked back at the little girls.

Bao stepped back the minute Lexi let go of her.

"Hi." she started out slowly trying to remember the English phrases she had been learning at school now for the last couple of years.  "My name is Bao Ya An."  It sounded sort of like music the way she said her name.  "It maybe hard to you, so you can just say Bao Yawn, and I know it's me."

She looked at the other girl real hard for a minute, and then smiled.  "I think you were in middle school when I come on plane, but now, I think you are in um... baby school?"  Elementary school was a pretty long word to wrap her mouth around, and the Chinese symbol for Elementary school was actually 'Little School' which made sense for her to equate it to meaning 'baby' in English.  The Chinese Characters for Junior high school was actually Middle school.  And the characters for high school really was High School quite literally.

(I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, only going by Japanese, and I was told that most Japanese characters are the same in Chinese as they were borrowed directly from the Chinese words, though the spoken words are different.)

"How many old are you?" she asked her forgetting to say years or that she could simply say how old....

 

[Shy-Diapers]

“Well, lets just see how the first night goes. I want to keep her, but if we can’t handle it then I don’t want her to have a bad time.” Erica said. 

“Can I just call you Bao?” Lexi asked rather boldly. The girl’s whole name was a bit difficult for the American girl to say. Lexi scowled and crossed her arms when Bao asked if she was in baby school. “No! I’m not in baby school! I’m in fourth grade! I’m not in daycare or preschool!” She quipped. 

“I’m 8! How old are you? You don’t look ten.” She said, looking at the girl. 

“Lexi, be nice.” Erica said as she started bringing things upstairs. 

“I am being nice! She’s the one who said I was in baby school! Right daddy?” She asked, rubbing to Robert to give him a hug now. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert sighed.  He wasn't sure that she had meant it the way it sounded, but he didn't want his baby to think he was taking sides against her for something that was definitely a misunderstanding.

"Honey," he whispered tentatively to Lexi.  "Yes, she said baby school, but maybe she didn't mean it the same way we think of it.  Maybe she doesn't speak English that well, honey.  In her country, they speak Chinese all day, only learn English a little bit at school, kind of like at your school how they are doing with Spanish.  Do you know how to say everything in Spanish, honey?"

He waited for his daughter to reply to that.

Bao looked down.  "You can call me Bao." she said.  "I'm... I'm not ten.  I'm... I'm twelve."

She looked down sadly thinking that she had made things difficult for them, and she did understand enough to know that they had taken her in even though it was a mistake, and she was lucky not to be on the plane that night back to China.

She pulled at the front of her skirt because it kind of itched a little bit.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi sighed. “No Daddy, I don’t.” She said with a frown. Being in fourth grade, being called a baby was one of the last things you wanted. At that age kids liked to see themselves bigger than they are. 

“I just don’t want her to think I’m a baby, cuz I’m not!” She sighed again. “I thought she was ten daddy, you said she was close to my age.” She frowned and looked at Bao. 

“She won’t wanna be my friend now daddy. The middle school kids all think we’re babies. She probably won’t even wanna play with me and my toys and stuff.” Lexi frowned. Now she felt like the older girl wouldn’t want to be around her at all since they were four years apart. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert picked her up and rocked her a bit.

"Honey, I know that some middle school kids can be a little mean, but you have to give her a chance.  She's not even from around here, so there's no reason to think she will automatically treat you like kids around here do."

He brought the girls towards the table to sit down.

"How about you two try to start over to get to know each other?" he asked her.  "Honestly, your mom and I was as surprised by her age as you were when we first met her.  But we brought her home anyway because we promised, though things had gotten mixed up on us.  I think this little girl wants to stay six months, but it might not work since she is four years older than you rather than two years older."

Bao sat at the table trying to listen to what he was telling Lexi.  She couldn't understand it completely, but she did get pieces from it, and understood that the little girl really wanted to be friends.

"In China, Older kids always play with younger kids," she told her simply.  She didn't know how to say anything any fancier, like she wanted to say.  Older girls often taught younger girls how to be friends on the playground, and they taught them right from wrong at school and in exchange, the younger girls always respected the older girls and tried to do what they said.  Well, always is probably overstating it, but in Bao Ya' An's mind, that was the way she saw it.  "I love to play with you and be your big friend," she told her.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi nodded. She just wanted to be friends with the older girl. She couldn’t really fathom six months, but was willing to try it out. 

Back at the table, Lexi remembered something. She climbed off her father’s lap and grabbed a glass of milk and small plate of cookies off the counter. “Here.” She said setting them in front of  Bao. “I always have cookies and milk after dance class, and since my mom and dad were getting you, I got you some too.” She said smiling. She then went back to her plate and watched the older girl. 

“Really? You still wanna be my friend even though you’re so much bigger?” Lexi said with a smile. “Oh, what do you like to do for fun? I dunno if you’ll wanna play with what I like.”

[Ishigreensa]

Bao Ya 'An shrugged and smiled.

"Thank you for give the cookies."

She started to eat them as Lexi chattered at her.

"Well, I don't know.  What do you like?" she asked.  "I bring something from China for you."

She looked up at Robert.

"My bag has a present to her."

He smiled.  "Well, your bags are stll in the car.  I was going to bring them in in a minute."

She nodded.

"Can I go car and my one bag, get it?"

"Sure.  Come on, I'll take you."

He reached down to Lexi.

"You want to come with us?"

As Bao started to walk to the front door, she pulled at the front of her skirt again.  For some reason, her privates were really itchy.  She didn't know why though other than that she was kind of sweating a lot.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi was about to chatter away about what she liked to do until Bao said she had something for her. “You do? That’s awesome! Oh! I got something for you too!” She said jumping off her chair. 

“No thank you Daddy! I’m gonna go get Bao’s present.” Lexi said before darting upstairs. She had set up two sleeping bags and a big blanket fort for Bao’s arrival. She grabbed a few bracelets off a sleeping bag and headed downstairs, waiting for the two to return. 

“Here! I don’t have money, so I made you these bracelets. This one has your name on it. And this one matches mine.” Lexi said handing the girl a few bracelets made from embroidery string and one made with beads. “I like making stuff and wanted to give you something. These ones are friendship bracelets.” She explained, pointing to the thread ones. “We have one that matches so we can remember each other. And you’re supposed to make a wish when you put it on, and when it eventually falls off, your wish comes true!” She rambled on, showing the foreign girl the many similar bracelets on her wrists and a few on her ankles. 

[Ishigreensa]

When Bao Ya 'An came in from the car, walking a little funny because she tried to use her thighs as she walked to itch herself, but it really didn't work that well, she came in with two bags.  One had a little Chinese doll in it that older girls would just set up on a shelf for looks, but it was still useable to be played with it someone younger got it.  I had a nice Chinese dress on it and the face, though plastic, looked very porcelain from a distance.  The other bag had a cheap Chinese dress in it, but it was still rather traditional in style, so that there was even a slit along one leg, but since Bao was warned that some American families were very traditional, she was careful to get the slit only to just above the knee.

Since they had no idea of the size of the girl she would meet, the Chinese parents just insisted that she get a dress the daughter's size.  Even if America kids were bigger, they told her that the dress would still work because America girls liked shorter dresses anyway, and this dress was made to come all the way to Bao's ankles.  Bao was a little taller than Lexi, of course, so actually that meant she'd actually be growing into it.

Bao put the bags on the floor as she heard Lexi talking about friendship bracelets and everything else.  She once liked to make things like that with beads, but then her life got really busy when she started the fifth grade, and she had no time for things like that anymore.  She had to practice the violin, do her homework, do extra homework, attend special English classes, and compete in speech competitions just to get the chance to come to America for six months.  She had worked her tail off to get this opportunity.

She smiled as the girl went on about the friendship bracelet and how it worked.  She and her friends, at one time, made friendship bracelets, too.  They were probably one item from American culture that somehow slipped itself into China despite the government trying to keep the away from too much exposure of the rest of the world from its children until it wanted them to learn about it.  China thought children were too impressionable, and that children needed careful guidance in what it accepted and what it didn't accept from the rest of the world, but in truth, with the internet and television, there was only so much they could do, and with China's progressive leaders now sending children overseas for a little culture, sometimes, the older kids brought back to younger kids things like friendship bracelets.

Bao didn't interrupt her explanation of how it worked.  She had no idea that you made a wish before you put it on, nor that little kids thought that the wish would come true when it fell off.  That was something she had learned in just under an hour being in this American home.

She let the little girl tie her bracelets on her hands, and then she reached down, first to the doll bag since she thought the little girl would enjoy the doll more than the dress, and she passed it up to her.

"This is a Chinese doll.  We get it when we turn twelve years old.  It is good for luck for girls."

She smiled as she watched the little girl open the bag and get the doll.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi smiled and continued to ramble on. That was a habit of hers, she could talk for hours about anything and everything. She was used to dominating the conversation and had to compete with her friends to get a word in. 

When she finally finished, she listened to Bao and anxiously opened the box. Her bright green eyes lit up when she saw the beautiful doll. “She’s so pretty!” She gushed. “I love her! Her dress is so pretty and soft.” She rambled, admiring the pretty hair of the doll and everything else. 

“I wanna give her a good name!” She said thinking for a minute. “How do you say flower in Chinese?” She asked curiously. She wanted to give the doll a Chinese name and thought flower would be pretty, since she knew lots of girls named after flowers, and her dress had pretty little embroidered flowers. 

[Ishigreensa]

"Ziloulan is Violet," Bao Ya'An told her.  "It my favorite one.  Hua is flower, but it is very only one character.  We like two or three character for a name.  Ziloulan is three and mean it Violet.  You can make it four to put just hua at end of Ziloulan...," she smiled.  "Do you want different name?  We can look for different flower name in my book of word later."  By book of word, she meant dictionary, but she forgot how to say dictionary in English.

"I so too happy you like the doll.  I so too afraid it was not good match but you become eight and not eleven, so it made good match, right?"

She smiled.

She scratched herself on the front of her skirt again.

"I have this one to you, too, but maybe it doesn't make you happy like a doll."

She pushed the bag with a dress in it towards her.

 

[Shy-Diapers]

“Ziloo what?” Lexi asked. She listened to Bao say it, but she couldn’t really get it. “That sounds pretty. Can you help me learn to say it? I want it to be her name.” She said with a smile. 

“Oh!” She said when the older girl handed her the bag. “Oooo it’s pretty!” She said with a smile. She didn’t notice Bao scratching herself. She held the dress up to herself and smiled. “I love it! I wanna try it on! Daddy can I go try it on? Please? Pretty please?” She asked hopefully. She loved the pretty fabric and the feel of it. She wanted to see if she could wear it out somewhere or with her friends. She wanted to show it off. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert laughed.  He didn't realize that they should have gotten Bao Ya'An something that nice as a gift.  He hoped she wasn't disappointed.

She wasn't.

"Well, how about you take Bao with you and have her help you put it on?" he asked her.  "It might be worn a little differently than the dresses here in America."

 

Bao smiled when Lexi said she loved the name and asked her to learn how to say the name.  She nodded and looked up at the adults.

"Can we get notebooks later?" she asked.  "I think Lexi wanted that I teach many word, so I write word in notebook for her, and then the writing for Chinese, and then she can point at it and ask me the word, and I can repeat the word again and again so she say it right."

Bao put a hand around her shoulder.

"Come on, I show you to wear it," she said.  "It doesn't difficult to wear, but it doesn't the same as dress in west coun... coun... um... America."  She couldn't remember the world countries, though she did remember the first part of it.

[Shy-Diapers]

“Ok!” Lexi said happily she draped the dress over her shoulder and grabbed the doll. “Cmon Bao! My room is this way!” She said with a smile. She grabbed Bao’s hand and started taking her to the stairs. 

Before either of her parents could say anything, Lexi chimed in again. “I have notebooks! I have lots of different ones! They have all sorts of covers! You can pick the ones you wanna use!” She rambled on, tugging Bao up the stairs to her room. 

Once in her room she set the doll down on her dresser carefully. “You’ll help me get it on?” She said. Once confirmed, she took her romper off and tried to get the dress on. It was a little difficult because she was used to stretchy clothes. 

[Ishigreensa]

"Of course I'll help," Bao Ya'An said.  "It's not that hard, though."

She watched her take off her romper, and then she undid the top part all the way so the buttons unbuttoned all the way down diagonally until it met with the long slit up the leg.  She wrapped it round her and then started to button the buttons.

"You have to button them just right or it will look really strange and won't fit right," Bao said.  "Like this."

The dress was a bit big on her, but that really just meant that it reached right to the ankles like Chinese girls would actually wear it.

"Wow, it fits you exactly," she said.  She had planned on it coming to just below the knees on an American teenager, but because of the size she had gotten, it actually was a perfect fit for her.  What was more, it was a lot more comfortable than it looked because it was practical.  The traditional Chinese style was really practical since poor people used to be numerous in China, and they needed to wear something like this for days without getting a chance to change.

"Do you like?" she asked her.