Momnesia

Oh, for a tonal language like Mandarin...

Emmie and I are playing "school." She has devised a brutal test of how well I understand my numbers. I think I'm rocking it, until we get to end.

"Das good, mama!" she puts a check beside every answer.

"Yeah, I got kindergarten down," I reply, flexing my (imaginary) biceps.

"No," she shakes her head with a serious expression.

"No?"

"NO."

"Okay..."

"We hafta do more."

"More what?"

"More testes."

(choke. sputter.)

"More what?!"

"Testes," she answers.

"Testes?!"

"Dis!" she points to her chalkboard. "Dis fing we jus' do! Iss a test! But we hafta do more testes, mama."

"Oh, okay. What are you testing for?"

"You brain. How much do it know about numbers."

"Well, not much. But I can tell you about some vocabulary we should probably discuss."