Infallible logic

Up until recently I have never mentioned to Leona that her full name is Leona Owen because, for one, I haven’t seen a need to include our last name in any discussion, and more importantly, because her cousin’s English name is Owen (she calls him both Owen and Liu Guan Ting – his full Chinese name, as we call him his full name when we speak to him…for some reason…, and use his English name when we speak of him), and I figured I’d just try and postpone the confusion.

 

[After my nephew was born, while I was pregnant with Leona, my sister-in-law had asked me for English boy-name suggestions, and I gave her my favorite-names list, I think excluding my top picks. I included on there Owen, as it is a great first name imo, but one that there is zero chance we’d ever use, for rather obvious reasons.]

 

However, last week we received a questionnaire in the mail, from our local health center, regarding the development of the girls. We are to fill it out before our next visit. On there, a question is whether the child answers with her full name (first and last) when asked “What’s your name?”.

 

So after a little thought I decided I might as well broach the subject with Leona, and the next day or so we were discussing our names—she sometimes calls me Johanna and Judge Tobias (as this is what we call each other), and if we ask her what her name is or what Eliana’s name is, she answers with their Chinese names. Anyhow, I told her that her full name is Leona Owen (and that Eliana’s is Eliana Owen, etc., for the four of us), and then we played a game where I asked her our names and she answered.

 

Judge happened to call us in the middle of this, and she told him on the phone that she is Leona Owen, and that I am Johanna Owen. She then brought the phone over to her sister, and said (in Chinese, as that is her language of choice when speaking with her, for some reason): 妹妹，你要跟Tobias劉冠廷講話嗎? [Translated: Little sister, do you want to talk with Tobias Liu Guan Ting?]

 

I love it.

 

She also said she took such big bites because she is a big sister...(she likes to really stuff her mouth full when she eats).

 

And in her current vocabulary, my favorite is 'tonayno' (tornado...for tomato). 

 

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