Ian has a crush

I think Ian has a crush on his Chinese school teacher. I've been talking about her and Chinese school during the week so that he doesn't forget, so he was really looking forward to it on Saturday. He didn't want his milk or a banana or anything. He wanted to put his shoes on and get in the car. But he had to wait while I had some cereal first. On our way to school, he asked twice, "Wo3 men2 qu4 kan4 Hsiung2 Lao3 Shi1?" ("Are we going to see Teacher Hsiung?") Hsiung Lao Shi recently graduated from college, I think, so she's young and quite cute and very sweet. All the kids really love her and she has a lot of patience.

We were a little early, which was good because it's a long walk down all the hallways of the high school to Ian's classroom. As we were getting close, Hsiung Lao Shi came out of the classroom. I asked Ian who that was and he looked at her, stopped short, put his hands on his knees and leaned down with a big silly grin on his face. Then he started jumping up and down in place and became a mute child. Apparently, he lost all powers of speech in the presence of Hsiung Lao Shi. But you couldn't wipe that grin off his face. He showed her his "homework" (she had them color an elephant) and could point to everything in response to her questions, but no words came out. When all the other kids started coming in, he got shy and clingy, so I sat for the first half. Then Hsiung Lao Shi brought out a snack (animal crackers) and introduced the words for napkin, snack and water. Then she taught them trash can and had the kids throw away their cups and napkins. He seemed ok at that point, so I left the room to attend a parents' meeting. I came back with 10 minutes to go and peeked in. He was doing great by himself. They had colored zebras and he was right up next to Hsiung Lao Shi. The other parents told me he was really responsive to her and participated. This week, we'll see if he can spend the whole two hours by himself in the classroom.