Our Princess played at a piano recital yesterday. She’s only been playing a short while, but she seems naturally good at it.The teacher had her do something quite difficult. She had a little trouble with it, but performed cheerfully.

Afterwards, I was helping her with homework and she asked for an envelope, telling me that the other one I had given her another time was too big. I brought a regular one and she said. "Too small." I pointed at the big one and she said, "Too big." I asked, "This one is too big and that one is too small." She shook her head and said "Too small. Too big."

Suddenly, I had a thought. I held up two fingers and asked "er small, er big?" (pronounced "ar") which is one of the two Chinese words for the number Two. She nodded.

She wanted two small and two big. Had er not worked, I would have tried: "Tai da le? Tai shou le?" which, while possibly not spelled in correct Pinying, means "too big, too small?"