- Leem loves pomegranates. I think she gets this from Grandaddy, who I think of every time I "score" a pomegranate, running the knife gently along the longitudinal circumference two different times, then cut a little hole in the top, and then split from top to bottom into four wedges. I always give one of the wedges to Leem who loves to patiently pick them out. And, concerning the ones that get away, she likes to take her fork and spear them before putting them in her mouth. Being "done" eating pomegranates means having her cheeks so full of the little seeds that she cannot fit any more in. She will jump down from the table and do whatever she does for the next half hour or so with them stored away in there. :)
- And this. Yesterday I looked over at Leem and happened to see this. The call to prayer began outside: "Allaaaaaaaaaaahu..." and Leem chimed in: "...akbar." Yes, God is great! We never taught her to do this, but she does hear it 5 or so times a day. :)
- Soren was up this morning at 5:30 (used to be 6:30 until the time change last weekend, grrr) and ready to eat. I changed his diaper and was going to bring him to lay down in a bed for bit, but I looked at him first and said, "Do you have something to tell me? What do you want?" He made the sign for "eat." This may seem like a very small thing, but actually its fairly substantial in his development. Until recently he has not volunteered his wants or needs with words. I honored that request with half a banana. Keep it up buddy! Later he snarfed down two turnip-eggs, twoish mandarins and a quarter of an apple. Wowza!
- Soren has also been walking up a storm, though still not, as yet, across empty space by himself. In the last week he has been walking more along things unassisted, even walls and hanut glass panes, which is awesome since walls and hanut glass panes don't provide a ton of help if you start to lose balance. He even maneuvered along a wall and up a step into our apartment a couple days ago! Wowza! The kid wants to GO places. Before he would have quickly plopped onto his butt to go everywhere, especially if there were tricky barriers; increasingly he is seeing bi-pedal motion as a viable option instead. I also walk a lot with him in our quiet neighborhood (read, not a lot of cars threatening to run us over), and I let him take both of my index fingers and take the lead. He has a strong preference for the street over sidewalks. Another worker told me once, "people here just walk in the streets because the sidewalks are too unpredictable." Soren has picked up the local way: if I try to force him to safer ground he torques his body mightily to keep his feet on the level road.
- I am feeling good; this morning I set out in faith at 8am to complete a task I didn't really know how to accomplish. I headed to the old city in a taxi, and saw some guys outside the old city gates with push carts. "I will need one of those," I thought. I ask one of the men if he will help me. "Oui," he tells me in French, and off we go down through the gate and into the city. Step 1 complete. With help from a friend (on the phone) we find the place where we are picking up some household items we previously bought and load them on the push cart. Step 2 complete. We head back up out of the old city and talk to a guy who has a van. We load the items (including a massive rug, by the way) into the van and I pay the push-cart man. Step 3 complete. I direct the van driver to our house using my new language and we unload the items at our apartment and I pay him. Project complete, only 1.5 hours and $11.50 later!
-P
