It's now been over a month since Anissa started attending her new preschool, La Coccinelle, and already I am amazed at the French she is picking up. We've always read French books, listened to music and played some games at home in French, but we've really slacked off lately and I wasn't sure how much she really knew. The past few weeks, though, her speech has become more and more peppered with French words and phrases, and she randomly tells me things like, "J'aime l'automne!" And I think, if Elianne could say anything besides bababa gugu and Mama, she would echo the sentiment, because she can't get enough of all those leaves in the backyard.
It's been such a blast lately to see how Elianne and Anissa interact more and more, and how much Elianne adores her big sister. They already share private little jokes: Anissa bumps lightly into Elianne, pretending not to see her, then exclaims, "Oh, soooorrry!" and Elianne goes into hysterics. A few weeks ago while waiting way too long at a walk-in clinic, the girls were both getting restless when Anissa started flipping through a nature encyclopedia. She asked me what the caption under the photo of a bird said, and of course she though it was hilarious (because she's 4) that it was a Booby bird. Apparently, this is also funny to an eight month old, because all Anissa had to do was whisper Booby Bird in Elianne's ear and her baby sis cracked up. And it's been a running joke since - Elianne starts fussing in the car seat, Anissa yells "Booby Bird!" and Elianne starts laughing. Of course, they've also started "fighting" (yesterday, Anissa declared that she was never alking to Eli again because she had pulled her hair), but overall they are crazy about each other.
What else is new? Elianne is a glutton! She has suddenly developed an insatiable appetite, eating nearly everything I offer and crying for more when I run out. So could it be hunger pains keeping her up at night? Or more teeth? Or just wanting to be held? Someone, please, tell me, because if I don't get some sleep soon I am going to have a breakdown. My brain is turning to mush - tonight, for example, Mehdi came home from work and gave me the asparagus I had asked him to pick up. I put it in the fridge, then two minutes later opened the fridge, saw it and said, "Oh, we already had asparagus!"
