Anissa stopped halfway as she was pulling on her "pull-up" (diaper) tonight, and stared down at the picture of Dora - her favorite TV character - on the front. It was obvious she was thinking hard about something. "I wear Dora underwear," she said. "I think Dora probably wears Anissa underwear."

Deep!

How do you know your husband spends too much time at the office?

When your daughter, after spending some time with him before dinner, politely says, "Thank you, Papa, for coming to visit us at our house."

Sunday was a big day for Anissa - her first trip to the movies! Mehdi and I had been anxiously waiting for the right movie to come out - nothing at all scary or overly stimulating - and then Curious George came to town. Anissa was so excited, and so were we (hey, it may not be our choice of film, but we miss the movies). We got our big bag of popcorn and over-sized drinks (medium in the U.S. is really something to behold) and settled in to our seats. At the end of every preview, Anissa proclaimed, "That looks like a good movie!" And when Curious George started, we knew we had made the perfect choice; it was a sweet, charming movie, and she loved it. There was nothing even remotely frightening, but we hadn't considered the sadness factor.

In one scene, the Man in the Yellow Hat allows pest control workers to put George in a cage and take him away. I could feel Anissa's body tensing up as they chased and caught George, and when the door to the cage clanked shut her bottom lip began to tremble. As the van drove away, she burst out crying and yelled, "That's not nice!" She repeated her opinion a few more times, still crying, and told us she wanted to go home. I have to admit, my heart broke for her and I couldn't wait for the stupid guy in the yellow hat to go find George and suck up big time. Which, of course, he did, so Anissa cheered up. Once out of the theater, she told us that she liked the movie, except for the one part that was sad. All I could think was how I would do everything in my power to keep her from feeling any of life's pain or sorrow. Unfortunately, though, life doesn't come with any kind of fast forward button.

Mama Jo was visiting for the past week, and time flew by. Mehdi and I got to sneak off for a romantic dinner (Anissa demanded to know "why?" when we told her we were going out without her, of all crazy ideas) and Anissa got non-stop attention. We were spoiled and Jo is surely going home worn right out.




It was 15 degrees on Thursday,
so Anissa, Jo and I headed to...
THE BEACH!

















Anissa puckered up to a new friend at the aquarium in Boston yesterday. At least she didn't beg and cry to get into the tank with him like she did for the sea lions!