on burritos, momentitos, and calling arizona

Came home from a meeting the other night to find J and S having a blast in the family room. What was the their object of fun? An old bedsheet. We gave them a few sheets so that they could build forts and tents, etc. They get thrown behind the big purple chair where the kids like to hide out. But here was J rolling S up in the sheet and calling her a burrito. Of course, J needed his turn as a burrito, too. Then, he started doing the classic gym class parachute games. Hey, let's toss it in the air and you run under it! Hey, let's toss it up and pull it down while we sit inside! Oh, the joy of an ugly old sheet!

Then, J proceeded to make S giggle and say things like, "rock bottom" -- ?? -- yeah, I have no idea.

Scenes like this are becoming more common. (Thank you, God!) J is still struggling and we seem to have to constantly reassure him. We've started a new "game" with him to help encourage him to make progress, and if it is successful, we will share it. If it fails miserably, well, we'll just keep it to ourselves. So far this week, he is doing great with it. Instead of taking his frustrations out on the kids, he is bringing them to mom and dad -- the frustrations, not the kids. Are we on the right track? Let's hope.

Another neato thing from this week: S got to speak with one of her friends from the House of Hope! This sweet, sweet girl came home not too long ago and now lives in Arizona. (Not easy to explain "Arizona" to S. ) Listening to these two little girls who used to speak only in Amharic now chit chat with each other in English was something else. The conversation didn't last long. When you are 3.5 and 5, I don't think you really have much to say -- especially in limited language.

Speaking of language, E is starting to have a ton of sounds that represent words -- our challenge is to interpret those sounds. For example, is "Bah" bye? ball? butt? balloon? Well, in addition to all these one-syllable English expressions, he also has a multi-syllable Spanish word that comes out pretty well: momentito. It comes out something like, mah-mah-teet-toe, but it is very cute. Oh, and he also says "purple" and knows what it is. He's a genius!

Ok, gotta finish the cheesecake that M brought home from work. (Yeah, had to throw that out there.)
:)