Pillow Talk

One of the highlights of my day is when I put Anna to bed, especially for her afternoon nap. Now, I don’t mean for this to sound as bad as it does. The reason I love it is that I get to listen to the conversations she has with her stuffed animals before she finally gets tired and falls asleep. In the afternoons it usually takes Anna longer to settle down and fall asleep so I am treated to an extra long monologue. Lately, there seems to be some friction between the stuffed hippo and zebra. The other day I heard, “Hippo, no pushing zebra, no pushing.” And also, “be nice, be nice.” I guess the laws of the jungle apply among the stuff animals of Anna’s crib.

Going Native

Anna has gone native. Lately, when I don’t respond immediately to her calls of “Mamma”, she starts calling “mum-may, mum-may, MUM-MAAAAY”. This continues until she gets an answer. I have to say I much prefer being called mamma to being call mummay. She also tells me when she needs to have her diaper changed by saying “change nappy”. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that she says these things. My biggest issue is remembering to use the right word consistently so she doesn’t get confused. I end up confusing our babysitter, Angelika, all the time. I always forget to say jumper instead of sweater.

Anna and I went to a Halloween party last Friday, but we didn’t do much for Halloween here. Trick or treating isn’t that common here, and I live on a dead-end so there isn’t much foot traffic passing by. We had one group of trick or treaters. Hmmmm, what to do with all that leftover candy? I have pretty good idea of what will happen to it, and what has already happened to it. Let’s just say that it feels like the Garbanza is doing the Mexican hat dance in my belly from the massive increase of sugar in my bloodstream.

Yesterday, I discovered a new activity for Anna to tire her out and entertain her at the same time – chasing squirrels. It provides loads of entertainment for both of us.