Cahlohs

Carlos had a bit of a surprise yesterday when we were playing with Anna. She started looking at him and saying: “Cahlohs, Cahlohs”. What????? Poor Carlos looked at her and said, “No no no, Papa Papa” (pointing emphatically at himself). Wow, where did this come from? I don’t think she understands that she’s saying Papa’s name, but it really threw us for a loop.

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew today and saw the most fantastic glass art exhibition. Kew Gardens are one of the most extensive botanical gardens in the UK and are close to where we live. We bought season passes to the gardens and go there a lot. Generally, we go just to amble around (not paying much attention to all the plants) and to let Anna run around (the gardens also have a great play area for kids). Now, the gardens are exhibiting glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly in the most amazing way. If anyone has been to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, he is the artist who made those incredible glass flowers on the ceiling of the hotel’s lobby. His glass sculptures are placed throughout the gardens, amongst the plants. It is really incredible. I’m going to try and go back this coming week and take some pictures to post here. I was totally blown away. I haven’t figured out yet if the sculptures that are in the gardens existed prior to this exhibit or if there were created solely for exhibiting in the gardens. I think it is the latter. It is very difficult to describe without pictures, but his work has been placed in such a way that it looks almost like it is part of the plantscape. Very amazing.

New words

Teekuhl = Mr. Tickle (thank you Maya Key); this generally means please read the book Mr. Tickle for me
Cumpee = crab (not as out of this world as it seems because she has a book called Clumsy Crab that she loves; seems to have combined the two words)
Mango = just emerged yesterday; I don’t know where she learned this word because I don’t think either Carlos or I have taught it to her, but it does in fact seem to refer to the fruit
Laybuh = ladybug