Do you see what I see?

This is the view out my kitchen window. Do you see what I see?

'Cause I see mangoes growing and that means that mango season is coming... and that might just be my favorite time of the year... even if it will be hot, hot, hot.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Franklin had to do some work in Ellie's room the other day.... Ellie saw Daddy climb up the ladder with tools, so she thought she ought to do the same thing.

Signs of the Heat

You know it's hot when you start giving liquids in frozen form.
You know it's really, really hot when your daughter no longer wants to sleep with her teddy bear any more, but prefers her sippy cup filled with water.

Exercising and exercise socks

Occasionally I get up and exercise with a DVD in the morning. If I am doing aerobics, I put on socks and shoes. Lately, Ellie has been getting up and wanting to exercise with me. After one of these exercise sessions, Ellie tried on my socks. They fit much differently on her than me. For the rest of the morning, she walks around the house kicking her leg and saying "size".

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Keeping Ellie busy...and mommy sane

A little, active, curious one year old can't just sit around the house all day with nothing to do. After hours of running around and getting into anything and everything, she needs some sort of organized task... or at least the mommy does. So, I have been trying to do more intentional things with Ellie. Like making a necklace. Above Ellie is wearing her friend's necklace that was left here... but she is holding the necklace she made... all it took was a trip to the bazaar to buy some beads, and some thread... I held the thread and needle and she helped me put the beads on. Note to self, don't get so many "beads" with sharp edges (like stars and diamonds) next time. Below, Ellie is wearing the necklace.
We have kid friendly markers that a friend brought from the States. It's so awesome that with one simple swipe they wash off! Above, Ellie is making markers kiss... half the fun of coloring, you know...
Exploring the box is also part of the fun... taking the markers or colors out and putting them back in.
In the above picture, can you tell which parts I colored and which parts Ellie colored? I have fond memories of sitting with my mom and coloring... She taught me to make all my lines go in one direction when I color. She also taught me how to outline the shape I'm coloring...I'd say those are two valuable life lessons.
Eliana loves the letter E and writing her name... so I hold her hand in mine and we say E-L-I-A-N-A as we write the letters. Then she takes the crayon by herself, scribbles away joyfully making sounds that sound like a mixture of letters and numbers.

Our trip to the village

On Friday we went out to visit the family we stayed with in 2008. It's hard to believe that was already two years ago! As we were walking through the other houses toward our old home, we saw Roni who used to be a small twelve year old. He is now a huge fourteen year old! Unbelievable how they change!

Of course, because hospitality is SO important, Bhabi made us a wonderful meal. This is her kitchen. You'd be amazed at what can be produced in such a simple kitchen.
Ellie had a blast! It took her a while to warm up, but once she got comfortable, we had to work hard to keep track of her. Here she is with some fruit. Our family has papaya and mango trees. You can see the papayas are nice and ripe. Ellie is pretending to put a mango in her mouth... The mango is about the size of a pea right now because it isn't ripe, but their tree will probably produce mangos just a bit smaller than the papaya she's touching. So delicious!!!
I know that holding this little chick was the highlight of Ellie's day because right before she fell asleep that night, she pointed to her hand and said baby cluck cluck... which of course means baby chicken. Then yesterday at supper, she was pointing to her hand again and saying baby cluck cluck but she added the word "gentle"... it took me a minute to understand what she was saying, but she started stroking her hair, which is how I taught her the word "gentle".
In spite of efforts to help Ellie be gentle, the chick needed a little TLC when it was done with Ellie. I was amazed at how much the chick perked up after a sip or two of water...
And what kind of trip to a village would be complete without climbing a tree... even if you aren't quite 1 1/2 years old yet, right? Like father, like daughter.
And of course there's always time to give your daddy a little love.
Something else we realized while we were out in the village was how much Bangla Ellie is learning. We speak mainly English with her at home, and she seems to understand most stuff and she is always saying new things. After a tiny bit of time in the village, we overheard her responding to everyone speaking Bangla to her in Bangla! She even answered the question, "Tumi kemon acho?" (How are you?) with "Bhalo." (Good.) I was shocked!!!! Kids are so amazing.