Curses...

To the people who work in a 25-story building with only two working elevators and thousands of employees and who insist on pushing both the up and down elevator call buttons, so that I end up stopping at every floor on my way to the top of the building. This is driving me crazy. It seems to be a cultural thing. As an American, I only push the call button for the direction I am going, because who wants to get on an elevator going up when you really want to go down?!?!?!?! But it seems many Egyptians think you should push both ways and just get on the first elevator that comes. It's a total cultural clash!

Sometimes, it can take half an hour one way to ride the elevator. Because you have to wait for about 3 elevators to crush yourself in, and then you stop on every floor. It's driving me crazy!!

Linguistic feet!

Maya has been having some very interesting conversations recently. Today we were barefoot in the living room playing soccer before I left for work, and here is how the conversation went.

Maya: Mommy, I have Amarinya (Amharic) feet and you have English feet.
Me: Oh, really? You mean your feet are brown and mine are tan?
Maya: No. My feet Amarinya and you feet English.
Me: I see. Your feet speak Amarinya and my feet speak English?
Maya: (Smiles, stares into space)
Me: Well you speak Amarinya and English, so maybe you have one Amarinya foot and one English foot. And I speak English and Arabic. So maybe I have one English foot and one Arabic foot.
Maya: That's silly mommy.

Octopus

Here is a story Maya told me today in the car:

Maya: The kids fly up the balloons to the airplane to get a toy, and they get a drink. And they get lost from their mommy. The babies get lost from their mommy. And they cry, cry. And June fly up to the moon.

Me: Who is June?

Maya: A kid from school. (I actually think this is a made-up personality, but I could be wrong)

Maya: And they fly up to the moon and they fall down. And June fall down and the babies fall down. And they bump the cars. And they have to go to the hospital. They get a vitamin to get better, and they get medicine to get better. And the doctor is an octopus.

Good news, sad news (for mommy)

So, a week or so ago I was talking with Tibby about Maya's Amharic. We were both lamenting that while Maya understood a LOT in Amharic, she was choosing to respond to Tibby in English most of the time. We weren't sure what her speaking skills really were, or whether her understanding was sort of passive. We decided that it was time to put little pressure on her to actually speak in Amharic.

So we had a little talk with Maya that she needed to actually speak in Amharic to Tibby, and not use English. And that it was OK if she makes mistakes, but that starting the next week, Tibby would no longer respond to her if she spoke in English.

Tibby also agreed to start working with Maya on how to ask how to say words in Amharic that she already knows in English but might not know in Amharic. (As in: How do you say 'XX' in amarinya?)

Maya was a little whiney and not too happy about this talk. But the very next day she actually started speaking with Tibby (almost) exclusively in Amharic. And she has continued all this week. And she is actually speaking much better than we had thought. I am so proud of her.

The sad news is that today when I was listening to Maya and Tibby speak, I realised I can't actually follow the conversation anymore. Previously, I could basically follow it with my own rudimentary knowledge and by listening to Maya's side of the conversation. But now, I can't follow what my daughter is saying anymore. Aaah! I better start working on improving MY Amharic!!

Enkutatash!

We spent the evening with the Egypt4 family for Ethiopian New Year, which is actually tomorrow. Maya had a blast jumping around and dancing with the Four kids. We got in some nice adult time with our friends. We ate some terrific Ethiopian food!! And Maya fell asleep really fast when we got home.

I got my hair cut and Maya started dance class

I got my hair cut yesterday, and I literally got the best haircut I have gotten in my life!! My downstairs neighbour cut my hair. He is an expat who is a professional hair stylist. It took two hours. But it is awesome. I would show pictures but I don't have any yet. Soon.

Maya also started dance class. She loves it. She is reported to follow the teacher's instructions very well. They are learning ballet moves. Maybe next week I'll give Tibby the camera and ask her to take photos so I can post them...

And Maya is settling back into school, which she loves. But we still don't find out from her how her days went. Whenever I ask her what she did at school, she says: "I had a lunch."

Potty humor and princess dresses

I know most of you all know about Maya and her ballerina/princess obsession. But a little known secret is also her very well developed potty humor...

Tonight, Mike was working late and Maya and I had a killer evening of pretending to order food laced with yucky stuff, then pretending to taste and like it... or not. Maya was literally rolling on the floor laughing. Our pretend telephone conversation with the delivery man went like this:

Maya: Mommy, you like poop?
Me: Noooooo!
Maya: Mommy, you like to poop? You want to eat some?
Me: OK
Maya: OK mommy order from old mcdonalds.
Me: Yes, Hello McDonalds? I would like to order dinner for my daughter Maya.
Maya: Ha Ha Ha (already laughing hysterically cuz she knows what I'm going to order)
Me: Yes, I would like a poopburger. Yes, and some fries with poop, and poop juice.
Maya: (Actually rolling on the floor unable to contain herself)
Me: Ding Dong. (I am pretending to be delivery person)
Maya: You have my dinner.
Me: Yes, that's $10 (I hand her pretend food and she hands me pretend money)
Me: You like it?
Maya: Yummy!

Then, after this exchange, we had to play this game for like another hour. We ordered potty food from Pizza Hut, from Carvel Ice Cream, etc, etc. Who knew that Maya would find this so funny???