Laughable and lovable.
Yep, that's what these kids are.
Some of the laughables:
"It's my birthday on Wednesday," I told the boys.
"What? You can't have a birthday!" Zusha exclaimed.
"And why not?" was my amused reply.
"Because... because you said yourself, you finished growing!" I could sense Zusha's indignation rising. "You're not getting any bigger!"
I explained to him the difference between age and size, and he went of to make me a birthday present.
Adel has her cuteness down pat. Whenever anyone is doing something she perceives as weird, she will put on a slightly condescending look of whatintheworldareyoudoing and say, "Ha-ai?" As in, "Uhhh, hi? Is everything okay with you there?" It's hilarious. She uses it in such situations as when I pretend to take a bite out of her or catch the cat and growl at him for attacking my ankles. This girl is SO expressive with her intonations. She isn't big on words, but the couple that she does know, she says with so much feeling, that it's like listening to ancient prose with all the hidden meaning it conceals within it.
I was editing some photos at the computer while Gedalya was bouncing around as usual. He latched on to the arm of my computer chair and continued to bounce, shaking my hand and preventing me from working. I asked him a few times nicely to stop, to go jump somewhere else, or at least to let go of my armrest so I can get this photo edited once and for all. After a few valiant attempts at civil communication, I snapped, "Gedalya,
move!"
And this child, this four-and-a-half year old redheaded child, replied without missing a beat, "I
am moving!"
Oh, hahaha. Very funny, Gedalya!
Zusha's front teeth finally grew in, and while I am in love with his temporary chipmunk look, I miss his little holes and lisp. In the beginning of his lispy days, I made fun of him mercilessly. It was just that cute.
One day, Zusha began to tell me something, "You know, sometimes..."
"Thometimeth?" I interrupted.
"No, thometimeth."
"That's what I said... Thometimeth?"
This went on for a couple more seconds before Zusha's maturity outdid mine.
"Yeth, thometimeth." Zusha stated somewhat impatiently as an older sibling would when giving in to a toddler just to get him off his back... and he went on to tell me about what he wanted.
Wow. My six year old is more mature than me. Hmmm.
Adel started generalizing and now calls all foods "nge-nge." She still has a special way to say nge-nge when she wants to nurse; she says it with a lot of feeling. If she wants something we are eating, she will call out, "Ah-
nge-nge!" in a light, fast and airy way. It could be because she adopted "amm" to mean "give me." She also says that much lighter and faster than the "amm" she says for food.
So, a dictionary, if you please:
nurse = long, drawn out "nge-nge" said with feeling
eat = light, fast "nge-nge" or "amm" with emphasis and feeling
give me this non-food item = light fast "amm"
She seems to downgrade the intensity of a word for the less important things in her life. Confused yet? So am I. That's why I needed to write down this dictionary of reference for myself.
As a side point, she does say "give me" as well. She bangs on her chest to make the "give me" sign and says, "
Mehh mehh!" when she wants someone else to take something from her. Hee hee.
Aaaanyway. I was feeding her a tuna sandwich outside today. She finished the middle of her sandwich and only the hard crust was left. I put the leftover bread by a tree for the birds. When Adel saw me putting her food on the ground, she gave a real emotional gasp, just like you and I would, and called out, "Ah-ngenge!" urgently. I fainted of the cute. Imagine, a little baby watching you put *her* food on the ground and exclaiming, "Gasp!! My food!!"
So that's that for this edition of Laughable and Lovable!
