A Visit From Baba and Diado

Gracie loved church today since Daddy was singing on Praise Team! She liked watching him, but really she liked seeing him on the monitor more. There is something about his face on the screen that she found fascinating.

She is so good in church! She sat on my lap most of the time and drew on the bulletin until she got the idea that she could leave early if she went to the bathroom. Mommy has figured this one out now, though, so for the first time I told her "later" and hoped desperately that I wouldn't end up with wet corduroys. Yippee! She made it. The trick is going to be to figure out when she really needs to go and when she is just bored. Good luck with that...

Since Mark had to sing in the next service, too, I decided to take her to Sunday School to see how she would react and she loved it. It was obvious that she is used to being around lots of children and even though she didn't understand much of what was being said, she copies the actions of the people around her very well. When the other kids sat on the rug for the story, so did she (as long as I sat next to her). When they went to the play area, she loved the slide and followed the helper to try to catch the kids coming down the slide who were twice her size (even though we went to the 3-4 year old class.) When they said it was time to go back to the room for the snack, I interpreted for her and she went right to the table and sat down. Boy was she confused and disappointed when they passed out a paper and crayons first. She asked me where the snack was, too, but she sat and colored until the leader started collecting the crayons. Then she was finished and walked around the table to "help" collect the crayons. When it was time to leave, all of the other children left the toys on the floor, except Gracie. She walked around and picked up all of the fishing pole toys and put them back into the little treasure chest container. I think she is going to love going to school once she gets over being scared of being away from me.

After going out for Chinese, Grandma Baba and Grandpa Diado came to visit and brought her belated birthday present, a wagon filled with blocks! She liked pushing, pulling, and sitting in the wagon and the blocks were a real hit because she can build these huge (gulyam) buildings with flowers on the top. She loves Baba and Diado and even started calling them both Grandpa...Oh, well, she also says "There she is!" anytime she looks for and finds something...She is really picking up English more everyday. In fact, she is mixing English and Bulgarian so much that you have to really listen carefully to see if there is anything deciferable in her speech. It goes something like this: Blah, blah, blah, tomorrow. Blah, blah, shoos (shoes), aaaaaa, blah, blah, bath ootray, later. Oh my goodness! Blah, blah, blah, molia pleeeeeeeease...nahsdraveh, bless you...Blah, blah, washing machina, dah? Ootray? Dah? Blah, blah, blah, blah, Blaise ee Adam ee Vince otivame in the car, Baba Diado, to dom Gracie Daniela, potcorn? Neskum (no more)? In fact, I just read this aloud to Blaise and Gracie said, "Ne, potcorn...Baba Diado, ne potcorn..."