Our little girl

Everything here is going well. Jason his placement test today and tomorrow he'll find out what level class he'll be in. He starts class on Sunday. Guess what? I'm taking Arabic classes also. Mine start Sunday night and they are at a cultural center in Amman. The difference in ours, other than I'm a beginner and he is not, is that my classes will be the spoken Jordanian dialect of Arabic and his is Modern Standard (or written). I am excited to start.

Ellie is really growing up fast. I counted today and she knows over 100 words! Some words, like drink, she only says the last syllable of, but most words, like backpack, she says perfectly. She also says quite a few phrases, like "Ellie do it" and "climb up." Yesterday our friends Alex and Kendra Thompson came over and Ellie kept telling Kendra "sit down" because she wanted Kendra to read her a book. Gram, you said you miss reading to her, boy we wish you were here to take our place! Her hunger for knowledge is insatiable. She points to EVERYTHING and says "that" (what's that?). She will not stop saying it until you tell her the name of whatever she is pointing at. She also is officially weaned, having not nursed at all for 4 days. That didn't stop her, however, from grabbing my chest and saying "Milk" over and over in front of our friends. She really enjoys her mattress bed, especially since she can just walk right out of her room whenever she feels like it. That is very annoying when we are trying to put her to bed, but very cute when she walks out after her nap, or when she walks into our bedroom in the morning.

We love and miss everyone; thanks for all the emails and comments!