The little chatterbox

Well, Ellie went back to school. And she seems to enjoy it more each day. She has gone three days so far, and the last day she was not upset at all when I came to pick her up. This was definitely a good decision, even though she already has a runny nose. Hopefully she will not catch anything too serious from the other kids. She has a new favorite word; it is "beautiful." Ellie walks around saying "Ellie bee-uful" all day, every once in a while throwing in "mommy bee-uful" or "picture bee-uful." The last time she was painting I said her picture was beautiful, and she grasped that word quickly. She has two other "word games" that she likes to play. One is pointing out who owns what around the house/taxi/street. It goes like this: "Mommy's chair" (point), "Daddy's chair" (point), "his seatbelt" (point to the taxi driver). She makes sure she has everything covered before she will stop. The other game is naming who she knows and saying whether they are a boy or a girl. "Mommy girl, Daddy boy, Ellie girl," etc. Then there is the occasional "Daddy girl...noooo, Daddy boy." As you can probably tell, she really likes to talk.

There are 9 days left of Ramadan. Tomorrow Jason and I are going to an "Iftar," which is the big party-type meal when they break their fast. This one is hosted by the Fulbright office and held at a really nice restaurant in town. Some very important people will be there, including His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal
and the American ambassador to Jordan. I am excited to be able to go and will let you all know what it is like.