Song and Dance

A couple times recently I forgot to take my camera along and missed some cute moments. So I’ll have to write about them instead.

About 10 days ago we attended the birthday party of a little friend from church who turned three! It was a tea party so we brought little tarts and cheese-sprinkled bread sticks from the bakery across the street. The children’s table was set beautifully and they all had a chance to practice pouring “tea” (cold water) from our hostess’s collection of teapots from all over the world, after the requisite rendition of “I’m A Little Teapot.”

I was so surprised when my normally reserved girl jumped up at the front of the crowd and sang out with the song, a huge smile on her face! She did the motions and everything. I think she was so excited to recognize a song I’ve sung to her dozens of times – but it was the first time I’ve ever heard her produce it!

She also did an expert job pouring (we’ve been using a neti pot to water the plants outside so I guess she was getting some good practice there), and sang out with “Happy Birthday” later on.

The kids just had so much fun. They also enjoyed taking turns in the hammock on the balcony and ringing the wind chimes. Valerie still asks me to “tell the story about when we went to Abby’s birthday party” every night at bedtime, and we play “birthday party” with big round pieces of bread and candles every day at home!

Another day Valerie and I walked (!!!!!!! Remember this is Stroller Girl we’re talking about – whose comfort object long after we arrived in Albania was her stroller) to the lake to look for a shoe we’d lost a couple days earlier. We didn’t find the shoe, but we enjoyed the walk. When we got there, she had fun throwing little dirt clods into the water until a young dog – still in that rollicking puppy stage – came bounding towards her; she got a little scared, but didn’t cry. Then we climbed up on a concrete block (remnant of something) and she wanted to do the Chicken Dance, which I taught her in a moment of boredom some time ago.

It was one of those I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this moments, standing by an artificial lake in the capital of Albania, doing the Chicken Dance with my daughter. But it was fun.

And then we walked home for supper.