petit compaore

He helped Papa cook. He has been loving to help cook in the kitchen. Every day this week, not omitting one, we have cooked pancakes at least once. I guess Isaac is on a pancake kick. Two nights ago, he woke up at 4 in the morning. By 5, I said, look, you need to have milk. He didn't like the idea at first, but changed his mind and was quiet for awhile. Then, he said, "Hungwy" around 5:30, followed by "pancake". Luckily we had leftover pancakes, so we went out to the kitchen and got a pancake. They are "baby pancakes" but Isaac ate half of one and drank some milk to go with it. After that, he was able to go to sleep.

Also something that has been effective for a few weeks now (but started to lose its effectiveness, and now works again) is that we have been telling Isaac that if he is crying really loudly and being naughty, the Ouangolo will come eat him. The Ouangolo is a creature of Papa's invention, and it growls very fiercely. Papa told Isaac that it "eats children" and Isaac of course repeated back "eat children" (although pronounced differently). Since his more elaborated description of the Ouangolo, I have been successfully using night noises to my advantage to get Isaac to stop crying loudly at night (because, let's face it, the bachelor guy neighbors are not pleased with 3 am wake-up calls). Actually, I don't really need night noises because Isaac is so loud when he is upset that he can't hear anything anyway. I have been saying, "Oh! Isaac, be careful, I just heard the Ouangolo!" and I hug him. Immediately, he falls silent. Then I usually say something like, "I'm going to get the milk. I'm going to be sooooo careful so the Ouangolo can't get me." Isaac says, "Careful" and I go get the milk. Isaac at least gives the milk a try after that and calms down pretty quickly.

When Papa originally made up the Ouangolo, I thought maybe it was a word for "monster" in Dioula or something. But no,Ouangolodougou is a place in northern Cote d'Ivoire, by Burkina Faso. So it's just a place name. Very frightening.

Finally, yesterday I went to Saint Vincent de Paul. I was unsuccessful in finding what I went there for, but I did find a few clothes for Isaac and a ton of books for 50 cents each! I am going there again for sure - a lot of them were like new, and they had a lot of classics like Dr. Seuss hardbacks and Little Golden Books. I was very excited and could have easily spent $20 on books, but I restrained myself this time, and spent a little less. There was one that I could not go home without: a book on "Things that Go". After returning the books about fire trucks, trucks, planes, and boats to my supervisor, I was a little sad I didn't have anything to replace it since Isaac is so into that stage right now. Voila. Problem solved.

See how much he likes it? Please excuse his pronunciation of "fire truck". In phonology-speak, we call this "coalescence". Features of two sounds that make up a consonant blend are present in the sound produced, for example, in "tr", which would be pronounced as "chw" or "tw" by a kid this age, the fricative quality of the "ch" and the labial quality of the "w" come together and you get "f". Put "fire" in front and you're in for a mess. At least he'll grow out of it. :)

Most importantly, this weekend we are going to baby London's baptism! I can't wait to see her again and for her to become a new little Catholic! We love her so much.

And, Isaac received a letter from his cousin Louisa yesterday. He loved it and has been going around randomly saying "Weesa" now ever since. This morning, he spent too much time near the pancake griddle and his hand started feeling hot. Somehow he combined the "hot" with a random thought about Weesa so he was saying "Weesa hot" for awhile. I wasn't sure if he was confused about what Louisa meant, or if he was imagining playing with Louisa, but there you go. There is so much going on in that little mind!