The evening with Julia had two verbal high points. First, expanding on the fact that she didn't want any Tabasco in her pasta sauce (I hadn't offered!), she said that she liked "some hot foods, like sauna machana." I had no idea what she meant, but as she kept repeating it, trying out different combinations of sounds, and then hit finally on "chana masala" - which we had for dinner several months ago. Second, when I asked her what she did at "toddler class" this morning, she fixed me with a tired look and said quietly, "I don't wanna talk about it." I guess that's better than, "Nothing," but not by much.
Genevieve did her best to keep up, but of course her utterances weren't exactly verbal. Still, she peaked when she noticed the cat sneak past. Being an inveterate lover of the cat, Gigi grinned her biggest grin and then exploded into a massive barking laugh that sounded a lot like Sabine's rather piercing meow - and which sent her scampering right back out of the bathroom.