Joey and Couscous

No, that's not just a bizarre recipe, it's the two newest things in Anna's life right now.

First and foremost, there's Joey. Until today, all of Anna's names for her toys mirrored what they were, i.e., Teddy is a teddy bear, Bunny is a rabbit, Duckie is a duck.

But today, Joey was born. Joey is an old beat up toy rabbit of mine that our old basset hound, Samantha, once got a hold of, (much to Joey's sorrow). A neat row of stitches where Joey's paw used to be is a testament to my mother's sewing talents and sympathetic heart.

Joey used to just be Bunny, one of three or four bunnies in Anna's toy arsenal. Then out of the blue today, Anna said, "Look Mama! It's JOEY!" She laughed hysterically and spent the evening bouncing Joey around, reading him stories and giving him her milk. He is, at this moment, cuddled up in bed with her. Her gift of a real name has also marked this scruffy old bunny as her favorite toy of the hour.

Then there's couscous. As you may know, Anna is NOT renowned for trying new things. She eats the toddler staples and not much else. If it's green, it's automatically suspect. But tonight... she decided, out of nowhere, to eat couscous! Kurt made a delicious dinner of cedar plank salmon and curry couscous, and Anna asked to try the "pink fish". We gave her a little bowl with a bite of salmon and a scoop of the couscous. She totally ignored the fish, even though it was pink, and went nuts with the "yellow rice", as she called it, eating bite after bite after bite.

So there you have it. Anna the explorer!