leyla grace: In Any Language...

It figures... "grandpa & grandma" in both Farsi and Korean are super difficult to say... even for an adult. It's so much harder than, "nonno & nonna" {Italian}, "abuelo & abuela" {Spanish}, or "opa & oma" {Dutch}. Poor Leyla... In Farsi it's, "padar bozorg & madar bozorg". Ummm, EXAAACTLY... Well, good thing for Leyla my mother-in-law doesn't mind being called Grandma D. which Leyla pronounces, "dabu". Ha! My parents on the other hand, had their hearts set on being called "grandpa and grandma" in Korean... 할아버지 {hara boh jee} & 할머니 {hal moh nee}. That entailed not only Leyla learning how to say it, but Mike as well! Leyla now calls my mom "hah mee" and my dad "jee" {that's right... just, jee}... My parents love to hear her call them by their newly given monikers. Seeing the love in the eyes of my parents when they look at Leyla turns my heart to mush. While I think that it's cute when Leyla plays "peek-a-boo" with me, my parents think that it's the BEST.THING.EVER. They think that she is not only the smartest girl in the world, but the strongest, prettiest, and funniest. Ah, the love of a grandparent right? My mom quietly studies Leyla's face when she thinks that nobody's watching and sees herself in her... I think that my dad could live just on Leyla's unabashed laughter and smiles alone.

On Sunday morning we decided to walk to breakfast with "hah mee", "jee" and my brother Jason {Uncle "Jay-see" if you ask Leyla}... Being that it was such a beautiful day, we knew that taking the long way home was the only way to go...