Fire drill!

The other day Dan was testing the fire alarm while Gianna and I were watching TV. When she heard it beep and the robotic female voice say "fire detected. fire detected.", she started saying "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh" and tried to escape through the window! I was laughing so hard! Then Dan came into the room and she grabbed him and tried to get him to exit through the front door. Hilarious! If we're ever in a fire, she will be the hero toddler that saves her sleeping parents and dog from being burned alive.

Gianna is learning so much English. She's now starting to act as a translator for some things. I can ask her "Gianna, what's the Vietnamese word for diaper?" and she will tell me the correct word (tã). She is also learning a lot of sign language at school. Tonight when I put her to bed, she kept signing in the dark. Yes, I am putting her to bed some nights. She stopped wanting to watch her usual Baby Einstein Lullaby DVD and now wants to read Goodnight Gorilla while listening to Vietnamese music instead. Speaking of Vietnamese music, today at school they listened to some Vietnamese children's music as part of their world cultures week. They said Gianna was ecstatic. It made me so happy to hear they were taking time to appreciate her heritage as much as we do at home. Now if I can only get something together for Tết! I got a letter from Vietnam saying celebrations are already underway at the orphanages. Unfortunately for my friends waiting to travel, they will have to deal with a Vietnam Tết shutdown from mid-January to early February.

Here's a pic from Christmas when our friends in Germany, Eric and Shira, came to visit with their min pin Darth. Gianna calls Bruno "Beano", so we call Darth "Bizzaro Beano" since she couldn't distinguish between the two dogs. Eric reminded me that we have 4 great friends and 1 great dog waiting for us in Germany. Now I am not so sad to go!