Eleben and Elephants

It's pretty adorable watching Younis learn his ABC's and 123's. We're pretty impressed with his singing skills so far. We go to a weekly singing group called Rabat Tunes and while not a huge fan at first (he preferred playing with the cars), he now always looks forward to singing and often asks about Rabat Tunes each time we get in the car. We have this mini chalkboard and the other day Imad had his mind set on hearing Younis count from 1-11. I'm not sure why we go to 11 and not stop at 10, but in the end it's a great thing because Younis LOVES the number 11. He gets so excited and will start counting and usually by about 6 or 7 screams "ELEBEN" with the b. Here they are working hard. He can almost get through singing the alphabet, but also tends to jump ahead cause he can't wait for the WXY and Z.

It's hard to believe, but we actually leave for the states in only 5 weeks. Time is starting to fly by and I feel a mix of excitement and anticipation to see my family and friends and be back in my home while also leaving the lovely life we've created here. I know this is only more intense for Imad being from here and being so close to his family. We are so lucky to have had this experience, so no complaints, but it will be a rough transition back to our life in Seattle as much as I look forward to it at the same time.

Yesterday, we ventured back to the zoo. I still can't get over how close you can get to the animals, the gates are minimal. Look how close we are to the elephant and lion, and this is not a zoom lens trick. While this is incredible to see the animals so close up, it's also slightly frightening at times. The elephant really looked like he/she was about to jump across the little mote thing separating us and crush the gate to get to the sunflower seeds we were snacking on and that leads to my troubles with the zoo. You can eat anywhere and these animals are so used to being fed. When we got to the elephants, one of the poor guys was stuffing an empty chips bag into its mouth and successfully ate it. That's sad to watch. Probably unfair of us to tempt the elephant with the sunflower seeds to, but even if we weren't eating, I think they watch us as much as we watch them to see if we have any treats to throw across the gate.

We're still very much enjoying our time on the beach. It's so beautiful here and I'm getting accustomed to falling asleep to the sound of ocean waves and finding sand in every piece of clothing and in Younis' hair and diapers everyday. I will miss Morocco.