Christos Anesti!

In the Greek Orthodox church, we greet each other in the 40 days following Easter with the following exchange:

PERSON 1: Christos anesti!
PERSON 2: Alithos anesti!

(In English: "Christ is risen!"  "Truly He is risen!")

Madeleine has been ALL ABOUT the "Christos anesti" exchange ever since attending church on Easter Sunday.  It all started with me saying it to her the day after Easter, to see if she might remember what the proper response should be.  Although her Greek is not perfect, she is happy to forge on ahead and repeat the entire exchange back and forth over and over again.

ME: Madeleine, Christos anesti!
MADELEINE: AliFOS anesti!
ME: Good job!  You remembered what to say!
MADELEINE: Mama.  Christon anesti!
ME: Alithos anesti!
MADELEINE: Mama, can you say Christon anesti to me?
ME: Christos anesti!
MADELEINE: AliFOS anesti!  Mama?  Can you say "Good girl!  You're so SMART!"
ME: Good girl!  You're so smart!
MADELEINE: Mama.  Christon anesti!

And so forth.

In fact, Madeleine is so into the whole "Christos anesti" thing that she will feel the urgent need to say it to me at extremely random times.  For instance, while pooping on the potty with the door closed, while I'm off in the living room and can hardly hear her.

MADELEINE: (yelling from the bathroom) MAMA!  (more yelling)
ME: (shouting back) Whaaaat?
MADELEINE: (more yelling)
ME: Huh?  WHAT MADELEINE??
MADELEINE: (more yelling)
JULIA: (from the dining room) She's saying "Christos anesti" Mama.
ME: (shouting back) ALITHOS ANESTI!

So, today I thought, wouldn't it be great to get her on video camera doing her attempt at Greek?  Not only is she super cute when she says it, but it would be neat for my Greek relatives to hear that she's picking up at least a smidgen of the language.

I pulled out the video camera this morning, and Madeleine decided to be super cooperative:



As you can hear at the end of the video, she asks me, "Mama, say 'Christon anesti' to me!"

So I turned the camera back on and tried again.  I deleted the video.  But it went like this:

ME: Madeleine, "Christos anesti!"
MADELEINE: Monkey!

I figured 3rd time's the charm, and managed to get a little bit of Greek in between the goofiness:



So.  Yeah.  Still not much help there.

But that's okay, because I had my turn to unintentionally fail to cooperate with Madeleine later in the morning, when she desperately wanted to paint my already-painted nails:

MADELEINE: Mama, I want to PAINT your nails.

ME: They're already painted, honey.

MADELEINE: Well Mama.  Just take off your SOCKS so I can paint your toenails.

ME: My toenails are already painted, too, honey.

MADELEINE: Mama.  Just get OVER it.

ME: Just get over what?

MADELEINE: Mama.  I want to paint your nails!

ME: Honey, they're already painted.

MADELEINE: Well Mama!  Just COOPERATE!

ME: I can't, honey.  I went the salon.  They're already painted.  Besides, painting nails is not for you to be doing.

MADELEINE: Well Mama.  I'm really GOOD at it.

I actually think she *would* be pretty good at it, given her ridiculous fine motor skills, but alas, we don't allow 3-year-olds to handle things like nail polish around our house.  Sorry, kiddo.

And finally, in the series known as "Madeleine Draws Super Creepy Pictures," I have a few new pieces of her artwork to debut today:

These are mice.  I'm afraid the one on the right is going to eat me.  Or suck my soul out.

This little girl (named Emily; what else?) looks way out of place with her cheery face and rosy cheeks, amidst this apocalyptic underworld of black death and destruction.

And, finally, the creepiest one of all:

I think I'm going to have nightmares about this.  And I don't even know what it is.

Christos anesti!