Mal a la langue

Annika stayed home from school today, "mal a la langue", is her story, "sore tongue". Now part of me worries that this is true, and I should not just assume she's faking it, but I do feel for her, knowing that she has gone through some major changes with this whole school thing: way more hours per week at school, twice as many kids who are all older than she and her former classmates...and all this on top of the fact that not a single kid or teacher in her class speaks any English besides "hello" and the words to English Frere Jacques. So, I was inclined to let her stay home for another 4 day weekend (yes! Monday is another holiday) and recuperate.

But the irony was not lost on me that the word for tongue in French is langue, which is the same word in French for language. So, I sheepishly went to explain about Annika's absence(feeling like it was a lame exuse) and the teacher looked surprised, "mal a la langue?" But she is very caring, so she asked Annika to stick it out for inspection, and when we saw nothing but a perfectly normal looking little "langue", the teacher kindly agreed to buy into our excuse, offering, "maybe she bit it in the night". (Peut-etre qu'elle a mordu la langue pendant la nuit?"). And I, grateful that she let us save face, agreed. Then as I was walking a relieved little girl out of the school, I thought that it was true in a way. When it came to la langue, Annika bit it.

But tomorrow is another day, and everyone needs a break sometimes, and hopefully she'll be back en forme to face la langue with her perfect langue by Monday, or, make that Tuesday.

Speaking of breaks, it's so nice that Emily is here. Well, she's a very high energy girl with lots on her mind (and we've had several deep conversations already to prove it) but it was nice that she was here to watch Annika so I can prepare for the Wheelers' arrival tonight. Think how hard it would be to drag her around the grocery stores with her sore tongue and all. Also, the girls are finishing off some laudry for me, so our guests will have something clean to sleep on tonight.

I'm able to write this because they are stuck in traffic coming from Paris. But they'll be here soon, and it's going to so fun to see them.