Namaste

Recently Julia has been going around saying what sounded like "Mama stay," with the emphasis on the second "ma" in that word.  At some point I asked her what she was saying, and she said "Ma MA stay!  It's from doing yoga!"

AH!  Okay.  So I told her no, it's Namaste - with an "N."  So she said that a few times for practice and henceforth has been saying it pretty well correctly.

Just a few minutes ago I was on the computer in one room and Bill was in the other room.  I called to Julia to tell Daddy what she says when she does yoga.  She came in and whispered that she couldn't remember, so I whispered "namaste" to her and she grinned and ran out of the computer room and into the living room, shouting "Namaste" over and over.

Bill had no idea what she was saying, even when she said it slower and quieter, so I yelled in from the other room, where I was busy looking at my stats or looking up the hours for the local DMV (I know I was doing either one or the other at that moment)

"She's saying NAMASTE!"

And Bill said "What?"

"NA MA STE - I THINK IT MEANS PEACE - IT'S SOMETHING YOU SAY WHEN YOU'RE DOING YOGURT!"

And then I laughed and laughed uncontrollably for quite a while.  I am clearly no longer able to think or say or do two things at once with any degree of success.

Update:  Or maybe not an update per se...more like a correction.  I just looked up "namaste" and it actually translates roughly as "I bow to you" or "The light within me honors the light within you."  Either way, it is generally not accompanied by yogurt, either plain or with fruit.