The head wobble

While in India, we learned of the "head wobble," a gesture that has many meanings, mostly a positive response. For example, if you ask for something at the front desk of your hotel, such as, "Can you help me change money?" you'll get a head wobble, which can be as subtle as a slight nod to the right or left.

This beautiful child of ours has the same gesture, which she offers up when she likes something. It's really the funniest thing we've seen from her.

She obviously learned it from the adults she was around in the orphanage. It would be great if she kept this little piece of her Indian culture, but we suspect she won't, so we captured a fair amount of it on video last night during dinner (note to Vanessa: She liked the dal - and we really liked the curry chicken).

One other adorable little trait: When she wants a treat from me, she says in that sweet little voice, "Say please?" Apparently, she was exhorted to say "please" when she wanted something, so she's taken it to the extreme.

When she gets wound up (as she is at this very moment), she starts talking in Tamil, her native language. Wish we knew a bit, but I doubt it would help us decipher what she's telling us.

She's also quite wary of the cats, which surprises us. And she's afraid of stepping on the grass. Based on what we saw at the orphanage and in Chennai in general, it's highly likely she's never seen or stepped on grass before. She learned quickly enough that it's a lot softer to fall in the grass than on the cement.