September 21, 2004

And then, they get you...

fpi_girl.jpg Kids. You think you know your kids and you know what's going on in their little heads. Not much, really, since they are so little. Attention span is short, too. So, no big surprises in general, right?

Wrong.

Two conversations from this morning.

Conversation number one:

[Alan and I are sitting on the couch, watching Elmo visiting the firehouse. I know. But I'm a single parent at the moment and you can say what you want, Elmo is great for picking up the morale of a parent who is up since 6 am and already dizzy from caffeine overdose. So we sit, and cuddle, and watch TV.]

Alan: Mama, geht's dir gut? [Mommy, are you all right?]
Me: Ja, Spatz, mir geht's gut. [Yes, love, I'm all right.] -- Kiss for reinforcement.
Alan, patting my belly: Und Baby, geht's auch gut? [And baby, is all right?]
Me, taken aback: Oh, Spatzl. Nein, das Baby ist fortgegangen. [Oh, love. No, the baby went away.]
Short pause.
Alan: Mama, bist du traurig? [Mommy, are you sad?]
Me: Nein, Schatz. Ich bin immer froh, wenn ich dich sehe. [No, love. I'm always happy when I see you.] More kisses.
Alan, smiling: Geht's besser? [You better?]
Me: Ja, viel besser. [Yes, much better.]
Alan: Gut. [Good.]

Kids. Sometimes, they take your breath away. We haven't been talking much about the baby around the kids, before and after. Nine months is such a long time and all. Alan had to learn not to jump on Mommy's belly -- which he loves -- but we didn't think that the explanation "there's a baby inside" would stick so much. Apparently, he is still thinking about it.

Conversation number two:

At the breakfast table. David is pointing up the stairs, turns to me and says "Dada!". Me: "No, dear. Daddy is in Rome, he has to work. He's not at home and he won't join us for breakfast." David, more insistent and rather indignant, pointing to the stairs: "DADA!". This translates as: I know he's here, this is not right, Daddy always comes down these stairs, it's breakfast time so he better get up, and pronto!

So we called Doug in his hotel in Rome and got him up. Pronto.

Posted by claudia at September 21, 2004 10:44 AM
Comments

Oh, Alan. Oh my.

Goodness, he's talking well. Maggie has made huge strides, and I'm sorta starting to have conversations with her, but not that complex. Greetings to him!

Posted by: Laura Gallagher at September 21, 2004 03:23 PM

Thank you! I didn't transcribe his pronunciation, though. I'm the one who understands him best.

I have to say he does speak well in the meantime, and my concerns regarding a speech delay were thoroughly unfounded. We discovered that immersion (vacation in the US, Germany, and nursery school) makes a lot of difference.

Kiss your little ones from me. Jamie is getting big, isn't he?

Claudia

Posted by: claudia at September 21, 2004 04:01 PM

I know what you mean about pronounciation, I'm now getting to interpret Maggie-ese for Karl.

Jamie's getting downright HUGE. I put up a new picture at http://www.kelthaven.org/baby this morning. Cruising briskly.

Posted by: Laura Gallagher at September 21, 2004 10:50 PM

Congradulations, Claudia.

Are you guys raising the kids bilingual or not?

I definately spoke German before I spoke English, and things got very exciting when I went to nursery school. Had a devil of a time explaining something about a matchbox car.

But, in any case, conversations are great fun. My youngest cousins are just learning to make setences. It's fun to watch, and interesting.

Good luck with the kids. And Hi, doug.

Cheers

L

Posted by: Luke at September 22, 2004 03:18 AM

Luke - the kids are being raised trilingually.

That's why I fretted for the longest time whether this was causing Alan's slow warming to language in general. However, it seems it has done him no harm. He's mixing languages, sometimes, but mostly sticks to talking German to me, English to Doug and his teachers/friends at school, Romanian to nanny and maid/Romanian friends at the park.

He's favorite word at the moment is "airport". I promised him we'd pick Daddy up. Now Daddy is already 20 hours late... (don't ask). This is getting ever more difficult to explain.

Laura, Jamie is adorable. You could make a fortune selling him as a baby model, you know! I love the picture in the Halloween outfit. Oh. So edible!! :-)

Posted by: claudia at September 22, 2004 05:12 PM

_tri_linguagal.

That's quite the tall order.

My parents fretted over me the same way; and apparently, I was somewhat worse at it. I spoke German or English with both parents and then would get confused when someone else didn't speak both; it led to quite a few amusing instances.

Other than that, I ended up having a great time with languages down the road because I usually think in German and English at almost the same time; though my German vocabulary doesn't include words for upper level chemistry, I breathed in French, Spanish, and Italian. Taking Arabic now is rather a bigger trick.

I think it'll help Alan that the languages fall into a face-vocabulary association.

Good luck extricating Doug from the airport.

Cheers

L

Posted by: Luke at September 23, 2004 03:36 AM