Yesterday, we were reading a book that had "der Schwimmreifen" (literally, swim tire, but imagine an inflatable swim ring) in it, which she told me reminded her of Onkel Alex. Several weeks ago, we took Onkel Alex's Fahrradreifen (bike tires) back home for him after Matt had repaired them. It took me a minute to figure out why she was thinking of Onkel Alex, but man, once I did, I thought she had a great memory!
Today, we're reading the same book and we saw "das Klebeband" (tape). I reminded her of rolling the tape down the driveway into the street and then crossing the street to get the tape and do it again. Then I asked Claire with whom she played this game. She told me "Tante" and was exactly right! They played this fun (and don't worry, it's safe, they looked both ways each time before crossing on our very quiet street - "Schau mal Rechts. Kommt da jemand? Nein. Schau mal Links. Kommt da jemand? Nein. Jetzt duerfen wir ueberqueren.") game a couple weeks ago when Tante visited us!
Here's what I found most impressive. She was sitting on the potty today and we were reading books while we were waiting for...something...to...happen. I would say the beginning of the two sentence or two part rhyme and leave the last rhyming word off to see if she could get it. She did so well!
"Draussen ist es kalt und grau. Drinnen gibt es gleich ______ ."
She said kao (Kakao=hot cocoa)!
"Wenn Emma laut zum Essen ruft, gibt es Rappelpamp mit ______."
She said Luf (Luft=air)!
"Wer sitzt lange auf dem Klo? Emma mit dem nackten ____."
She said Po (Po=bum)!
"Alle sitzen in der Runde quietschvergnuegt zur Abend______."
She said stunde (Abendstunde=evening hours, literally)!
"Emma will nach draussen gehen, denn da ist so viel zu ____."
Here she said guck, but it's suppose to be sehen. Both mean to look/see, but I'm thinking she didn't really know this well enough to interchange them here.
Now, I'm the mom and I'm suppose to be enamored with my daughter, and obviously we've read this book a lot. But, isn't that cool?!?
*Disclaimer: Sorry for all you English-only speakers! Many of my posts have to do with what Claire is saying in German, because that's what I hear from her, and that's what I'm most proud of because she's obviously growing up with virtually everyone else speaking English to her and I'm putting forth a lot of effort to pass on to her a language and culture that I love. It makes all my insecurities about my lack of certain language abilities, and raising her non-native bilingually, seem less when I see her doing so well and developing in German just like she is in English! Believe it or not, as confident as I seem in this language journey, it's actually just confidence that I have the DRIVE to do it and move forward. It's definitely not that I think I'm so great in German! On a lighter note, the rhymes really don't translate well in this book...well, rhymes and jokes don't really translate at all. You'll have to petition Matt for his SECOND post of the life of this blog if you want to hear about her English development. ;) Or, maybe, just maybe, I'll have to brag about her English someday too! :)
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