Steel Trap Mind

If Claire's anything like her Omi and Grandma Diekema, she'll have a steel trap mind. My mom can remember birthdays and dates like it's none of her business! Lately, Claire has really been showing us how much she remembers of what's happening around her.

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! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy for my girl!

Claire and I were driving earlier this week and were having a conversation about Daddy, considering we hadn't seen him in a few days and were missing him. Not even thinking Father's Day was coming up, I was telling her how great of a Daddy she has because he's so fun, such a hard worker, and almost always in a good mood. She agreed with me by replying "mein Daddy," (my Daddy) which I think is so sweet because with that one little word before his name, she's claiming him as her own! :) He really is the best and believe me, he's all hers!

As Promised...

"I've got this."

"Claire, we've got to use two hands. Take it back nice and easy now."

"Keep your eye on the ball and connect."

"And follow through. Look at that shot!"

Onkel Alex got Claire a set of golf clubs for Christmas. She likes to hit the ball around on her own, but he came down in January for her first set of lessons. Alex isn't a pro, but he's pretty good. He will be able to teach her a lot for a while, then she'll start whipping his butt on the course! Watch out Alex! ;)

Prayer

About two weeks ago, we had finished praying before bed and Claire just kept on going. She must have said all the names that she could think of. In fact, it went something like this (on February 22nd - I recorded it).

Ooke (Luke)

Omi

Opa

Omi

Opa

ach (Zach)

Ellie

Omi

Opa

Dada

Flugzeug (As we heard an airplane fly overhead.)

Flugzeug

Flugzeug

Here are some others, not listed above, that she talks about without prompting.

Mama

Claire

Grandma

Grandpa

Matt

Sage

Ross (though other men sometimes get called Ross...for example, Mark, across the street, was Ross yesterday)

Brian (same story)

Amber ("Anner")

Anna

Theresa ("Teesa")

Norah ("Noah")

Cory (neighbor boy)

She can also name lots of other people with reminders and all the kids at daycare. In fact, Lisa said that one day last month she was going around and saying "Hi xxx" accurately to everyone there! Amazing girl! :)

For the Record...

Claire is such a talker! The past week or so, she answers many of our questions with "ja" or as Matt says, "yea." We'll also get a "nein" here and there. For example, yesterday when I asked her if we should give her pancake to Speedy, the neighbor dog, because he clearly wanted to eat it. :)

Here is the list of newer words (within the last month or two) that I can think of right now of what she says on her own without prompting. Many are nouns, but she's also got a few verbs in there and even an adjective or two! These are in no particular order, but I'm just recording them as they come to me. Also, most of the words I'm recording are in German, but I'm sure she has an English arsonry as well. However, I think she already knows that she uses German with me, so that's usually what I hear unless she doesn't have a German equivalent. (Language researchers, feel free to disagree with me on this one. These are just my observations.) Disclaimer: This is probably not as interesting for you unless you're madly in love with Claire like us (Omi, Grandma, Opa, Grandpa?) but I want to do this for our own records, especially because I love language development!

Tuer (door)

auf (up)

aus (off)

besser (better)

Duerst (thirst)

Wasser (water)

Milch (milk)

Hunger (Let me guess, you can get this one? 35% of words are cognates in German & English...it may sound a little different, but it's very close!)

Essen (eat)

schreien (scream - Claire likes to scream!)

gehen (go)
Bauch (stomach)
Arme (Got it?)
Nase (nose)
Feet (Yes, that's already English.)

Beine (legs)
Mund (mouth - Don't confuse this with moon!)
Augen (eyes)
Ohren (ears)

purse/Tasche

Pancake

schaukeln (swing/rock - We saw the pendulum of a clock the other day and she noticed it was schaukeling! Good job Schneckele...you're generalizing! :))

dirty

Haende (hands)

waschen (wash)

Bus

Auto

Ball

Buch (book)

Vogel/bird

draussen (outside)

aus (out)

rein (in)

Haus/house

Decke (blanket)

Nudeln (noodles)

kochen (cook)

Gabel (fork)

Loeffel (spoon)

Messer (knife)

Amen

Staubsauger (vacuum cleaner)

Mond (moon)

Sterne (stars)

suchen (to look for something)

finden (find)

steigen (climb)

Ni-Night

yellow (for any color!)

window

Maus (mouse)

Baum (tree)

"Bit du?" (Bist du? - (Where) are you?)

Buddy (Opas Hund - dog)

Now, if you got through that list and you're still reading, congratulations! I know I don't have all of them, but this paints a good picture at least.

And for reading so long, you now get a cute story. Lately Claire talks a lot about "Mond, Opa, Vogel" (seeing the moon with Opa and seeing a bird and if prompted, also a squirrel - Eichhoerchen). Last week we were coming home and I pulled into the garage only to hear Claire say "baum" (tree). I told her that there were a lot of trees outside. She told me "see"..."baum"..."maus." I was putting two and two together and realized she saw a 'mouse' in the tree while looking out the back window. It was actually a squirrel, but Eichhoernchen is a really tough word to say. She understands it, but can't say it. So anyway I asked her if she saw a squirrel in the tree and she was so excited I had figured out what she was trying to tell me. I was also just in awe because I'm thinking, man, my 19 month year old just communicated to me that she saw a squirrel in the tree, and that's a pretty big step, especially without any gestures! Oh the wonders of development! I love her! :)

Maybe someday I'll get around to posting some pictures on here. That would mean we have to start taking them...hmmm, better get to it!

Friends

Claire continues to amaze me at what all she understands and words she picks up on. This week, after coming home from Lisa's, I asked her "Was hast du heute gemacht? Was hast du mit deinen Freunden gemacht?" (What did you do today? What did you do with your friends?) To this she replied "Anna, Sage." Now it's clear she didn't know exactly what I was asking and that I was referring to her daycare friends (Sage is with her all day, but Anna goes to a different school.), but the fact of the matter is she knew I was asking about her friends and she knows that her friends are Anna and Sage. Then again, yesterday, I said something or other about her "Freunden" and she told me their names once more. Technically, Anna and Sage are her Freundinnen, but we'll let the gender changes slide at this age. :) She also still points to the doors where we displayed our friends' Christmas cards and looks for Anna, Sage, and others. Maybe we should have left them up for several months. :)

Leaps and Bounds

I've been meaning to post this for about 4 weeks. You can see how well I've followed through! ;) I have been so impressed by the language development of my 16/17 month old. I love this stage. Language is so interesting to me, and not just foreign language, but all of it!

"Bist du muede? Willst du ins Bett gehen?" (Are you tired? Do you want to go to bed?) I asked her. I got the MOST ardent head shake ever! I could hardly keep from laughing. It was so fun to have her answer my questions and to know she understood exactly what I was asking!

Fast forward 4 weeks...we've gone from fervent head shakes to this...

We can ask her ANY question, and the answer will almost certainly be "nein" or "nein, nein" if she really means it! Now, sometimes she knows exactly what we're asking. But other times, she clearly doesn't. I would say that she at least knows it's a question, but today she may have proved me wrong. I'm not sure. We were on a lengthy car ride home from Lisa's (daycare) which was taking longer than usual because of traffic. I knew she was getting impatient and told her "Du bist so ein braves Maedel Claire, weil du so geduldig bist." (You're being such a good girl Claire, because you're being so patient.) At this point, I'm just trying to talk to her to keep her mind off of us being in the car for too long. To this, she replies "nein, nein." So one of two options - 1. she understood I was calling her patient and replied that she's not really that patient, more like on edge, or 2. that she had no clue what I was saying. At first I was thinking 2. for sure, but then I thought of other times. If we're driving and I ask her if she wants to sing or if I start singing a song she doesn't want me to sing, she'll tell me "nein." Then, if I ignore her 'no' and keep singing, she'll adamantly say "Mama...Mama....Mama!" until I stop. So, she doesn't just tell me no when she is answering a question, but also when she does not like what I am doing. :)

A couple times a day, by the way, we do get a 'yes' (which is not a word she actually says yet, but just nods). We also get a lot of "peas" (combined with sign language) for please and just recently "bitte" for please. And even with all those no-s, I'm still having such a blast with my girl at this stage in her development! :) Matt and I are both so proud of her and pretty much think she's really smart (remember, we're her parents)! ;)