Above: the boys on their first day of school (two months ago -- I know, I know. This post was actually begun on the 6th of September ( !! )). In the first picture, they are blocking our way out the front door. I chose the second picture, not because it was the best of the four, but because the two together show two sides of the boys' elfish-ness. & the word "elfish" is one that characterizes my boys perfectly...
This year, the boys are in the French-German bilingual section of their pre-school. At the parent-teacher meeting at the end of last year, the director and the teachers gave us lots of information about how things work, etcetera, including this mini-warning: "DO NOT expect your kids to come home spouting German right off the bat. Some kids won't speak a word of German in front of their parents for several years, even. There is no reason to be worried about their progress until a teacher has a word with (the parents) about it..." Since our boys never told us any more than that they'd "eated," "played" and "painted" at school last year, we weren't expecting anything like instant results. So you can imagine our shock when, at dinner after the third day of school, THIS conversation took place:
Papa: So, guys, what did you do at school today?
Leo: Umm... I painted!
Papa: What did you paint?
Leo: Monsters!
Tomi: Yeah, me too! An' a rabbit!
Papa: Did you learn any German today? (He looked across the table at Leo and said) For instance, "Ich heiße Leo?"
Leo: ...
Tomi: Ich heiße Tomi!
Mom & Papa : (Exchange shocked expressions)
A couple of evenings later, again at table, having been asked a similar question, Tomi smiled, looked sweetly over at us, and said, "Ich bin eine Mädchen!" We laughed and laughed and asked if he didn't mean 'ein Junge,' to which he replied, "Non, eine Mädchen!" And then the boys began laughing uncontrollably, yelling, "Mädchen, Mädchen! Eine Mädchen!" and so on...
