‘In auto?’ she asks again, dragging her raincoat and a bunch of keys to the living room door.
She wants to go for a drive in the car (auto).
-‘Maybe later’.
‘Uit!’ (out!) she says with more urgency, clawing at the door trying to prize it open. ‘Deur stuk!’ she announces for a finish, before pottering off back into her own world, distracted by God only knows what.
-‘Yes, the deur is stuk’ (Door is broken)
Off she trots, busying herself with her ‘brush’, her ‘ball’, her ‘bug-eeee’ and all manner of other things, sometimes English, sometimes Dutch, peculiarly mostly beginning with B. All the usual one and two syllable words that any one and a half year old would use. Then out of nowhere she starts to sing. ‘Applebee, Applebee, Applebee’ repeating one of the many irritating tunes that regularly emanate from any one of numerous bits of bright coloured plastic dotted around the house these days.
With bedtime approaching she demands that she gets to brush her ‘deeesh’, before being put into her (sleeping) ‘bag!’. With a little coercion you might get a ‘night night’ out of her, or if you’re extra lucky, a ‘good night’.
Her ‘ted-dees’ need their ritual arranging before she finally gives in, rubbing her eyes and announcing it’s time for ‘slaapen’ (sleep).
A few mumbles escape as she works herself into her favourite position, before drifting off to have what I can only presume are truly multilingual dreams.
Trying to make my way down the hall while avoiding the creaky bits, I’m sure I hear her ask ‘In auto?’
15 comments:
I wonder which langauge she will swear in first?!
Does this mean you had a good camper trip all those 18000 km away? That she can't get enough? Welcome back...
Fun times! And I'm with Sheila, what language will she swear in first...
I kind of miss the language of a toddler.
You're confusing the poor child. It's not bad enough that her daddy looks like an outsider, but she has to learn how to speak from you, too? For shame.
Send her to Auntie Lala for real English learnin'.
I think it's cool that she will know two different languages.
It is great that she'll be bi-lingual.
Especially in Dutch. Such a useful language when she grows up. People are crying out for more Dutch speakers ...
I am really curious to know what accent she is going to have.
I remember the days of deciphering my daughter's babble for others. That same daughter recently babysat a 2 year old and said "I don't think I understood one word she said the whole time!"
HEE! HEE!
Can't wait to tell the other half... as I turn off my bedside light tonight...
"It's time for some slaapen" :D
Sweetness in any language. Yes.
Wonder what she will call the camper?
Deur is stuk is Door is broken? That confirms my theory that Dutch is not a real language but just English with a very heavy accent.
Next she'll be asking for the auto sleutels!!
@TheSheila - Oh DUtch, for sure, filthy mouths on them.
@Valery - Oh that's not even begun yet! I like to obsess in advance.
@Russ - Not in my tongue anyway!
@Hockeymandad - But you're married to an American teacher...
@Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] - QED...
@Tara R. - can butcher 2 languages you mean
@womb for improvement - Hhmmmm....
@Veronica Foale - Yorkshire probably thanks to Postman Pat
@Bonnie B. - Recod it and play it back to her, ask what she meant!
@steph - You make it sound quite unsavoury!
@Ms. Moon - Indeed, indeed!
@merinz - Auto, Auto, Auto! for sure.
@BloggerFather - Gloves = Hand Schonen, or Hand Shoes if translated literally.....
@Edith - Not. Gonna. Happen.
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