Do you know the difference between German and French fire-fighters? The German ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “tatütata”, as any German child will tell you. The French ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “pim-pom-pim-pom”, as any […]

A friend, mother of four, told me just the other day that “every day she may surprise you with something new”. And so she did. I was on the phone with my mother today, with the loudspeaker on so my girl would hear her granny, and when we’d finished my mother said a few words […]

I knew I’d forgotten some in my list yesterday. And now I’m wondering what counts as a word – does it count if she repeats after us? In which case she said “va” for “vache” (cow in French) today and “go-go-go” when we say it when we want to get going. But this one I’m […]

Over the Christmas holidays at her German granny’s, our little girl (18 months old as of yesterday) has perfected the art of saying “yes” and “no” with her head. We have made some educated guesses at the syllables that she’s been uttering in the past two weeks: “ga-ga” – (rubber) duck – from “quack-quack” (sound […]