Yesterday I took my now-almost-4-year-old daughter to the playground at the end of the street where I grew up and where my mom still lives. We’d been there before on a previous visit, it’s a nice little playground for younger kids, but this was the first time we went there and other kids (and moms) […]

When my daughter (now going on 4) starts talking, a missing word is not going to stop her. When I’m the person she’s talking to, she’ll chat away in German and simply slip in a few French words here and there. I’m trying to make out a patterm, and I’ve noticed a few words are […]

Both my daughter and her father have recently been opposed to me recording bedtime stories. But since I bought this book on the condition that I record Dad reading it, they were unable to refuse. In fact, they are reading it together. Click on the title to listen and enjoy! Ce livre se prête à […]

This week, my daughter came home from school and showed me a drawing she had made. I noticed she had drawn two suns side by side, and the inevitable comment escaped my lips. Today, the drawing was still lying in the living room when she saw it, picked it up and asked me: “Mama, comment […]

Earlier this week my 3½-year-old daughter threw a morning tantrum that almost caused us to miss school. So this morning, Daddy checked on her before we left: “T’as été sage?” (Were you good?) “Oui, papa.” She turns to me: “Mama, ich war doch lieb, oder?” (Mommy, I was good, wasn’t I?)

A few days after our skate at the City Hall skating rink’s children’s rink last Sunday, where gloves are compulsory, we again watched figure skating in the Olympics, a male skater’s short program. She watched a while, then asked. “Why doesn’t he wear gloves?”

Last Sunday afternoon, we went ice skating at the City Hall skate rink’s children’s rink: That evening at home, we watched the highlights of the day at the Olympics, figure skating among them. She watched wide-eyed, then said: “I can’t do that!”

Today, my daughter had a chocolate for dessert and afterwards, tried to put the ribbon back around the chocolate box. It’s a very tight ribbon, but yesterday she succeeded. Today, after quite some struggling, she declared: “Für die große Schule muss man schreiben, vorlesen und Schokolade essen, und dann wieder zumachen.” “At the big [elementary] […]

The other day my daughter melted into tears on the métro. The incident prompted me to ask the advice of a friend, mother of four and “second mom” to many more. I described to her similar situations at home where my daughter would not react to me asking her “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” […]

Today when Daddy picked up our daughter from school, she complained he hadn’t left the Christmas lights on at home. When they switched them on, she asked “How does Mommy say that?” Dad’s German is rudimentary (but improving), and he suggested “ausstellen” which she understood as “anstellen”, and she told him: “Non, ça c’est pour […]