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 […]

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!”

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 […]

This morning, my daughter (3½) told me excitedly she was going out with Daddy. “Where are you going?” I asked. She ran to her father to ask, and I heard his reply: “Au magasin de bricolage et au manège.” My daughter related to me: “Magasin de bricolage und Karussell!” Shows that the unimportant stuff (home […]

Four years ago today, on New Year’s Eve, I was on the métro going home when I overheard a mother speaking English to her preteen/teenage children, who replied in French. I couldn’t help it, I approached her and asked about languages in her family. It turned out they were a British family living in Normandy. […]

These days, I often find myself running for a pen and paper. Any pen and (virtually) any paper will do because the main thing is to write down as quickly as possible what my daughter (3½) just said. Why? Because half a minute later I will only remember what she said, but not how she […]