What do you do when there is no word to express what you want to say? And when on top of that you are not quite four years old? My daughter takes advantage of her dual vocabulary and borrows from the other language when she doesn’t know a word. She shows off her new long […]

Saturday morning, Daddy and my little girl let me sleep in. As they had breakfast together, my daughter asked for “un Glas”. Daddy refused: “No ice cream for breakfast!” It turned out she didn’t want “une glace” (an ice cream) but “ein Glas” (a glass, which in French would have been un verre). Maybe if […]

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 […]

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?)

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 […]

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 […]

In case there has been a doubt about my daughter’s nationality, and based on these words of wisdom, here is final proof: