Kids and lambs
Apr. 6th, 2016 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielAs has become my wont, I've neglected my annoying mother blogger habits terribly. Julian is now in a very exciting stage of language acquisition (two-word phrases and a rapidly expanding proto-vocabulary) so I should be taking notes all the time, but the sad truth is - I don't, neither online nor offline.
Still, I'll try to sum up.
As I said, Julian's vocabulary is growing rapidly - he'll come up with new words every other day and surprise us all by suddenly naming things that were just generally called "da!" ("there") a few hours ago. He seems to be immensely satisfied that he can (sometimes) communicate succesfully; when we understand what he's trying to tell us, he'll shout "Ja!" ("yes") and bounce on the balls of his feet very empathically.
A lot of words, quite adorably, currently end in -ie, making them sound all sweetie and cutie: For example, "soppie" (Socke, sock), "jappie" (Jacke, jacket), "apsi" (Apfel, apple), "pitzie" (Pilz, mushroom, as well as pizza and pretzel), "tassie" (Tasse, cup), "nunie" (Nudeln, noodles), "matie" (tomato), "saufie" (Schaufel, shovel or Schaukel, swing), "nitie" (Knete, playdough) and "wassie" (Wasser, water). "Auch" (too) has become a very important word, as have "mit" (with = along with), "los" (let's go) and "weia" (weiter, go on).
He has come up with names for more than just Mama and Papa, especially "Ama" and "Apa" (Oma and Opa, i.e., grandma and grandpa, but also used for other grown-ups), "Fesie" (Felix), "Bitie" (Ingrid, apparently, who is also "Ama"), "Dursie" (my mother, Ursula, who is also "Ama"), "Mack" (Marc, Jörg's brother). So far, he doesn't consistently use one name for himself, although I think he means himself when saying either "Ujie" or "Mimi". But "Ujie" could also be my father (Ulrich = Uli). I called myself Mimi when I was small and it remained my childhood nickname, so that would be doubly adorable!
The red-haired doll both children love to play with is called "Maitie" while the other doll, Curry (or Carisa, as Felix has more prettily named her), is "Bebie". "Bebie" can also be any other child (baby). Mr. Darcy is "Dathie", but 'náro is just "Mow!"
In fact, most animals are "Mow!", unless they're "uff" (woof), "baaak" (quack), "pie" (peep) or "maah" (baa).
Favourite foods have a name: Aside from Apsi, Noonie, Matie and Pitzie, Julian is very fond of "nanie" (banana), "saf" (Saft, juice), "tie" (tea), "bok" (Brot, bread, as well as Prost, cheers), "Mais" (corn) and "yogga" (Yoghurt).
Recently, "bau" (build) has acquired the additional meaning of blau (blue). However, red or green often also end up being called "bau". The only other colour Julian consistently identifies is "gebb" (gelb, yellow).
"Auf" (up, on, open) is still an all-purpose preposition, and can also mean "light" (being switched either on or off) and window or door (being open or closed). However, closing a door or pulling the curtains is "zack" (wham or whoosh).
Cars and other things with wheels - "brrrr", "too-too" (choo-choo), "hup-hup" (honk-honk), "tüta" (Tatütata is the general onomatopoeic word for "ambulance siren" in German) - remain his main field of interest - on pictures as well as in playing. He's a very proficient bobby car driver - actually, Felix learned how to properly ride his bobby car from Julian, not the other way round! He also immediately understood how to use the balance bike Ingrid got him for Christmas, even though it's too tall for him. People already say that he'll need to join a junior racing team. :/
That said, he now also loves "buch" (book). He points at things he wants you to name, names everything he can say himself, and cheerfully tells each page "ba-bai" before turning it over.
When he wants to cross the road, he stops and says "hinks, echt, hinks" (links, rechts, links = left, right, left). He doesn't actually turn his head the right way, nor does he genuinely check for traffic, but he knows that it's something adults and big brothers do!
Because Felix so frequently speaks English, Julian has picked up some of that: He counts "fai, sis, sebbie, ey" (five, six, seven, eight) when going up or down the stairs (which he does, quite safely, on his own), he excitedly shouts "oh no!" and "oh yes", and when he has built something, it's a "taua" (tower). He says "look!" when he wants us to see something he's doing. Oh, and then there's "ba-bai"! Julian says "ba-bai" (bye-bye) - and waves in the most adorable manner. (Admittedly, "bye-bye" is a lot easier to pronounce than either "tschüs" or "auf Wiedersehen"!)
When he's annoyed, either for real or in play, he'll say "boah, [name]!" in a very reproachful tone (boah, Mama! boah, Fesie! boah, Maitie!). When he's really annoyed, he'll clench his eyes shut and shout "Weg!" (away!).
All fricatives are pronounced with the most adorable Fëanorian accent (i.e., a gentle lisp).
He's as stubborn ashis mother father brother all of the above.
He'll be two at the end of the month! Good grief!
Felix is doing well. He appears to have recovered from the kindergarten experience. It was a noticeable development (including weird things, like suddenly being able to eat rice with sauce again - it sounds silly, but it really seems to be linked to the trouble in kindergarten, like he was lacking the "spoons" (...) to deal with mixed flavours in top of that.), a noticeable relaxation and change in behaviour (for the better!), so I am more certain than ever that it really was those teachers that caused a lot of the difficulties. It was definitely right to pull him out. He's got a place in the Montessori kindergarten in my birth town from August onwards. At the moment, we get to go there once a month to introduce him to the place, the kids etc. - it'll become more frequent as August draws closer. He seems to see it as some kind of test, so he really tries to show off while he's there and comes out completely exhausted after three hours. During these three hours, however, he completely wowed the teachers at the Montessori place. Even they couldn't believe that he's only four-going-on-five.
I know it sounds like I'm bragging but I'm honestly not. It's not fun when your kid intellectually behaves like he's in second or third grade, but socially and emotionally behaves like the four year old that he is. The kindergarten teachers are familiar with the problem and sympathetic (as well as saying that it's "typical for these bright kids"), but most other people are utterly unwilling to accept "fucking fours" behaviour from a boy whose favourite toys include MS Word and Excel, who can read and write in two languages (using correct orthography in both cases) and who constructs rather complex sentences (again, in two languages). Le sigh. I understand the difficulty; I find it difficult myself! But it's something that just has to be accepted, rather than questioned again and again.
But he is no longer as fragile as he was a month ago, and that shows not only in his general behaviour, but also in an increased willingness to compromise and cooperate.
His current obsession is streetlights. He has named several different forms of them and he knows exactly where every single on of them stands, both around our usual haunts and in places that he's only ever seen once. He also draws lots of pictures of streetlights, including details like the anchoring cables or the exact shape of the lampposts. The most important thing is colouring in the light, of course! He spends a lot of time thinking about which colour the light is and trying to reproduce that colour.
(So we've got an emotionally troubled, stubborn, rather bright child with a propensity for language and a fascination with artificial light. I SEE NO DANGER IN THAT WHATSOEVER.)
Unfortunately, he has inherited his father's teeth, so we had to pay two visits to the dentist in the past weeks to get his molars fixed. Being his sensitive self, the noise and sensation of the drill and suction thingy were probably far worse than the toothache, but at least it's over now. :(
And that's that! No, of course there's more to tell, but I don't have the time to write it all up now. Maybe later, maybe never, as usual. Meanwhile, have a picture of cute baby animals. In fact, have two!
This kid was born last Saturday on the sheep paddock across the road. It's visited our garden a couple of times since, because it's small enough (and curious enough) to squeeze through the fence...
The lambs standing up are triplets! To everyone's surprise, they were born without complications and without humaninterference help, swiftly and quietly in the night. The ewe is feeding all of them, too, which apparently is always a gamble even with twins, let alone triplets. I didn't even know that was possible. I'm in awe of that ewe, pun fully intended, haha.
The lamb that's lying down was born a day after the kid. It's not really recogniseable in the pic, but it's taller and sturdier than the triplets - no wonder! But they're SO ADORBSLE! The whole neighbourhood is in love.
And that really is that. Ba-bai!
Still, I'll try to sum up.
As I said, Julian's vocabulary is growing rapidly - he'll come up with new words every other day and surprise us all by suddenly naming things that were just generally called "da!" ("there") a few hours ago. He seems to be immensely satisfied that he can (sometimes) communicate succesfully; when we understand what he's trying to tell us, he'll shout "Ja!" ("yes") and bounce on the balls of his feet very empathically.
A lot of words, quite adorably, currently end in -ie, making them sound all sweetie and cutie: For example, "soppie" (Socke, sock), "jappie" (Jacke, jacket), "apsi" (Apfel, apple), "pitzie" (Pilz, mushroom, as well as pizza and pretzel), "tassie" (Tasse, cup), "nunie" (Nudeln, noodles), "matie" (tomato), "saufie" (Schaufel, shovel or Schaukel, swing), "nitie" (Knete, playdough) and "wassie" (Wasser, water). "Auch" (too) has become a very important word, as have "mit" (with = along with), "los" (let's go) and "weia" (weiter, go on).
He has come up with names for more than just Mama and Papa, especially "Ama" and "Apa" (Oma and Opa, i.e., grandma and grandpa, but also used for other grown-ups), "Fesie" (Felix), "Bitie" (Ingrid, apparently, who is also "Ama"), "Dursie" (my mother, Ursula, who is also "Ama"), "Mack" (Marc, Jörg's brother). So far, he doesn't consistently use one name for himself, although I think he means himself when saying either "Ujie" or "Mimi". But "Ujie" could also be my father (Ulrich = Uli). I called myself Mimi when I was small and it remained my childhood nickname, so that would be doubly adorable!
The red-haired doll both children love to play with is called "Maitie" while the other doll, Curry (or Carisa, as Felix has more prettily named her), is "Bebie". "Bebie" can also be any other child (baby). Mr. Darcy is "Dathie", but 'náro is just "Mow!"
In fact, most animals are "Mow!", unless they're "uff" (woof), "baaak" (quack), "pie" (peep) or "maah" (baa).
Favourite foods have a name: Aside from Apsi, Noonie, Matie and Pitzie, Julian is very fond of "nanie" (banana), "saf" (Saft, juice), "tie" (tea), "bok" (Brot, bread, as well as Prost, cheers), "Mais" (corn) and "yogga" (Yoghurt).
Recently, "bau" (build) has acquired the additional meaning of blau (blue). However, red or green often also end up being called "bau". The only other colour Julian consistently identifies is "gebb" (gelb, yellow).
"Auf" (up, on, open) is still an all-purpose preposition, and can also mean "light" (being switched either on or off) and window or door (being open or closed). However, closing a door or pulling the curtains is "zack" (wham or whoosh).
Cars and other things with wheels - "brrrr", "too-too" (choo-choo), "hup-hup" (honk-honk), "tüta" (Tatütata is the general onomatopoeic word for "ambulance siren" in German) - remain his main field of interest - on pictures as well as in playing. He's a very proficient bobby car driver - actually, Felix learned how to properly ride his bobby car from Julian, not the other way round! He also immediately understood how to use the balance bike Ingrid got him for Christmas, even though it's too tall for him. People already say that he'll need to join a junior racing team. :/
That said, he now also loves "buch" (book). He points at things he wants you to name, names everything he can say himself, and cheerfully tells each page "ba-bai" before turning it over.
When he wants to cross the road, he stops and says "hinks, echt, hinks" (links, rechts, links = left, right, left). He doesn't actually turn his head the right way, nor does he genuinely check for traffic, but he knows that it's something adults and big brothers do!
Because Felix so frequently speaks English, Julian has picked up some of that: He counts "fai, sis, sebbie, ey" (five, six, seven, eight) when going up or down the stairs (which he does, quite safely, on his own), he excitedly shouts "oh no!" and "oh yes", and when he has built something, it's a "taua" (tower). He says "look!" when he wants us to see something he's doing. Oh, and then there's "ba-bai"! Julian says "ba-bai" (bye-bye) - and waves in the most adorable manner. (Admittedly, "bye-bye" is a lot easier to pronounce than either "tschüs" or "auf Wiedersehen"!)
When he's annoyed, either for real or in play, he'll say "boah, [name]!" in a very reproachful tone (boah, Mama! boah, Fesie! boah, Maitie!). When he's really annoyed, he'll clench his eyes shut and shout "Weg!" (away!).
All fricatives are pronounced with the most adorable Fëanorian accent (i.e., a gentle lisp).
He's as stubborn as
He'll be two at the end of the month! Good grief!
Felix is doing well. He appears to have recovered from the kindergarten experience. It was a noticeable development (including weird things, like suddenly being able to eat rice with sauce again - it sounds silly, but it really seems to be linked to the trouble in kindergarten, like he was lacking the "spoons" (...) to deal with mixed flavours in top of that.), a noticeable relaxation and change in behaviour (for the better!), so I am more certain than ever that it really was those teachers that caused a lot of the difficulties. It was definitely right to pull him out. He's got a place in the Montessori kindergarten in my birth town from August onwards. At the moment, we get to go there once a month to introduce him to the place, the kids etc. - it'll become more frequent as August draws closer. He seems to see it as some kind of test, so he really tries to show off while he's there and comes out completely exhausted after three hours. During these three hours, however, he completely wowed the teachers at the Montessori place. Even they couldn't believe that he's only four-going-on-five.
I know it sounds like I'm bragging but I'm honestly not. It's not fun when your kid intellectually behaves like he's in second or third grade, but socially and emotionally behaves like the four year old that he is. The kindergarten teachers are familiar with the problem and sympathetic (as well as saying that it's "typical for these bright kids"), but most other people are utterly unwilling to accept "fucking fours" behaviour from a boy whose favourite toys include MS Word and Excel, who can read and write in two languages (using correct orthography in both cases) and who constructs rather complex sentences (again, in two languages). Le sigh. I understand the difficulty; I find it difficult myself! But it's something that just has to be accepted, rather than questioned again and again.
But he is no longer as fragile as he was a month ago, and that shows not only in his general behaviour, but also in an increased willingness to compromise and cooperate.
His current obsession is streetlights. He has named several different forms of them and he knows exactly where every single on of them stands, both around our usual haunts and in places that he's only ever seen once. He also draws lots of pictures of streetlights, including details like the anchoring cables or the exact shape of the lampposts. The most important thing is colouring in the light, of course! He spends a lot of time thinking about which colour the light is and trying to reproduce that colour.
(So we've got an emotionally troubled, stubborn, rather bright child with a propensity for language and a fascination with artificial light. I SEE NO DANGER IN THAT WHATSOEVER.)
Unfortunately, he has inherited his father's teeth, so we had to pay two visits to the dentist in the past weeks to get his molars fixed. Being his sensitive self, the noise and sensation of the drill and suction thingy were probably far worse than the toothache, but at least it's over now. :(
And that's that! No, of course there's more to tell, but I don't have the time to write it all up now. Maybe later, maybe never, as usual. Meanwhile, have a picture of cute baby animals. In fact, have two!
This kid was born last Saturday on the sheep paddock across the road. It's visited our garden a couple of times since, because it's small enough (and curious enough) to squeeze through the fence...
The lambs standing up are triplets! To everyone's surprise, they were born without complications and without human
The lamb that's lying down was born a day after the kid. It's not really recogniseable in the pic, but it's taller and sturdier than the triplets - no wonder! But they're SO ADORBSLE! The whole neighbourhood is in love.
And that really is that. Ba-bai!
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no subject
Date: 2016-04-06 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:43 pm (UTC)I have sometimes wished that there were some way I could rent the other part of your house from you. I'm not tidy, but I am quiet, and I pay the rent on time... and I'm a native speaker who could help your sons with their English.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:48 pm (UTC)Yo, I'm not tidy either. XD
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-10 07:14 pm (UTC)I keep all fingers crossed for Felix, and that he'll get the support he needs at the Montessori place. It sounds like a much better fit for an unusually gifted kid!
In terms of creatures I can offer a sheep story too! My mother's herd of sheep currently numbers a round dozen, with at least one more lamb still on the way. Last week she got triplets. No problems at all, and one the Syrian brothers she basically "adopted" is a vet, so he was super helpful with the aftercare. (Not just a vet, their family used to have a solid herd of sheep in Syria, too.)
Sheep and goats are simply awesome (also tasty).
no subject
Date: 2016-04-12 12:04 pm (UTC)So yeah, maybe things will get better.
Aww, more triplets! So it seems to be more common than I thought (I never heard about it until last week!). Awesome that she had such competent help on hand, too!
They are! Or rather, they can be. Sheep is rather tricky to cook well so it doesn't taste of wool grease. :P
no subject
Date: 2016-04-20 11:57 am (UTC)And: we have a kid in training who is 9 years old, but looks like 12. She's just that big. No uncommon development elsewhere, just some problems to get her long limbs coordinated maybe. But because everyone thinks she is 3 years older, everyone also believes that she's mentally retarded. The other kids don't really talk to her because she is somehow strange for them. The younger ones think she is older and the older ones think she is stupid. She's such a lovely person and I REALLY REALLY like her a lot, but it will be a lot of work to get her integrated into the group. Especially because she's of course a little bit shy when approaching others - experienced to much rejections, I guess.
They are all somehow special. Some in the one way and some in the other. Some more, some less. But each of them is special. And it's not about making them all be the same, but about supporting them in their strengths and making them love themselves because of them. And also about helping them in their weaknesses to get so some sort of "normal" level so that they can get along with others and cope with life.
This one girl is the only one that's admitted to the high jump competition next week. And all the others have to stay at home. Not because she's such a grande high jumper - beware! But because she's tall enough to just step over the bar where others have to really jump very high. And because she knows no fears in sports. And that's a great quality that she can really be proud of.