We continue to be amazed by the french LissaLou is picking up and coming out with. She sat and had a conversation in french with me and her cousin Steeven at lunchtime today, and okay so there is still a lot of work to be done in grammar and sentence construction, but you can get what she is saying! She sings lots of songs from school, such as "Meunier tu dors, ton moulin va trop vite" and a really cute one that says "les oiseaux vont a l'ecole pour apprendre voler tres haut," then a few other animals and finally "les enfants vont a l'ecole pour apprendre devenir grands". Or something. It has lovely hand actions though! She is obviously picking up lots of what is going on around her and sometimes we get a few random comments the teacher has made that day. Plus some less random ones. Today she told me that it was the last day of September, which not only impressed me as I hadn't realised it, but reminded me that it was but a fortnight to my birthday! Hurrah! But I digress. She also has developed her drawing skills to adding on eyelashes and other small details. I wish I could show you the card she did for her friend Lea's birthday yesterday, with Lea's blond hair and her own brown curls perfectly represented!
It is easy to get caught up in the chaos and destruction CassCass causes, so I need to reflect more on the positive changes in her! Her french is also coming on. Both of them talk to themselves in that language but CassCass definitely has a more authentic accent and seems more at ease with it than LissaLou. CassCass is such a little girl now, so much taller, very skinny and constantly running around the place. Usually naked, much to the in-laws' horror. She can count objects (up to 8 at the last try) and loves watching me write her name and spell out the letters. She will sit down with a pen and pretend to write too and occasionally "read" a story to herself like her sister does. It is quite amusing seeing all the things she does or says that she has picked up from her sister. Tatie Evie will be pleased - yesterday she came and asked me to sing Tatie's Deep Down song, and then requested the entire family (Mummy/Papa/LissaLou/Grandma/Tatie I love you deep down in my heart etc) whilst she bounced up and down on the bed. She still loves playing with her happyland and thomas toys. Ah, and a compliment for her excellent speech - a friend today said she would like to learn English from CassCass; she speaks so clearly she understands all she says!
Finally my little hearthrob! Baby JoJo is now sitting so well! He really can go quite a while before he goes kerplunk, so I occasionally leave him propped up with plenty of cushions. No fun on these hard tiles otherwise. He also spends a lot longer on his tummy just looking at things. The other day it was Papy, to the latter's delight! When he is on his tummy he will try and pull himself up like he is doing push ups. Funnily enough, he can roll from his back to his front but still not vice versa. He has the cutest laugh, and if you tickle him under his neck or play games with him there is a good chance you will hear it bellowing out.
Apparently my french isn't doing too badly either (despite all those many people who don't seem to understand what I so clearly say, grr!) Another friend today told me I spoke really well with a noble accent! The mind boggles! But that boosted my rather low confidence in that area I must say! I therefore shared my attempts to pick up the Guadeloupean accent - " a plus tar-oh, je veux boir-oh" and had the table in fits of laughter. Maybe I had better keep working on it!
3 comments:
This blog post brought to me a major 'awwwwwwwwww' moment!
It doesn't seem long since you said Cass was not trying to speak French... I suppose her accent is more authentic because she didn't have so much English either and so her tongue was free to pick up the sounds around her more easily. But poor you - what do your in-laws expect of you when they complain you speak unclearly on the one hand and comment on your noble accent on the other?!
Re learning English from Cass reminds me of a German who said when he heard me speak German he knew how to speak English!
I wonder if anyone will complain about YOUR long paragraphs like they did mine - which were still shorter than yours. Not that I find it difficult to read yours, but there you are - no satisfying some people.
Yes, I didn't think CassCass would ever speak french and then it all suddenly started pouring out, which is lovely! I think you are right about the accent. No one complains that I speak unclearly, they just look at me blankly (which amounts to the same thing really!) and the noble accent comment came from a kind friend! It is so true about hearing someone's accent even when they speak a foreign language - when my american friends speak french i am sure i can hear english! Tee hee, here is another long paragraph! Maybe that's why I am not seeing any comments from Malc these days...?! I am too used to using photos to break up the paragraphs!
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