sending the cute-ometre through the roof

[velvetpage]

1) My little girl waves bye-bye when the toilet is flushed. She blows kisses to her bathwater as it drains. She kissed her rubber duckie and told it, "Cack cack cack," several times, in a very authoritative tone. Then she offered it up for me to kiss in turn.

2) Barely awake, she manoevered herself so she could stick her cute (clean) foot under my nose. I had to pretend it was stinky and say, "Pee-ewww" loudly, several times. I got the first laugh of the day for my efforts.

3) She walked over to her pile of books, pulled out her favourite and left the rest to tumble on the floor. Her favourite, at the moment, is the French version of Robert Munsch's Mmm . . . Cookies! She flipped through some pages, got to the part where the mother is gagging on the play-dough cookie, and said, "Gla gla gla gla gla," in rhythm, with exactly the same intonation that I use. Then she laughed uproariously, as she does when I read the book. She then held it out to me and said, "Pease?" I complied, naturally.

Just some stories to lend cheer to your morning. :)

Comments

[anidada.livejournal.com]

*falls over in delight* Oh, that's so wonderful! Eee!

Boy, that book was clearly a good purchasing decision... :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Definitely. I'm going to send my aunt, who lives in St. Kits, to that store to get her Christmas present. Robert Munsch! Yay, Robert Munsch!

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Not just Robert Munsch -- Robert Munsch in French! That's what's so totally cool. You can find Bob's books everywhere -- but I've never seen them in another language until now. Definitely tell your aunt to stock up. :D

I'd try speaking French to the bunny, but I think I'd just lead her astray. *chuckle*

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

What's the French Immersion situation like in your neighbourhood? It's the option designed for anglophone kids. What I'm doing with her is designed to produce a francophone child - or at least, one who's as much francophone as anglophone.

I called the local francophone daycare centre this morning. It's non-profit, $32.50 per day, which is par for the course in Hamilton. I want to send her there one day a week starting sometime in the fall, moving up to maybe two days per week sometime next year - purely for the French, because Oma is wonderful with her. It's nice to know it's within my budget.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Will they let you send her less than full-time? If so, that's yet another way in which Hamilton rocks and Toronto sucks... *sigh* There's no way we could send the bunster to daycare any less than full-time, it's just too oversubscribed. :P

We are, at the moment, between two primary schools -- one that's got a musical theatre program, and one that does French Immersion. It's going to be a tough call, as you can imagine... I've been toying with the idea of running my Gaelic tapes again, so that I can learn, and maybe she'll pick up some of it at the same time. It's a tad silly, I admit, but I think it would be a good brain exercise, at least. And I'm thinking of getting Italian tapes from the library (I took Italian night classes for a while), plus I've got a whack of tapes that my lovely Belgian French teacher made for our class at my previous job. Maybe it would just confuse things. Hmm.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth's main gains so far have been everyday words - animal names and sounds, shoes, socks, merci, etc. Try making up a picture book of things she's familiar with, with their names in one or more other languages. If she sees those things and uses the new language instead of English, praise her and repeat it. She'll get the English everywhere else; give her the Gaelic only on those items. Don't worry about confusing things. There are lots of countries where kids grow up speaking two or more languages as a matter of course. We're the exception, not the rule.

They will indeed allow her to go less than full-time, but I'd have to discuss with them how little or how much. I'm thinking one day a week for a few months, moving up to two days after she turns two. AFter all, sending her two days a week, financially, is like an extra day of daycare every week. That will add up, and I'll have to weigh the cost.

That said, I know how good we have it around here. I can't even begin to imagine how we'd manage in your situation.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Cute overload!! :D

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

So sweet!

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Between Elizabeth and my niece (Nicknamed Shriek *G*) I get manymany toocute stories. This is a good thing.