Over the last couple of months, I have been introducing basic conversational German to the girls. They are exceptional auditory learners and I think Caelan speaks some German better than English. Most of the days are spent alternating between the two languages, learning how to say things in German that they really like to say in English like "What's your name?" (Wie heißt du?) or "How old are you?" (Wie alt bist du?). The corresponding answers are "Ich heiße Evelynn (or Caelan)" and "Ich bin vier (four for Evelynn) or Ich bin zwei (two for Caelan)". Two very important questions to them and ones they ask frequently. To round out this conversational German, they are learning "Hello, how are you" (Hallo, wie geht's?) and "Goodbye" (Tschüs).
They are catching on very quickly, but I realized yesterday that I have now armed them with another language with which to have arguments. An almost knock-down-drag-out fight ensued over the aforementioned phrases. Both the girls were happily riding around the living room on their little cars until Evelynn 'pulled over' to take a call on her snappy Cinderella cell phone. Caelan did not appreciate Evelynn's thoughtfulness in stopping to take the call and rear ended her (repeatedly). Evelynn tried to continue her 'call' and ignored Caelan-- until the fifth time Caelan ran her car into Evelynn. Then Evelynn in all her fury informed her "I am talking to GERMANY." That didn't make a difference to Caelan, but Evelynn continued her conversation on her phone. "Wie heißt du? Ich heiße Evelynn. Ich bin vier." Caelan ran into Evelynn again. "You're not four!! I am four," said Caelan. This gets to Evelynn every time. Flustered, Evelynn told Germany "I'm sorry I have to go now. My sister thinks she's four, but she's isn't. Tschüs," slammed the phone shut and put it in her pocket. I did finally step in before "Evelynn hat ihre Schwester geschlagen."
