One of the greatest things about having friends in Germany is that when we are here, we are completely immersed in the language. It's fun to see Keith brush up on his skills, brush up on my own (though I'm much better with listening) and watch Evelynn try to figure it all out. She told me today that she's learning a lot of German. Well, maybe. She has now come up with her own language. One that is no where close to German or English. I find myself wanting to dive for cover when those who speak little English want me to explain what she just said. I understand her developmental need to express sounds, but hearing the two languages simultaneously has created a communication problem by itself.
While in Germany, we would like to do as the Germans do. It's hard to do that when your child creates her own gobbledigook, and that's just about what it amounts to. We've somehow managed to get her to say 'Danke' and 'Tchuß' fairly often, but that's about it. It's probably overwhelming to suddenly be surrounded by a language she doesn't understand, but from my and Keith's perspective, that's when the learning is best.
In the last four days, two of those days have been spent with friends who speak very little English. And I have begun to dream about German vocabulary and in my dreams I'm trying to translate what I'm dreaming. It's quite unusual and my brain hurts, but it's great for me. I wish Evelynn would be a little more serious about the language, but she is five. It's a completely new cultural experience for her. Now that she's caught up on sleep and more like herself she will stop making noise. Maybe. Meine Mädchen ist nicht so klein, aber Sie ist nur eine Kinder. (My girl is not so little, but she is still a child.) I hope she picks up a little more before we head home.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Planes, Snot and Sparkles
Evelynn's first airplane trip went off without a hitch, and she loves it. I'm not too surprised by this considering Keith's love of airplanes. Evelynn literally can't wait to get back on the plane next week. She mentions it everytime she sees a plane in the sky. Take-off, which she calls 'blast off', went smoothly. I kind of expected her to be a little more excited about it. Once we were in the air and above the clouds, she asked if it was okay for her to go to sleep. Well, okay.
We had a few bouts with turbulence and that's when she really perked up. Between the 'This is so much fun!' and the 'I'm so excited!' she was fairly calm. The only thing that freaked her out was flushing the toilet, which was quite loud and forceful. We had some issues as we began to descend. She couldn't get her ears to pop. We tried chewing gum and teaching her to hold her nose to release the pressure. It wasn't too successful until I held her nose for her and she covered my hand with snot when she blew too hard. I'm pretty sure it was laughter that cleared her head.
Keith and Evelynn did sleep for a while. I really wanted to sleep while Evelynn was awake and then when she finally went to sleep, I was wide awake. So it goes when you're the mom. Oh, well... I logged too many awake hours for those two days. We arrived in Frankfurt at 6am on Thursday and we did our best to stay awake until bedtime. It's really the only way to get adjusted to the time change quickly. Evelynn has taken a bit longer to adjust, but she's just about there.
Evelynn's excitement has never let up and the closer the plane got to Germany, the more questions she asked. The most important question was 'Does Germany sparkle?' That's what every five year old girl wants to know, right?
We had a few bouts with turbulence and that's when she really perked up. Between the 'This is so much fun!' and the 'I'm so excited!' she was fairly calm. The only thing that freaked her out was flushing the toilet, which was quite loud and forceful. We had some issues as we began to descend. She couldn't get her ears to pop. We tried chewing gum and teaching her to hold her nose to release the pressure. It wasn't too successful until I held her nose for her and she covered my hand with snot when she blew too hard. I'm pretty sure it was laughter that cleared her head.
Keith and Evelynn did sleep for a while. I really wanted to sleep while Evelynn was awake and then when she finally went to sleep, I was wide awake. So it goes when you're the mom. Oh, well... I logged too many awake hours for those two days. We arrived in Frankfurt at 6am on Thursday and we did our best to stay awake until bedtime. It's really the only way to get adjusted to the time change quickly. Evelynn has taken a bit longer to adjust, but she's just about there.
Evelynn's excitement has never let up and the closer the plane got to Germany, the more questions she asked. The most important question was 'Does Germany sparkle?' That's what every five year old girl wants to know, right?
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