1. In a conversation once I joked that she’s a lover not a fighter. At the park yesterday, she saw two kids wrestling in the grass. “OH MOMMA,” she yelped. “CHARLOTTE DOES NOT DO THIS! NO! I AM A LOVER, MOMMA, NOT A FIGHTER!”
2. Sometimes when she’s super excited, she puts her hands out to each side and shakes them back and forth with a maniacal grin plastered on her face. It’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.
3. She’s been picking up French like crazy, and recently has taken to bringing me the French-English dictionary and asking me to look things up for her.
4. On the topic of French, Charlotte and I have seen several paons peacocks recently. But when she can’t remember the word she tries to translate the word. OISEAU FAIT DES POIS?, birds made of peas, she called them yesterday.
5. A few days ago I told her we’d go to the park, but it took me quite awhile to find my keys. She stood at the front door and tapped her foot while she waited for me.
6. Over the course of three days, Charlotte took three diggers. (It’s like she’s trying to give me a heart attack.) She’s now obsessed with showing off her battle scars. “Momma,” she said earnestly when her love-aunt dropped by, “I need to show Aunt M my chin.”
7. Charlotte likes to narrate her sadness. “I was so sad. And I had tears. They ran down my face. They were on my cheeks. And I found your hand. And I wiped the tears off. And they were ALL GONE!”
8. She is obsessed with remembering and forgetting. She tells me what she wants by telling me to remember. For example, at breakfast this morning I asked her what she wanted to do during the day. “WE MUST, WE MUST GO TO THE ZOO,” she exclaimed. “YES, AND RIDE THE CAROUSEL! REMEMBER THE CAROUSEL, MOMMA! REMEMBER!”
9. Also, a couple days ago when I told her that it was time for us to leave a friend’s house, she gasped “OH NO, MOMMA! I cannot go! I almost forgot to play with A’s toy! I NEED TO STAY HERE TO PLAY WITH IT! YES. I will call you when I am done here.”
10. To which I was like “you’ll call me when you’re done here? When did you turn fourteen? And also, no, we’re leaving.” Then she fussed and I said “why are we fighting about this? We need to go home for lunch, aren’t you hungry?” and she said “MOMMA! WE ARE NOT FIGHTING! I AM A LOVER NOT A FIGHTER.”
I know she’s only said it twice, but if that’s a phrase she wants to become obsessed with, THAT IS AWESOME.
Also: is easily entertained. LOVE.
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These lists are easily my favorite posts. I love her thought process and watching her grow. And Charlotte is totally a lover, not a fighter!
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I agree with Missy; the list posts are my favorite. They never fail to make me smile.
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Lauren - she’s playing with harvested sorghum berries. We grew sorghum this year to make toddler brooms for Charlotte and a friend (Erin, if you’re reading this, sorry I haven’t mailed it out yet), and we had to strip the sorghum berries off the straws before we could do anything with it. We saved some berries for seed and I set aside one bag for Charlotte to play with and we fed the rest to the chickens =)
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I love these lists. I will be borrowing this idea for sure. Also, do you speak French? I have been slowly introducing Spanish to the kids but I don’t speak more than a few words so besides some fun books we have been reading to help with more short phrases and words I’m not sure where else to go with it.
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The “10 cool things” are quickly becoming my favorite posts :) Delightful munchkin, that one.
The daughter of a friend of mine, about the same age as Charlotte, likes to say (about herself when she is crying), “Ana is crying bitterly”. Apparently it was in a story they read once and now it’s her thing. Of course, she says it in German as that is her 1st language which makes it even cuter.
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Jeneva - I do speak French, but am not a native speaker. I’ll write about this more extensively as we get more into it, but we just found a native francophone who will be coming to our house for a few hours one day a week beginning in January. She’ll be responsible for leading a sort of French nursery program centered on play, conversation, songs, and storytelling in our home - in accordance with our preferences. As Charlotte becomes more proficient in and comfortable with French, we may extend the hours or add another morning. Our long-term goal is to ensure that Charlotte is fluent in two languages (English, French) and proficient in three others (Spanish, German, and something with an unrelated alphabet such as Farsi or Mandarin).
It’s taken me months to find someone who would help me, honestly. Every time I found someone, they charged too much or were unwilling to work within my specifications (i.e. gardening together so that Charlotte learns gardening words FROM GARDENING instead of from looking at flashcards).
Besides having me speak to Charlotte in French, we’ve also worked on translating words or entire stories in books, singing nursery rhymes (youtube has a few great channels that have French sing-a-long nursery rhymes), reading books in French, listening to recordings of French stories, streaming French radio broadcasts, and have tried to find other families who speak French to their kids. That last one has been very challenging.
(IF ANYONE IS A FRANCOPHONE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND HAS LITTLE KIDS, I WOULD LOVE TO HANG OUT WITH YOU, PLEASE)
When I feel that Charlotte is ready for another language, we’ll add Spanish in the same way that we’ve been adding French. I have a few good friends who are native Spanish speakers, so I’ll probably ask them to help me out preparing recordings of them singing songs and telling stories, to only speak to my kid in Spanish, and to help me create a few hours of Spanish in our home each week.
Another idea might be to find other parents who want to expose their kids to Spanish too. You guys could probably buy a few hours of a native Spanish speaker’s time together so that it costs less and ask them to help you create a Spanish-only group. At young ages, kids might take a few weeks, but they’ll figure it out in no time.
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aw. your kid is C.U.T.E !!
i speak french !! and i wish we could come hang out, hehe !
if you ever need any help with something french related, let me know ! (translation, finding a book or games in french, or anything else !)
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Your daughter is absolutely adorable in every way! I’m so happy you share your stories! I love your language development plans. I hope to do something similar when we have kids.
~Bee
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Emilie, if you’re ever in our neck of the woods let me know!! I’d love to hang out =) And not just for the French, I promise.
Also, how deep are you willing to go with this French thing because I WILL TOTALLY TAKE YOU UP ON THAT OFFER!
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I just wanted to add that I love how you’re raising Charlotte, and I plan to raise my future children in a similar fashion. It’s truly wonderful to see the emphasis on early education in your home, and I think it’s fantastic you’re teaching different languages to Charlotte.
You’re an absolute inspiration, and Charlotte is pure cuteness.
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I love the the French thing. I’ve been doing similar in Italian. All of my husband’s family were born and raised in Italy so they speak to the kids in mostly Italian. I’m planning on taking an Italian class to learn the basics some I can pass them along to my littles. I’d love to be better at French with them as well, but for right now trying to remember my ASL and Italian are more then I can handle. Hopefully I’ll get better wit using French also.
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So adorable!!! And so funny I read them out loud to my husband and HE laughed out loud!
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Awesome!!! I was smiling while reading your post. Thank you very much for sharing this post with us.
By Lauren on December 02, 2011
So adorable! I must start documenting the crazy things my little ones do on a daily basis.
Must comment to ask… what is she playing with in those photos? They look like a pile of bugs. :)