I don't want to shortchange John with his 27-month post, but I'm going to have to since not only did his Daddy return home last week, but we are also hunting for rental houses in the Milwaukee area and getting ready for a trip to Bismarck. So for this post I'll just write about what John's been saying lately -- in English and German. (I meant to do this for his 26-month post anyway.)
English
The breaking news on the English front is that John now says "yes." He suddenly started saying "yes" in mid-March, right before Grandpa Harry, Grandma Robin and Uncle David came to visit. It was the strangest thing -- one day he was replying to questions with a sing-songy "uh-huh" or "o-kay" and the next he was answering "yes" to everything. And now that he says "yes," he doesn't say "uh-huh" or "o-kay" at all anymore. Literally, it was like a switch flipped in his brain! My favorite part about his "yes" is the way he elongates the "s" at the end. It makes him sound very formal and polite. He has already received many compliments on it from the adults he knows at the church nursery and at Parents' Day Out.
These very same adults have also told me that John has become a total chatterbox when he's at church/school. Miss Julie used the switch analogy to describe the increase in language output she's observed in John since mid-February. Apparently, he is the chattiest person in his class! John might be the chattiest person at home, too. Some days we just can't keep up with him! I'm not sure what's more tiring -- his questions ("What's that, Mommy?") or his statements ("I want THAT, Mommy!").
So I haven't been very good about writing things down that John's been saying, but here's a short list of some of my favorite things he says on a regular basis:
- (after I put him in his crib for his nap/bedtime) "One more kiss, hug?" (he says this two or three times......always just ONE more!)
- (referring to anything he finds incongruous) "That's silly!"
- (shaking Wiwa's hand) "Nice to meet you, Wiwa!"
- (randomly) "I speak German."
- (about almost everything) "That's a MINE-TS!"
German
John has made some amazing strides in German since we started the Muzzy program back in February. Most recently, he has learned the German numbers 1-10! Grandma Kay Ellen, who is also learning German through the program, said she was amazed a few weeks back when they were counting together and John finished the last few numbers that she'd forgotten! John also knows most of the body parts in German now and will point them out when asked -- der Kopf (head), die Haare (hair), die Augen (eyes), die Ohren (ears), der Mund (mouth), die Schultern (shoulders), die Aerme (arms), die Haende (hands), die Beine (legs), die Knien (knees), and die Fuesse (feet). He can sing quite a bit of the German version of the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," which is in one of the Muzzy episodes.
I've been trying to use the mornings as our "German time." I speak to him as much as I can in German, and he answers me in English. I ask him what he wants to eat for breakfast, if he's done eating, what he wants to play with, what color something is, etc. Then we'll listen to a German music CD either at home or when we get in the car. He's gotten two new CDs in the past month -- a spring-themed one that was a gift from our Austrian family friend and a collection of children's songs I bought from Amazon. They are both really fun and catchy. John is obsessed with the Easter one and constantly asks to listen to the Osterhase (Easter bunny) and Ei (egg) songs.
I just bought a German picture dictionary for John from Amazon, and we've been looking at that a lot. I have him say all the words in German. Of course his favorite pages are the one with the vehicles -- Autos (cars), Flugzeuge (planes) and Hubschrauber (helicopters), Zuege (trains), etc. He likes the beach page too because it has all the different types of Boote (boats).
What amazes me most about John's progress is how good his pronunciation is. He is picking up the pronunciation even faster than Grandma (who is also doing very, very well). I have to take a video of him counting or reading his picture dictionary. I'm so proud of him!
On that note, here are a couple of photos of John from the past month or two.
What a ham he is! He's got the Zoolander look going.....
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