Hanging Out

Please don't call child services.

No really.

 I'm right there.

I swear. 

 Laughing my *** off...

Video Viernes

As you know, Peanut really likes her books. She likes to read all of them, but one particularly stands out because it is actually a book and song combined - a little bit-o-heaven. The book is called Snuggle Puppy of Mine and is by Sandra Boynton. The song, as it is written in the book, goes:

Ooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Fuzzy, little, snuggle puppy, I love you. 

I say, Ooooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Oooooooo, I love you. *Kiss!*

It's complicated. I know. But it turns out that when you are reading the book, it does feel very odd to say the things Ms. Boynton has clearly defined as a song. However, she does not actually provide a score which one might feel compelled to follow. It's freestyle. 

Well, it turns out that Richard and I sing very different versions of this lovely song with our daughter, so we thought we would share them with you. At the beginning you can hear that Peanut say "Ooooooo" because she can now identify this book by its cover (Judge it? Who knows...). And so we present: 

Snuggle Puppy, Act 1.

And Snuggle Puppy, Act 2.

What we are making here is art people. Art.

4 - Words

Peanut talks a lot. Every day she looks out our window and jabbers and waves (sometimes to people, sometimes to buses, sometimes to dogs, sometimes to the city itself). Sometimes she speaks with great forcefulness such that while I have no idea what she is trying to say, I am clear that she believes very strongly in what she is telling me. Language acquisition is always a bit of a tough thing to chart, but I think it can be even more challenging initially for kids in a bilingual environment. We talk to Peanut most of the time in Spanish, but we talk to each other most of the time in English. Others in Barranquilla talk to her in Spanish, but everyone on the computer (yeah for skype!) talks to her in English. It is bound to be a little confusing.

Still, we have sussed out four words that we think she says pretty clearly and regularly. 

1. Mama

Now, this would warm my heart a little more if the word Mama referred only to me. However it seems to refer to photographs of any sort (regardless of whether I am in them), and it is a general filler word in between other currently indeterminable phrases. Funnier yet is that it often gets put fairly close together with a word that sounds  a lot like Mamie, so then it comes out Mama Mamie. As if the kid had another Mama...(or as if I would let her get away with calling me Mamie). 

Still, when I get a Mama that is clearly about me - well, there ain't nothin' better.

 

2. Papa

This has some eerie similarities to the usage of Mama. Not that she gets us confused; Papa definitely refers to Richard, but it can be other bright, shiny objects as well. 

For a while Papa seemed to get thrown out in fits of irritation, but that has subsided. I am sure it will return at age 13, but that is for another time. In the here and now we will pretty much take it any way it comes. 

3. Baby // Bebé

This is clearly for another baby. The way Peanut says it is actually sort of a cross between baby (English) and bebé (Spanish). I can't quite explain it to you, so I will let you see it in action. The first book is from Tía Shannan and has lots of good words in it. The second one is from Tía Laura and Tía Jess and is called Global Babies. Peanut loves it because it is chock full of babies (of course). She opens it up, points to a picture, says "beby" and then gives the baby a kiss. Love it.

4. Gato

Okay, this may be a word she actually has, or it may not be. 

Gato is the word for cat in Spanish, and as I mentioned two days ago, Peanut became encantada with Carlotto the Cat while in Bogotá. (Hey, that sounds like a children's book...) Every time she saw him she would squeal with delight, and if we said, "¿Dónde está el gato?" ("Where is the cat?") then she would look toward either of his two favorite spots with eyes wide and hopeful. Since then we have heard a lot of things that sound like "ato", so we have basically just decided she is saying gato and chalking up word number four!