Casanova in Training

One of those times that make it all worth while for me is at night when I go to bed and quickly wake Lukas to put him on the potty. (Not so fun on the other hand: changing pajamas and sheets in the middle of the night.) Especially when I miss bedtime for some reason, so I still get a chance to see my boy and say good night. Most of the time, he remains half-asleep while I carry him to the bathroom and back to bed, and he has this contented smile on his face.

Last night, I missed bedtime because of a hair appointment and when I picked Lukas up and carried him into the bathroom, he asked: "Are you all done with your hair cut, Mami?" - "Yes, Lukas." - "It's beautiful. You look beautiful, Mami."

Now, I hate to say this, but I don't think he even opened his eyes to look, but nevertheless: Ladies, look out!

Where does he get this stuff? Mike and I don't talk that way. He doesn't watch much TV, but he loves music - his favorite song these days is "Jessie's girl". So, I will blame it on pop music for now and look forward to more night-time sweetness.

Okay, Mom.

So simple, yet the most beautiful words heard out of my almost 4-yr-old's mouth after I told him "no" for something. No tantrum. No negotiation. No repeated requests. Just "okay". And I have witnesses. Whose jaws dropped.

Are we finally done with the Terrible Twos or did he just realize I'm even more strong-willed? More likely, the hard work of his teachers is paying off. They spend a lot of time talking about using your words and controlling strong emotions. Either way, it's just so cool!

Bilingual Baby - Echt Zweisprachig

Dominik is not even two and probably doesn't have 50 words in his vocabulary yet, but he is already interpreting German into English for us. It goes like this:

"Dominik, sag mal 'Auto'" [say 'car'] - "car"
"Sag mal 'Laster'" - "truck"
"Sag mal 'Ente'" - "duck"

[Photo: Easter egg hunt, 4/12/09]

Wise Boy

The boys and I had a rough bedtime last night, everyone was agitated, no one wanted to go to bed. Despite my best intentions to keep calm, the impatient and angry mob inside me won out a couple of times. Lukas quickly took over the role of adult in charge: "Mami, no yelling, just say it." And then proceeded to tell me a little anecdote about his friend at school, whom he seems to have taken a toy away from, his friend promptly yelled or screamed or threw a tantrum, and calm teacher intervened with above words, or so I gather the incident occurred. After the initial surprise, I collected myself and realized how awesome it is that the boy gets to go to preschool and learn coping behaviors, and doesn't have to spend all day with me and the unruly mob.

Growing up fast

Dominik is growing up so fast. In the last couple of days, he added such critical words as NO, HI, and ON (or AN in German)!

More than Words

Dominik's current collection of words:

1. oh-oh
2. wow
3. papa
4. mama
5. daddy
6. nada (nadja)
7. goo-goo (guck-guck = peekaboo)
8. ee-ah (hee-haw = i-ah)
9. moo (cows)
10. bah (sheep)
11. cool
12. digga (tiger or "Dicker"?)
13. doggie (all things furry)
14. papa bear (this is from a German kids CD)
15. lookatdad (look at that)
16. tssinder? (what's in there?)
17. duk (truck)
18. tunnel

This is starting to get interesting, because there is more every day now. Finally!