Chatterbox

All babies develop and learn at different paces, but from what I've read, they all eventually catch up.  Our little man was a late walker (we are talking sometime after 14 months), but he was an early talker.  As a language teacher, I am completely fascinated by how he is learning, what types of words he is using, how he is constructing sentences... everything really! 

Many of his first words were nouns: 

mama, dada, ball, book

But then came an adjective: 

hot!! 

Hot is always whispered, with emphasis on the "h"... so it sounds like "hhhhot". This adjective was quickly applied to all sorts of cooking appliances (stove, microwave, coffee pot, toaster oven, grill), but on a few random mornings, as I was holding him before I left for work, he would say "mama, hot." And I would look at him and say, "That's right." Thank you, my little guy, for the affirmation :) 

What happened next amazed me: he started using the indefinite article all the time, which we often omit in English, but is always necessary in French. 

a book, a ball, a "nack" a dog 

Even though he clearly articulates many words, there are some in which I have had to play close attention to learn.  Think you can guess what these are?? 

QUIZ TIME!!! (no peeking below)

1. ah fah fuh

2. ["f bomb"] (yikes)

3. a men uh

4. buhjies

5. ug!

6. booooo!

answers are at the bottom of this post :)

Anyways, he quickly moved on to two-word phrases. 

All done now. 

Outside now. 

And eventually added in a subject pronoun.  His first three sentences with "I": 

I sit. 

I poo poo. 

I bite.  (often said while smiling and attempting to bite my hand as I buckle him into the carseat.)

After the short sentences, we finally learned one polite word: please [peash]

Currently, we are using "peash" and "yesh" together to show a definite need for something. In addition, he uses a nod to reinforce his desire. Sample scenario: 

I am eating some pie. 

Ky: a bite peash, yesh *nod* *nod* yesh

If a bite is given, this will be repeated. 

If a bite is denied, a tantrum will ensue.  

And now it's off to find some books on disciplining/parenting a toddler! HAH! 

Quiz answers: 1. coffee (but also sometimes any drink an adult has), 2. frog, I NEVER swear, so this is super awkward.  And when he adds "a" before frog, it sounds like "oh." Big sigh. 3. melon (as in watermelon.  He's not a fan of cantaloupe), 4. berries (as in blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries" and 5. hug. The boy LOVES to give hugs, especially when he either has food on his hands or is strapped into a shopping cart, forcing me to lean over in an awkward manner.  But I would be crazy to turn down an "ug" from my sweet boy. 6. moo. Yes, my child thinks cows say "boo" instead of moo.  And in fact, even though he can identify at least 15/20 animal magnets on the fridge, he also calls a cow "a boo." When I correct him and say it's a cow, and cows say "moo," he looks at me like I'm crazy. 

To my students

Bonjour tout le monde, 

I don't know if any of you will read ever this page, but I wanted to express my thoughts to you anyways.  On Monday, I resigned from the teaching position that I had held for six years.  It was NOT an easy decision, and furthermore, it was not one I was expecting to make this summer.  I had a part-time job nearly fall into my lap on July 3rd that would allow me to stay home with my son but still teach French to high school students, just online instead of in the traditional classroom.  Some people can easily balance working full-time and family life, but I realized I am not one of those people.  Teaching French 1-5 was a lot of work not only during the school hours, but also after school and on weekends, and I put my all into it for six years.  Hopefully you enjoyed some of the lessons :-)  After lots of prayer and after getting lots of wisdom from friends and family who have already traveled this path, we decided it will be best for our family for me to take some time off from teaching full time to focus on being a wife and mom. I know some of you are sad (and others may be rejoicing!), but fifteen years from now, you might understand exactly where I am coming from.  

My dear former students, THANK YOU:  

- for choosing to take French, even though most of your friends were taking Spanish

- for the laughter you brought to my day 

- for the fun times with French Club (crêpe parties, Bon Vie, La Chatelaine)

- for the hysterical movie projects you made, never ceasing to amaze me with your technology skills!

- to the 32 of you I got to take to France in 2010 or 2013... I loved seeing you experience Europe for the first time. I hope you have caught the travel bug!

- to those of you who stuck through with 4 years of French class and furthermore 4 years with me! 

- for always being excited at the beginning of a new school year

- for telling me what the latest youtube videos were that I needed to watch

- for "keeping me on my toes"... for example, I had to constantly update my list of words in both English & French that could not be said in a high school classroom...

- for putting up for all of the times I connected lessons to Harry Potter

- for putting up with my stories about living in France... and my rants about food and nutrition. 

- (class of 2010ish) for the pranks & shenanigans you would pull in my classroom.  

- for keeping me up to date on slang ("gram it", "YOLO," "#tbt" etc..).  Just know that I am officially to old to actually say that stuff seriously, but thanks to you, I can feel cool knowing what it means :-)   

- for laughing hysterically as you said words (you know which ones) that make me shudder... and my first year there, I believe some of you put them on a cake for me... 

- for being brave during the lock-downs that were for real and tornado drills that weren't drills

- for encouraging me that I could pull off red pants and Toms even though I'm nearly 30 

- for asking about my son, even if it was to just get me off topic  

- for all of the cookies and cupcakes and cake pops and brownies 

- for all of the times you were honest about using online translators

- to those of you that made an effort to be nice to everyone in your class.  You are awesome. 

- for the notes, cards, senior pictures, etc... these will be going in my "why I teach" folder, which I will be keeping forever.  

- for teaching me that I only need to worry a little about when my son becomes a teenager... because after all, you guys are pretty awesome! 

- for taking the time to read this post! 

- in advance, for being great for your new teacher! 

My last bits of advice to you:  

- Pick your friends wisely.  You will become like the people with whom you surround yourself. 

- Study abroad in college.  Those four years are academically challenging, but there will never be another time in your life in which it will be easier to just pack up your life and move it overseas. 

- Don't date anyone you couldn't see yourself marrying.  I made that decision in college and it was one of the best choices I made.  

- MAKE GOOD DECISIONS! I told you this every Friday, and you usually laughed.  But remember, every decision has a consequence... some positive, some negative... I only told you this to try to get you to think about the choices you are making.  Decisions you make in high school CAN affect your future.

... And lastly, please STAY IN TOUCH!! I will honestly miss you all so very much and I care about you deeply.  I will be thinking about you next year.  Friend me on facebook, follow me on Instagram... or once you start college and learn email actually does have a purpose other than allowing you to have accounts on social media, email me!  

All my love, 

Madame 

I'm STILL HERE!!!!

BONJOUR!!!

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. I won't bore you with the details of our routine, but I basically only get to be with my sweet boy for 2.5 hours each day during the work week (and he eats for like 1.5 hours of that time), so I had to cut out a few things. Like blogging on Mondays. And exercising on a regular basis :(

But I'm here. Look for more posts coming soon!!

New Favorite App!

I am LOVING the App "AnyList." I had been using another free app for my grocery shopping for the past 9 months or so and while it served its purpose, I could never get over the fact it had limited categories that I could not reorder. Also, you could accidentally delete your entire list in two clicks. Yikes.

This new (to me) app is awesome because:
1- It is free!
2- It has a TON of categories, very similar to the aisles at my local grocery store. You can add new categories and you can also rename and rearrange the existing ones based on your route through the store. (Not sure if this is normal or not, but the store I frequent is HUGE, so we buy everything there, with the exception of our clothes. However, they do carry Carter's, so the little man has some clothes from there!)
3- you and anyone you share it with can edit and access it at the same time and it updates both... So my husband could add toothpaste to my list from his phone, or if we ever (which is doubtful) shipped together, we could work from the same list and get the shopping done faster.
4-it has a recipes section that includes recipes from all of my favorite sites (like all recipes) AND food blogs (like Closet Cooking, Cookin' Canuck, Picky Palate, Smitten Kitchen, the Pioneer Woman, Two Peas & their Pod and a TON more)! While it does not include every recipe, there are quite a few. You can save recipes and also add ingredients needed to your list in one click! Much easier than jumping back and forth between apps or using two methods of technology to meal/grocery plan!!