English as a 2nd language...

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's important to keep in mind that all things rendered said by the boys, are said with an irresistible Amharic accent, making almost all of the below mentioned events ten times funnier. Also, all things said by Sam are said about 47 octaves higher than your typical 2-year-old. Which adds to the hilarity.

We can't just say "stop". We must say "es stop". It's almost like Spanish, but instead of "el" or "la", we have "es". "Es stop, es stop!" Maybe it happens faster if you say "es" in front of things...

If you have seen some of my previous posts, you know that our word for potty is "shint", brought with us from Ethiopia. So last night while in the bathtub, Charlie called Sam a "shint head".... Oh, my...I think it's time to work on changing our potty language...

They still crack me up when they are trying to tell me something, but they repeat what they have heard me say...Instead of telling me he is cold, Charlie might say, "Are you cold?" or my personal favorite, "Are you full?"...meaning I've had enough!

Yesterday the boys had to go with us to sign some papers on the house, and in my attempts to entertain Charlie, I explained to him what was going on and I asked him to go downstairs and get something to draw on to take with us. "Paper? Colors?", he asked. I responded that was indeed what I wanted him to bring up. He returned a few minutes later with a giant pad of floor paper and fingerpaints. I laughed out loud just thinking about us sitting in this attorney's office with Charlie and his paints. He definintely understood my request, just not the details of it!

I can't wait to get Charlie on a roller coaster. Just taking him over a simple hill in the car has him screaming from the back seat, "Stomach, stomach! Slow down, Mommy!" I must admit...I sometimes go faster just to get a laugh out of him!

Not from my own kids, but our best buddies, Grace & Emma, now speak with an Amharic accent almost all the time. Why not? Charlie & Sam do it. So much for that whole exposure to English thing working for us...

We were working on names of body parts the other day. I can't really convey to you in writing just how funny it is to hear a 6-year-old say, with extreme seriousness, that his hiney is also his "buttocks". (I did not teach him that word. He came with it.)

We have been teaching Charlie to use more sentences instead of just the word when he is requesting things. So instead of, "Pancake, please!", we say "May I have more pancakes, please?" Our efforts are working and Sam is picking up, too..."May pancakes PLEASE!" It's really more of a demand than a request, but we'll work on his tone later.

All that being said, our English acquisition is going remarkably well. They are picking up SO fast and honestly, I think Sam picks it up faster than Charlie, although obviously Charlie understands more about what he is saying. Some days I feel like I have two toddlers, other days I'm shocked at what they actually know. And if we don't have a word, we just act it out. My life is one big game of charades these days, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.