I kissed Martin good night and headed for the door.
Martin: Mama, you give wet kisses.
I used to call his 'wet kisses' back in the time he was teething and giving me slobbery kisses. Then Vale started doing the same (and still does) and that is how Martin knows the term.
Martin: Mama, you love giving wet kisses?
Me: Yes, very much!
Martin: I only love a little giving wet kisses.
Me: Do you want to give me one?
Martin: Yes.
It felt pretty dry to me, but still made my day (and night)!
[The conversation is translated from Bulgarian]
Showing posts with label Bulgarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bulgarian. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Kro-ko-dil
At 2.5 years of age, Martin already recognizes the numbers (0-9) and the letters of the English alphabet (I give the full credit to his baba). In random order, when we show him a letter or number or when we write one, he would say which letter/number it is ([ei] for A, [es] for S, etc). And unlike me, he would not hesitate between the names of G and J (sometimes I still do).
Also, today before bedtime he wanted us to draw on his dry-erase white board. After I drew a few things, I asked him to draw. I asked for a leaf and I got a pretty good shape, I asked for a circle and got not a bad one, which later he said is not a circle but an apple. I asked if he can draw a krokodil(crocodile) and he said "Yes! Kro-ko-dil." at which he drew a "/" for each syllable as he was pronouncing it. And then he said "tuka pishe krokodil" ("here it says crocodile") - that is, he knew he did not draw it, but wrote it.
I tried a few more concrete and then abstract nouns and correctly got the verbal separation of syllables and relevant number of slashes on the white board. Even for snejen chovek (snowman), I heard the separated syllables "sne-jen-cho-vek" and saw him simultaneously write 4 slashes on the board. He correctly separated in syllables and slashes on the white board Ve-ne-zue-la, E-ze-quiel (the name of his uncle), te-rri-fic (even though it was a new (English) word for him), the names of everyone in the family, a few more Bulgarian and Spanish words. The only one he had trouble with was boligrafo (I don't think he had heard this one before) - he could not even repeat it correctly - came up as loligano or something of that sort.
And, on a side note, he wrote the slashes in right-to-left order as in Arabic :) (even though he was writing with the right hand).
He is extremely interested in decoding written text. When the credits of a movie start rolling on the screen he would pay close attention and occasionally say “Here is diado’s letter (for S), here is mommy’s letter (for D), here is U, here is A, here is daddy’s letter (for I)”… Today he correctly spelled Old Navy even reading it upside down on the T-shirt he was wearing.
My mom just asked me what language she should start teaching him to read in. I am currently (not) reading (i.e. trying hard to find the time to read) 'The Multilingual Mind’ by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinoza and I find the answer there to be the minority language. And since my mom cannot teach him Spanish, he is left with Bulgarian. So, Cyrillic is next on the schedule!
Also, today before bedtime he wanted us to draw on his dry-erase white board. After I drew a few things, I asked him to draw. I asked for a leaf and I got a pretty good shape, I asked for a circle and got not a bad one, which later he said is not a circle but an apple. I asked if he can draw a krokodil(crocodile) and he said "Yes! Kro-ko-dil." at which he drew a "/" for each syllable as he was pronouncing it. And then he said "tuka pishe krokodil" ("here it says crocodile") - that is, he knew he did not draw it, but wrote it.
I tried a few more concrete and then abstract nouns and correctly got the verbal separation of syllables and relevant number of slashes on the white board. Even for snejen chovek (snowman), I heard the separated syllables "sne-jen-cho-vek" and saw him simultaneously write 4 slashes on the board. He correctly separated in syllables and slashes on the white board Ve-ne-zue-la, E-ze-quiel (the name of his uncle), te-rri-fic (even though it was a new (English) word for him), the names of everyone in the family, a few more Bulgarian and Spanish words. The only one he had trouble with was boligrafo (I don't think he had heard this one before) - he could not even repeat it correctly - came up as loligano or something of that sort.
And, on a side note, he wrote the slashes in right-to-left order as in Arabic :) (even though he was writing with the right hand).
He is extremely interested in decoding written text. When the credits of a movie start rolling on the screen he would pay close attention and occasionally say “Here is diado’s letter (for S), here is mommy’s letter (for D), here is U, here is A, here is daddy’s letter (for I)”… Today he correctly spelled Old Navy even reading it upside down on the T-shirt he was wearing.
My mom just asked me what language she should start teaching him to read in. I am currently (not) reading (i.e. trying hard to find the time to read) 'The Multilingual Mind’ by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinoza and I find the answer there to be the minority language. And since my mom cannot teach him Spanish, he is left with Bulgarian. So, Cyrillic is next on the schedule!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Polyglot (15 months)
So far, you have been great in mastering all three languages. Here is what you say and do so far:
We: Hablas Espanol?
You: Si
We: Govorish li Bulgarski?/ Govorite po Russkii?
You: Da
We: Do you speak English?
You: Yes
We: Como estas?
You: Mien (for Bien)
We: Kak se kazvash?
You: Ma-ti.
Baba: Ti kakuv si?
You: Mij (saying muj = man)
You repeat iazh when we tell you to eat and occasionally you would ask by yourself by saying 'am-am'. You say by yourself mii-mii-mii when you wash your hands or see someone washing the dishes. You say djish for toplo. You say Gore when you want to go upstairs in your room (mostly when you are ready to go to bed - this started since our trip to the Outer Banks 13 mo old), or you say noni. You say booo to anything that makes loud noise - the blender, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the trucks, the hair-drier... You are fascinated with bikes and you always say bici when you see one. Same with babies - you say bebe as soon as you see one even if it is a kid 2 years older than you (only if it is a girl of course)...
You say correctly Ciao (pronounced Shaaao) and Buy and you say Aye when you want to say Hi. And every time you flush the toilet or you hear someone flush, you go in look at the water and say 'Bye'.
You identify on pictures and in person: mama, tati, baba, diado (you say gago), vuicho (you still cannot say it, but you know who we are talking about), tio Eze, tia Moni, Simon.
When your father was in Vienna and Prague for a week, you would ask for him every day: Tati? niama. Tati? Niama.
During that week I had to go work from the office and you would miss us so much that you would grab the photo that we have on the refrigerator (the one of us in SF where we've just biked across the bridge), walk with it around the house and say Mama - Tati - Mama - Tati...
You made the association that when your father is not in the house, then your baba is. So now every time your baba leaves in the evening you start: Baba? Niama. Tati!!! (knowing that he will come in a little bit)... And when your dad leaves in the morning your start: Tati? Niama. Baba!!!
My recent discovery is that you count in Spanish. One day I started counting to you:
Me: Uno
You: Dos
Me: Tres, Quatro
You: Cinco
Me: Seis, Siete
You: Ocho
Me: Nueve
You: Diez
Mommy's smart boy!!! Counting at the age of 15 months! In Spanish!
Lately, you started saying aqua and bako (meaning mliako). Cannot help but compare with Simon who also talks a lot and started talking very early - he started with the basic words, however, ensuring his survival - aqua, tete, teta, jugo, carne, etc... Whereas with you, it still costs me to figure out what exactly you want.
You know most of the songs your baba sings to you and you help her with the lyrics with incredible timing:
Baba: .... sedem palavi kozleta i edna koza/tia be maichica grijliva stavashe v zori/ sveji klonki i kopriva da gi nagosti
You: Mamo
Baba: Mamo, mila mamo, etc... Vulcho shtom pochuka nie tuka shte sme skriti
You: Aww
Baba: Aww ot glad umiram... etc. S hitrost i vzlom shte vliaza -
You: Azz
Also, there is this opera in Bulgarian going 'Tiho-tiho, subudihme deteto s nashata kavga. Ami sega? Ami Sega? Shte triabva da mu peem i da go luleem... "
And you continue: Nani
And your baba: Nani-Nani, milo detence.... etc.
You've mastered almost all animal sounds: Kucheto? af-af. Koteto? niaw (for miew). Kravata? muu. Kokoshkata? ko-ko-ko. Gargata? ga-ga-ga. Koncheto? ta-ta. Magarenceto? iaa-iaa. Vulkut? awww. Tigura? khkhkh. Pilenceto? pi-pi-pi. Pateto? pa-pa-pa... Agunceto? beeee. Buhala? whoo-whoo... Actually, you are a little bit afraid of the owl. One evening we were playing on my bed and you heard it outside and you started hugging me. When you could no longer hear it, you kept repeating whoo-whoo niama. whoo-whoo niama... until you fell asleap in my arms...
You know and correctly point to the following body parts (either on yourself or on me or on a drawing in a book): boca, ojos, nariz, pelo, cachetes, umbliguito.
You love your books and often you would grab one and bring to me to read it outloud. You also love the laptop of your dad. Every time someone is using it, you would ask to be picked up a
nd then press the Windows button (next to the left Alt key) and say Goool when the shortcut menu pops-up and you see the icon displaying a soccerbal and a football and basketball behind it. And you love if we play you music videos on YouTube. You love music! You start moving your hands as if you are the conductor. And we cannot but hope you will be the next Venezuelan (-Bulgarian) Dudamel (you already have the hair for it :)). 
We: Hablas Espanol?
You: Si
We: Govorish li Bulgarski?/ Govorite po Russkii?
You: Da
We: Do you speak English?
You: Yes
We: Como estas?
You: Mien (for Bien)
We: Kak se kazvash?
You: Ma-ti.
Baba: Ti kakuv si?
You: Mij (saying muj = man)
You repeat iazh when we tell you to eat and occasionally you would ask by yourself by saying 'am-am'. You say by yourself mii-mii-mii when you wash your hands or see someone washing the dishes. You say djish for toplo. You say Gore when you want to go upstairs in your room (mostly when you are ready to go to bed - this started since our trip to the Outer Banks 13 mo old), or you say noni. You say booo to anything that makes loud noise - the blender, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the trucks, the hair-drier... You are fascinated with bikes and you always say bici when you see one. Same with babies - you say bebe as soon as you see one even if it is a kid 2 years older than you (only if it is a girl of course)...
You say correctly Ciao (pronounced Shaaao) and Buy and you say Aye when you want to say Hi. And every time you flush the toilet or you hear someone flush, you go in look at the water and say 'Bye'.
You identify on pictures and in person: mama, tati, baba, diado (you say gago), vuicho (you still cannot say it, but you know who we are talking about), tio Eze, tia Moni, Simon.
When your father was in Vienna and Prague for a week, you would ask for him every day: Tati? niama. Tati? Niama.
During that week I had to go work from the office and you would miss us so much that you would grab the photo that we have on the refrigerator (the one of us in SF where we've just biked across the bridge), walk with it around the house and say Mama - Tati - Mama - Tati...
You made the association that when your father is not in the house, then your baba is. So now every time your baba leaves in the evening you start: Baba? Niama. Tati!!! (knowing that he will come in a little bit)... And when your dad leaves in the morning your start: Tati? Niama. Baba!!!
My recent discovery is that you count in Spanish. One day I started counting to you:
Me: Uno
You: Dos
Me: Tres, Quatro
You: Cinco
Me: Seis, Siete
You: Ocho
Me: Nueve
You: Diez
Mommy's smart boy!!! Counting at the age of 15 months! In Spanish!
Lately, you started saying aqua and bako (meaning mliako). Cannot help but compare with Simon who also talks a lot and started talking very early - he started with the basic words, however, ensuring his survival - aqua, tete, teta, jugo, carne, etc... Whereas with you, it still costs me to figure out what exactly you want.
You know most of the songs your baba sings to you and you help her with the lyrics with incredible timing:
Baba: .... sedem palavi kozleta i edna koza/tia be maichica grijliva stavashe v zori/ sveji klonki i kopriva da gi nagosti
You: Mamo
Baba: Mamo, mila mamo, etc... Vulcho shtom pochuka nie tuka shte sme skriti
You: Aww
Baba: Aww ot glad umiram... etc. S hitrost i vzlom shte vliaza -
You: Azz
Also, there is this opera in Bulgarian going 'Tiho-tiho, subudihme deteto s nashata kavga. Ami sega? Ami Sega? Shte triabva da mu peem i da go luleem... "
And you continue: Nani
And your baba: Nani-Nani, milo detence.... etc.
You've mastered almost all animal sounds: Kucheto? af-af. Koteto? niaw (for miew). Kravata? muu. Kokoshkata? ko-ko-ko. Gargata? ga-ga-ga. Koncheto? ta-ta. Magarenceto? iaa-iaa. Vulkut? awww. Tigura? khkhkh. Pilenceto? pi-pi-pi. Pateto? pa-pa-pa... Agunceto? beeee. Buhala? whoo-whoo... Actually, you are a little bit afraid of the owl. One evening we were playing on my bed and you heard it outside and you started hugging me. When you could no longer hear it, you kept repeating whoo-whoo niama. whoo-whoo niama... until you fell asleap in my arms...
You know and correctly point to the following body parts (either on yourself or on me or on a drawing in a book): boca, ojos, nariz, pelo, cachetes, umbliguito.
Other things you say: ah-ah (meaning 'dirty' or poo-poo), pish. When you see flowers (both real or on a picture) you inhale and exhale with aaahhh... You also do this whenever you see us drinking our morning coffee - you grab hold of the empty cup, smell it and say aaahhhh... If you drop something you say o-oh...
You love your books and often you would grab one and bring to me to read it outloud. You also love the laptop of your dad. Every time someone is using it, you would ask to be picked up a
nd then press the Windows button (next to the left Alt key) and say Goool when the shortcut menu pops-up and you see the icon displaying a soccerbal and a football and basketball behind it. And you love if we play you music videos on YouTube. You love music! You start moving your hands as if you are the conductor. And we cannot but hope you will be the next Venezuelan (-Bulgarian) Dudamel (you already have the hair for it :)). 
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