Just As I Suspected

As planned, Alex ran off to his friend Céline's house this morning, to pick her up for her walk to school.  As they were leaving, they were met up by Nora, one of Alex's other favorites, and the three of them skipped off through the apartment complex, holding hands.  But apparently things didn't go exactly as Alex had planned.  "I didn't think Nora would be there. Having her there made me feel shy, because she and Céline talked so much. I have things that I want to say, but I can't. And being quiet while they're talking makes me feel shy. I want to walk by myself again." Wimmin.

But I'm going to try to encourage Alex to keep walking to school with Céline and all of his other classmates, if I can. It's good for him to spend that extra time with friends, and, truly, he knows a lot more German than he credits himself for knowing.

That little fact was made very clear to me today, when we had Alex's friend Bleart over to play for a couple of hours.  The two of them just jabbered away: Alex's vocabulary is limited, but he makes excellent use of what he knows.

If you speak German, you'll notice immediately that the boys are not.  That's Swiss German you hear, and I'm only just starting to pick up a few words, myself.  Dennis and I made the mistake of trying to correct Alex when he said something like "Das ist mini Buch." ("That is my book.)

In German, they use "mein" (meaning "mine," for masculine words) or "meine" (for feminine). But in Swiss German, they skirt the issue of memorizing word genders by saying "mini" (which sounds like "meany") for both.  I think that's why the Swiss add an "-li" to so many words, too, as in "Buchli" (or "little book").  Changing a word to the diminutive by adding "-li" also automatically makes the word gender neutral.  Kind of genius. If I could actually find anyone to teach me Swiss German, I suspect it would actually be much easier to learn than High German.

Really, I should just ask my son for help.

The two boys had a wonderful time playing together: they're both gentle, sweet boys, and they happily worked their way through every toy in Alex's possession.

You might also notice, in the video, that Alex is wearing two different socks. He's been doing that for the past two weeks: one of the other boys in his class does that, apparently, and Alex decided it's something to emulate.  Each morning he carefully unrolls the balls of socks and extracts a mismatched pair. Alex is a lot more fashion-conscious at five than I am at thirty-three.

Ella dressed up to make the boys smile.
And to make you smile, too,
apparently. When she came out, she
handed me the camera, saying "Mom,
you've got to put this on the blog!"

I had Ella watch Joey part of the time while the boys played, because I wanted Alex to be able to enjoy his friend alone for a bit.  But I eventually let them join in the fun, since Ella was panting to spend time with a new playmate, and was willing to go to great lengths to entertain him.

So the afternoon passed quickly, and, at the end, Bleart's mother and I made plans for Alex to visit his friend's house next week. I just wish we'd started doing this sooner!