What does it mean?

Any Spanish used in blog posts is hyperlinked to its English translation.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Muy argentina

"Leelo chanchitos!" she says, with Pigs in Hiding in her hand.

Papi takes the book from her, and she hits the armchair. "En el sishon!" (sillon)

Mi suegra has been in Mexico for a month, and we were on vacation there for two weeks before that. Asi que the babysitter has been coming 5 days a week - 5 afternoons of Argentine Spanish. Before we went to Mexico she did this really interesting instant accent switch whenever the babysitter walked in the door on Wednesday morning, and switched back overnight on Fridays. But without the alternating schedule, the Argentinian pronunciation is taking over.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Escuela

Jan 9th (1st day of school)

9:21am

Proud of us today: 50 min from waking the kid up, to in the car on our way to first day of "school" (montessori preschool that accepts 2 yr olds). Did #1 and #2 on the potty, ate 2 eggs with pesto and half a grapefruit, dressed, teeth brushed, and hair done. Un-freakin-believable (to me). I heard her start to scream for me as I left her there but I am having faith in her personal strength that she'll have a fun morning after all.

(P.S. those achievements were on her part, not mine. I did shower and make breakfast before waking her up, but my teeth are NOT brushed yet - garlic breath to talk to her teachers this morning, go me - and I'm wearing the same pants we flew in yday)

P.S. again: checked my phone and got a pic from a teacher via text of her happily "working" within 30 min of being dropped off. All is fine.

3:25pm

P.S. again: she named her baby doll "Alex" this afternoon, I'm assuming after a kid in her class. Promising, I think. However, this was also followed by "No me pegas, Alex" ("Don't hit me, Alex") so I'll wait to celebrate that one...

Jan 19th (end of first full week of school)

Last night was bad (how does a kid wet the bed twice in one night when she's had no nighttime accidents in weeks?) But this morning my husband got up with her, loaded&ran the dishwasher, and made breakfast! Amazing and so very much appreciated.

Jan 21st

Friday night was bad, but last night (Sunday night) was SO MUCH WORSE. I think this is worse than newborn sleeplessness because I don't have the bonding hormones making me delusional over my beautiful child AND because I have lots of anxiety that if she and I don't sleep NOW, how in the holy hell will we sleep after there IS a newborn here IN 9 WEEKS?!? freaking out. freaking the F out.

Jan 23rd (second day of second full week of school)

She mostly slept through the night last night. She went to bed with relatively little fuss (yeah, nearly an hour of singing and convincing to stay in the bed, but few tears) and then slept from 930-5. I gave her some water and put her in bed and she rolled over and fell asleep till 730. I think she did it just to screw with me.

Jan 24th

7:30am

I don't even know how many times she woke up last night. I knew she slept well one night just to mess with me.

1:22pm

NO TEARS at dropoff this week. 2 days, the teacher met her before her actual classroom and led her by the hand. Today, she just left me behind and climbed up the 3 steps herself (as I took off running so she couldn't look back at me and waver). I think a late dropoff (caused by NOT SLEEPING ALL NIGHT) is actually helpful because none of the other kids are crying when she gets there. She gets upset when kids cry.

Jan 29th (second day of 3rd full week of school)

UPDATE: SHE SLEPT THRU NIGHT LAST NIGHT. 2 DAYS IN A ROW HAS ENTERED CLASSROOM HAPPILY AND ON HER OWN - NO SUBTERFUGE OR HANDHOLDING. I ALMOST CRIED WITH HAPPINESS!!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY!!!
 


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Ramblings.

Tenemos que arreglar la calle porque esta MUY OSCURO!

This was her technique for stalling getting into the car last night - she wanted to play outside but I wanted to get to the grocery store. So she balked at the car door and started pontificating about whatever she could come up with in the hopes that she could redirect me into playing outside instead. That line above was her opening volley and it worked. I laughed a little out loud and followed her up and down the the block as she narrated. It was 6pm, totally dark out, and there was an inch or so of snow on the ground. But we were letting THCSITU sleep since he'd gotten up with her during half of her night wakings and spent most of the day single parenting while I was out.

When she says stuff like that, it's usually accompanied with some hilarious gesture mimicry - she takes her finger and uses it to sort of accentuate her point, whatever that may be. It's sort of halfway between a finger wag and a "Eureka!" motion. I'm not sure where she got that from.

In general, when she really gets going, she will construct these incredible run-on sentences, usually using a single connecting word repeatedly: porque, pues, y, or despues. By the time the "sentence" ends it's so far from where she started that the whole thing makes no sense at all. One clause porque another clause porque a different clause porque...

Her use of "esto" is really hilarious. It's totally correct, but just so entertaining to hear her say it. I'm not sure why.

Also, the "muy oscuro!" referenced in the first line is a phrase she's had for months. She has this great inflection when she says it, very dramatic. MUY OSCUUUUUUUUUUUROOOOO!