Random things they say

Baby Taz 's speciality is to repeat

'C'est pas juste !' whenever he feels indignated or left out.

Lil Miss N often says to me ' Tu es la parfaite mummy !' or

'Tu es mon grand amour pour toujours/toute la vie'

Baby Taz will continually say 'On a pas ça' which can be heard most often after the bombardment of toy advertisements during the busiest period of the year preceding Christmas/Noël as that is the best time to rouse and brainwash children into action and hence indirectly influencing parents' and general public's gift buying/purchasing decisions.

Maman maman

Lil Miss N had me worried the other day when she proudly announced that she wanted to become une maman.

Lil Miss N : J'aimerais bien devenir maman !

Seeing my bewildered expression, my jaw must have dropped and I was left speechless

Lil Miss N qualified her declaration : Je veux juste être maman pour de semblant ou m'occuper de Lil Miss Feisty.

Soulagement..............................

Handsome stud !

Baby Taz khong co moche translated to Baby Taz is not ugly

Baby Taz dep trai translated to Baby Taz is handsome

Baby Taz khong co hu*: Baby Taz is not naughty

Baby Taz ngoan: Baby Taz is good

etc

Basically according to Baby Taz he is a well-behaved and utterly handsome boy. I have no idea as to where his vanité appartient. He insists adamantly that he is indeed handsome and sage. My only feasable explanation Tel père, tel fils ! One cannot escape ones own gene pool or ones' parents influence.

Whose fault ?

When pointing at a stain on the wall (one of the many in our apartment) and inquisitively demanding Baby Ben

'Who did this ?'

Quick as a flash and without the slightest hint of hesitation her reply echoed back

'Baby Taz did it.'

Our family consists of finger pointing and it begins at the tender young age of not yet two.

This in fact applies to a myriad of faults, whatever the fault or damage is Baby Ben will be quick to point out that it is her brother Baby Taz (who is by no means innocent) who had dunnit. Baby Taz in turn blames her for every other offence.

On the same token Lil Miss N complained that Baby Ben was bothering her and had headbutted her which resulted in pain and loose teeth. She went on to poutily declare that

'It is Bo's (Shrek) fault as it was his idea of wanting a family of four kids at least resulting in effectively four kids and consequences of having a younger brother and sister implies that I cannot have peace and quiet anymore'

When will the finger pointing stop ? In fact it never really will because human nature dictates that before navel gazing and figuring out our own faults we will blame others, nature, goverments, parents and anyone or anything other than ourselves before we finally realise that 'We are responsible for our own mistakes, faux pas and must own up to it or it will catch up with us eventually.'

Cycle of life

Lil Miss N worriedly catechized me re our mortality

Here is roughly how our conversation went


Miss N : I don't want to die when I get older

Me: It's a part of life sweetie. We all must die some day

Miss N: But I am afraid of death and can't I escape it ?

to which I diverted her attention to something more tangible for now.

Mortality is something human beings have to come to grasp with and I was surprised that it's a preoccupation for Lil Miss N at her tender age of 6 already.

I do hope that this particular preoccupation does not prevent her from enjoying life to the max... one cannot shield oneself from the grasps of death : it is a natural evolution of the cycle of life but one can maximise and make the most of our time here on Earth and that is one thing one can determine and master.

Baby Taz's language evolution

Phrases that Baby Taz are throwing around :

Je vais tout dire à mummy
ça va tomber (repeatedly)
c'est quoi ça
Baby Taz khong muon can be translated to Baby Taz veut pas ça
Baby Taz khong thich can be translated to Baby Taz n'aimes pas ça
Ngay mai mummy mua nha' meaning Mummy will buy it (it being anything) tomorrow
C'est pas bon
C'est pas moi
Bo pété
C'est gagné (thanks Dora)
...

He is expanding his vocabulary and is speaking more sentences and phrases everyday.
He is becoming a precious little boy.
Apart from his temperamental 'crises' and non-stop repetitive and annoying obsessions he is an adorably cute boy. Love you baby Taz

Tele-obey

A conversation between Petit Suisse and I went something like this

Me : Petit Suisse please explain to me why you think that is that you are a renowned and model student at school with decorum and examplary behaviour according to your teacher and yet you display such abominable conduct and disobedience at home ?

Petit Suisse : J'ose pas de dire
which translates to 'I don't dare say it'

Me : Please tell me so I can begin to understand the workings of this strange phenomenon

Petit Suisse : Mais je n'ose pas de dire
visibly he is not too keen on disclosing the real reason which got me a bit upset and worried but I kept my cool and insisted some more

Me : C'mon you can tell me anything. All I am trying to do is to get an insight so that I could change if need be.

Petit Suisse : Television



According to Petit Suisse the reason as to why he is a well behaving, obedient model student with decorum at school and a not so angelic rugrat at home is due to the fact that there is no television at school.


Amen to that... The television is evil !!!

Whispers

Lil Miss N was surreptitiously excited as she beckoned me to lower my ear to her level so she could whisper a top secret into my ear.

It was pleasing beyond words to hear


...


'Je t'aime et c'est tout'

Je t'aime aussi ma petite princesse !!!


Yeah yeah I know I know I am falling into that parental trap of treating my daughters like precious princesses and my boys as valiant knights or little princes. Call me typical or whatever but I am not budging !


On another tangent she often tells me that

'T'es une jalouse'
which totally perplexes me to no end so I requested an explanation or enlightenment

She coolly interjected that 'You always have and wear all the beautiful dresses and adornments, in short you cover yourself in beautiful things and so you 'faire jalouse les autres dames'. Ah I see she means that I look so beautiful that I leave other women green with envy, she just didn't know how to phrase it. Coming from my own daughter it might seem biased and can be likened to 'the cat admiring the magnificent length of its tail' (Vietnamese idiom) but I will take it because as far as I am concerned kids do not lie.

Baby language evolution

Fourmi, fourmi, fourmiiiiiiii !

Baby Taz is fascinated by birds, insects and ants in particular.

He knows how to say bird, ant and dog.

His vocabulary is broadening ever so slowly.

He knows how to kid around and when asked 'where's Baby Taz?' He will respond Baby Taz here but points towards someone else. He knows to play round.

Reconnaissance

I was especially stoked when I heard Lil Miss N utter

'Je sais que tu travail très dure tous les jours mama.' with an utmost respect and recognition of what I do for her and her siblings everyday.

I feel vindicated and that my efforts are worthwhile even if they are not renumerated or have not materialised into a paycheck and will not be recognised by society at large as home duties, child rearing and housework are considered banal. It is as if those who simply tend their nests and take care of their own families are worthless because they do not contribute positively to society by way of paying taxes.

Aside from polemic and what not It is for those few touching words that I strive so hard for.

'Je t'aime de tout, tout, tout mon cœur'

Those are words to melt a mummy's heart.

Awww
It is not merely sentimental but purely love that ultimately renders us happy and balanced or whole.

Je vous aime tous mes chers, chers enfants pour toujours !
Ta maman cherie

Vocabulary of a 2 year old

Baby Taz has added to his impressive vocabulary the following


'Oui Mama' which I love, I have got to admit the boy is right here

and
'Yo yo mec!' which has the equivalent of 'Yoh dude' or 'Hey dude!'

Super glue

Baby Ben's new nickname should be super glue because she has been clinging to me without fail. She refuses to play with her siblings and instead prefers to be held in mummy's arms. She is also resolutely super glued to mummy when night falls and refuses steadfastly when coerced by daddy returning home from work. Shrek feels slightly rejected by Super glue and hopes that this phase will fade away fast.

Petit Suisse et Lil Miss N ont collés sur le dos de Ben le adorable petit nom de

'Pot de colle'

It's mighty sweet of them and ironic considering not too long ago they were also what I would refer to as petits pots de colle !

Little Miss Stroppy

It does not take much to ruffle Lil Miss N's feathers these days. She seems to have a kerfuffle and throw a hissy fit/temper tantrum over the most miniscule things. She is a sulky and insufferable cry baby at least once if not several times a day.

She loves to throw around

'T'es méchant(e)' depending on the sex of the person she is talking to.

I was bed ridden and she blamed me for not having surveyed her 'make believe cabane' which she had concocted out of a blanket and some of her knick knacks... and allowed Baby Taz and Ben to destroy her fortress.

She went on and on and on for a good half hour screaming and hurling
'T'es méchante, je comprends tu n'a pas voulu surveiller...etc'

She gets upset over games that she deems too complicated or unwinnable for her. She is an especially bad loser.

She is just going through a difficult phrase as I do not condone the continuing of this reckless misbehaviour.

Things kid say

Lil Miss N has a habit of unintentionally mangling the French language. Take the example of her constant and frequent usage of the phrases

'C'est plus pire', C'est plus bon or C'est plus mauvais

which means it's more worse, it's more good or it's more bad

She can count from one to thirty in French except she manages to stumble onto 30 by declaring vingt dix au lieu de dire trente.

She is cute regardless

Things kids say

One of the most often heard sentences coming out of Lil Miss N's mouth is
'Je vais tout dire à mama!'
This is a threat and an offensive weapon that Lil Miss N is armed with and it's quite effective as her rival for the most part Petit Suisse immediately surrenders unconditionally.


'Oui ou non, dire avec ta bouche.'
Petit Suisse is none too happy with a simple nod or shake of the head, he wants to hear the word yes or no uttered without any ambivalence or ambiguity.

Croquant

"Notre sœur est craquant/croquant * "

Our little sister is impossibly cute. The direct translation is actually cracking or crunching.

Petit Suisse and Lil Miss N were overheard saying this lil phrase over and over again in reference to and in awe of Petite Baby Ben. She really is adorable and can melt ice with her smile. I am definitely biased because I am her mum and mums cannot help but be enamoured with their munchkins.


* I think both are applicable in this case. This is also in reference to the character 'Croque-Pomme' who is 'Charlotte aux Fraises' aka Strawberry Shortcake's adorably cute little sis in the animated series of which Charlotte aux Fraises is the heroine.

Superhero dream

Petit Suisse is a dreamy fellow. He has said more than once

"Je ne peux pas m'arrêter de penser et rêver que je suis un superhero"

Dream on child...dreams are what keep us from drab reality.

A is for ...

Baby Taz's limited vocabulary can be broken down to the following

mama : which can either mean 'mama', 'I am hungry' or 'I want that', 'Gimme'

papa : denotes any person or people or animal in general

caca : connotates any object and encompasses actual caca, toys, etc etc

nana : means 'maternal grandma' and he actually has this down pat.

I am looking forward to expanding and widening Baby Taz's vocab and linguistics beyond baby babble and the 'a' sound.

I really thought that he had begun speech with words...but it has stalled for a while and he is stuck on mama, papa, caca and nana for now.

Every kid have their own rhymth when it comes to walking, talking and being toilet trained so I am patiently waiting for Baby Taz to dazzle us with pizazz...

Shrek's maxim

Shrek has undeniable wisdom and rife life experiences which leads to him formulating gems such as the following

'One drop of black ink is all you need to render any other colour black (or shades of black)'

I wonder whether I should be proud for having such a smart hubby or worried he is capable of being a potty mouth.
He is definitely unique and I'll give him ccredit for that.

They said it

When asked by Shrek who the most important person in the household is, Lil Miss N without the slightest hint of hesitation or doubt coolly replied 'Me of course'.

I come in a close second.

Lil Miss N has a very healthy dose of narcissism or healthy self-image and self importance already.