tens of things

my son can count to 10 in english and spanish and german. we are working on french and mandarin and cantonese. he’s almost there on french. not so much on the chinese versions. the tones are lost on him at this point.

i say this not to brag, although i do think my son is a spectacular human being and has excellent pronunciation of his german numbers. i say it to remember. so that if it is not always the case that he can count to 10 in a bunch of languages, i will remember that when he was two-and-a-half he could.

i say it also to remind myself that i, too, was once a sponge and thirsted to know things. i’m not very much like that anymore. i take advantage of the option far too often to have other people know things for me. #forshame

back to the remembering part.

ten seems to be his favorite number in any language. he shouts it and throws his arms in the air.

“zehn!”

“ten!”

“diez!”

his pronunciation of 8 in german (acht) is stellar. and three (drei) sometimes is pronounced most german-ly. i grinned from ear to ear and back again when he counted to 10 in german for his grandpa, who speak german. grandpa was very impressed.

he often says “tres” as if it starts with a k or q. he’s young. cut him some slack.

my husband once sent me a video when i was at work in dc of my son counting to 10 in all three languages and then saying “bye mommy.” my mom still watches the video with some regularity. i should. it could bring a smile to anyone’s day. anyone’s, i tell you.