Uno
Dos
Tes
Wato
Iko
Eis
Hete
Oko
Nebe
Des
Awwww! He knew all ten, well, sort of. I simultaneously felt guilty that he didn't know them in English and super proud that he had learned them in Spanish at Elia's house. Since then he has learned them in English too. It's so cool to have this unique and wonderful baby-sitting situation. You know how when you study something you just get the chance to marvel at it more? That's how I feel with Hendrik and language acquisition right now.
It's fun to hear him go back and forth and try to sort out when to say what. A lot of times when he says things in Spanish to me he will preface it by nodding and saying, "Mama Elia," as in, let me explain. Mama Elia says it this way. One night I was heating up some tortillas the way Elia showed me and Hendrik said, "taco!! Mama Elia taco!"
Elia told me the other day that she was distracted by something and didn't realize it was about lunchtime. Hendrik came up to her and said very seriously, "Mama Elia, hambre. Quiero comer." So funny-- I had no idea he could say that! At the dinner table the other night Hendrik was excitedly saying "feza!" over and over, and I couldn't figure out what it was. He wasn't looking at anything in particular so that didn't help. I started sifting through words in my head, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized he was saying fresa, strawberry. So we figured out what they snacked on that day.
The learning process is funny too. With counting, in both languages, Hendrik will get caught in a loop. He'll say four, five, six, seven.... four, five, six, seven... I always want to jump in with EIGHT! Eight already! That's what comes next.
To our great amusement he has picked up snatches of the alphabet song from a leapfrog toy he has. Here is his version of it:
A B C D
E I K
manananana
Q R outside
TV
double u axe
wipe see
nowmynanana
He does incorporate rests at the beginning too.
Ok, one last little language thing. The other day we were practicing clogging with Hendrik. As in, we watched some youtube videos of mountain clogging and fiddle music, and we hopped around in our kitchen and tried to kick our legs out a little like the dancers. This turned into Ring around the Rosie in the living room, and after we all fell down Hendrik looked up with a big smile and in a deep happy happy voice called out ¡Otra vez! Again!