There has been a heat wave in the last few days, shaking the semi-Siberian Parisian climate of May to a sub-equatorial one in June…last night the three of us were hanging out on the big bed enjoying the first evening breeze and fresh clean sheets, when a suddenly excited Milo looked at us as if he just had a great idea and begun asking:
“Mujita! Mujita!”
As it often happens, the Belgianite and I were clueless as to what he meant, and in which language he was speaking, but we tried our best to understand:
“What? What is mujita?”
An impatient Milo insisted: “Mujitaaaa, mujita, mujita, mamma!”, looking at me as if it was pretty obvious.
“…mu…jita? I don’t understand, Milo, what is it, show me.”
An increasingly frustrated Milo raised his voice, like adults do when speaking with foreigners, as if they were deaf!
“Mu-ji-ta!! Mujita!! Mujita, mujita, mujita, papá… (at least you should know this!)”
We were lost…we squeezed our brains, we tried our best, we looked around us, what in heaven was this kid asking for…he did not give up:
“Mujita, mujita, mujitaaaa…”
“Milo beetje moe?” asked the Belginite, concentrating on the sound (moe = ‘tired’ in Dutch)
“Ne, mujita mujita, mujita…” replied Milo, the expression on his face now clearly signifying 'these guys are useless'!
Somehow we both agreed that he must be using an Italian word, but I could not detect it, so the Belginite tried again:
“How does papa call that?”
“Mujita”
“.. !?...and the nanny? How does she call it?”
“Mujita... (What do you think?!)”
By now Milo really thinks we are a pair of brain-dead morons…how can we not possibly get it?
Finally a neuron sparked in my heat and pregnancy deflated head:
“You mean…musica?”
“Siiiiiiiiiii!!! Mujita!!! mujita!!!”
Hope was restored in what was beginnign to be an unjust world!
He wanted his papa to play the piano and put on some music, the party boy!
And when he finally did, he looked at me joyfully a couple of times stressing:
“Mujita, mamma, mujita!”
Like saying “Isn’t this great?! Do you get it now?”
7 comments:
This is soooo cute, it is sometimes an adventure to try to find out what they want to tell us!! i often have the same problem with my daughter althought it is more often with a word that she completly invented herself!!! Few weeks ago it took me most of the day to work out that the word "billies" is what she uses to say "ears" !!! where is the logic behind that !!??
I like this story... and initially thought about a Spanish word... but not yet. May come later with some Spanish friends. I think with all this, your Dutch is also improving...
Ha! Adorable! That one was tougher to crack than the DaVinci code.
Oh, he loves music, like Linton, my youngest. I was wondering how exactlly he was pronouncing it, since like Giovanni, I initially thought of it with a Spanish pronunciation.
aw, how cute! Try making a list of those words and have great fun later on re-reading them! I still have a couple which Isabella said that haven't figured out to-date: like "huttagadaffi" ...
Langenscheid (German version) actually published a Dictionary on Baby-German! It attempts to translate the most common words little kids say into "German" (apparently there must be a consensus in expression, here).
It reminds me an anecdote about my son. It's easier for me to write it in French, sorry for those who don't understand.
Mon fils (plus ou moins à l'âge de Milo) me dit un jour en italien "macchina aleio" (voiture + mot incompréhensible) et le répète en vain. Se désespérant de ne pas être compris, il me le traduit dans la langue de sa mère (que je connais à peine...).
C'est pourtant là que je comprends enfin. Habitué à entendre de sa mère simplement "tamthe" pour l'avion, il a découvert avec l'arrivée de sa grand-mère qu'on pouvait aussi dire "motua tamthe" (où "motua" seul veut dire voiture).
Il a pensé faire bien en appliquant la même règle pour l'italien "macchina aereo", c'était ma foi logique!
I cried from laughing. Mainly the facial expressions: "you morons!". My daughter (2Y) is brought up in 4 languages (french with mum, english with dad, spanish and valenciano at local nursery) and it just rings so many bells.
Thanks for that, have a big smile on my face right now!
Nathalie
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