August 22, 2005
What are they building in there?
I'm in Tampa with my brother's family right now. The center of attention in the house is a cute two and a half year old girl named Danae. She really is very cute. I'm not biased at all. I knew she was cute before I came here, but I wasn't prepared for how smart she is and how conscious she is of the world around her. I'm also amazed that she can speak English better than many adults I know. Today she said:
(offering me her sippy-cup or water) "Here, would you like a sip?"
OK, actually, though she used those actual words, it sounded more like "hewer, wouldjoo wike a schip?" I expect most little kids to just thrust the cup and/or say something like "drink?" or "here." Maybe it's normal for little girls to talk like this, but it seems pretty cool to me.
Then, as Kathy, Danae, and I were walking into church on Sunday, Kathy was telling Danae the plan for the morning. Kathy told Danae that we would all go to the nursery together during Sunday school, but then Kathy and I would go to the service and Danae would have to stay in the nursery. Kathy asked (rhetorically) if that was OK, and Danae replied very calmly and matter-of-factly in her small voice, "No, I will cry."
She's great. I like her. I'm happy I get to be her uncle.
Oh, and speaking of that, here's another funny thing. When she was born, I got to choose what she would call me. Since I was living in Hungary at the time, I wanted to use the Hungarian word for uncle. In Hungarian, a title (and/or last(family) name) come after the first name. So I asked to be called Neal Bácsi (pronounced "bahchi"). But she has other uncles too, and they chose the more traditional title (like Uncle Bob). This confused Danae. So now, when she's happy to see me, she runs over to hug me and yells, "Uncle Bácsi."
See, she's really cute.
Posted by neal on August 22, 2005 01:51 AM