Sweet days (in the Vallée de Chevreuse) + my Friday sweet links

Sweet days... Everyone tells me to enjoy these moments because they'll pass so quickly. I believe it and I try a little harder to soak all the goodness in. Between hectic weekdays, there's sometimes a sweet pause. I stand still and I breathe in deeply, wanting to take in every particle of this existence that is mine. My life is a gift and I feel so blessed. Of course, I'm almost always tired, often worried about this or that, and I'm still carrying more baby weight than I wish to admit. But I have everything I need to be happy and my heart tells me to enjoy these days, because someday I'll look back on them with wistful longing...

And so that's just what I did last Wednesday while waiting for Alex to finish his swimming class. Sweet moments in the Vallée de Chevreuse.

 

My Friday sweet links are a just few things that have inspired me this week!

• On owning a dog, for my Francophone readers: Sacrée boule de poils
• 8 Secrets To a Perfect Burger. If you love grilling burgers, you do not want to miss this post!
• For my Mexican cuisine aficionados, a recipe for Aguas Frescas, how Chou makes a French style torta and the cutest Guacamole recipe I've ever seen!
• Mother's Day is celebrated on the 26th here in France. Last minute ideas for my France residing readers here, here and here!
• I want to make these as aprons for my girls (and mysel!): reversible spring pinafores.

Bisou,

-The Paris Busy Bee

Raising multilingual children: baby talk and 10 unexpected surprises

So what are some of the unexpected surprises that have come your way on your multilingual adventure? I've put together a list of ten unexpected suprises in no particular order. You'll have to tell me if you can relate. ;)

1. My children actually love being trilingual. I'd like to chalk it up to my unfailing enthusiasm, but could it be that Spanish and English are not really "minority languages" here in France, but rather revered? (Especially English.) My children feel pretty special about this in addition to all the wonderful advantages of speaking multiple languages.
2. What's a language? My daughter Gabriela (6) still has a hard time knowing what I mean when I ask her if she can say something in a particular language. "What is French?" she'll ask and even if I clarify by saying "en français" she still doesn't get it. Or at least she pretends not to. She does the same for English and Spanish.
3. Baby talk. My children always speak to each other in French. That is a hard and fast rule. But that's not what's surprising. What's surprising is that when Rémy came along, they started occasionally breaking this rule to speak to him in English and Spanish! Could it be because most of their interaction with him is through me and they seek to mimic the way I speak to him? 
4. Trilingual does not equal perfectly fluent. Just because my children speak all three languages at home, doesn't mean they perfectly understand other native speakers or are able to immediately mingle in a group of children who speak the language in question.
5. More baby talk. For the first time in my life, I want to speak French to my baby Rémy and in spite of my best efforts to stay in the target language, sweet baby talk in French spontaneously sneaks out of my mouth every now and then! Ooooh, mon bébé d'amour! Je t'aime!
6. Auto-correct. Alex who is 12 has auto-corrected many language mistakes he used to make when he was younger and corrects his sisters with mini grammar lessons! "You know Elena, I used to say the same thing, but..." I love it!
7. The same mistakes over and over and over. My children repeatedly make the same inter-language transfer mistakes. For example, Alex says "benediccion" in Spanish (like in French) instead of "bendicion" and Gabriela says "I don't can't" instead of "I can't". And this no matter how many times we correct them. I guess we just need to wait for the auto-correct function (#6) to kick in, n'est-ce pas?
8. Accents. My children have odd little accents (in a cute way) that don't really ressemble anything (especially my girls), but I wouldn't have it any other way!
9. My children correct my French pronunciation. They also laugh when I use French argon because it doesn't "fit" my mom personality! I don't even realize it's argon until they're laughing at me!
10. Grammar, grammar, grammar. Even though I am teaching my children English and Spanish, I can't help myself and  correct their French grammar as well! All those years of studying French pay big dividends!

Raising multilingual children is an adventure. Every stage of life can bring unexpected turns, especially when multiple children are involved! Each child is born with an individual and unique personality and how he or she will react to his multilingual environment remains unknown until each experience is lived. But the whole of all these unique personalities, parents involved, creates a group dynamic that becomes the family's multilingual trademark.

In our case, we are a multi-cultural trilingual family living in France. Our children get French from their Papa, school, friends, their extended family, etc. The weight of the multilingual endeavors in this family, lies entirely upon the shoulders of the Maman. Two weeks in English, two weeks in Spanish. If ever I let down my guard, their additional languages would eventually die. But I'm a proud multilingual momma with a warrior attitude about preserving their ability to additionally communicate in English and Spanish.

How about you? What are some of the unexpected surprises you've encountered while raising multilingual children? Can you relate to anything in my list?

This article was written for the Raising Multilingual Children Blogging Carnival hosted by the piri-piri lexicon this month: May 2013.

Aid for Oklahoma

LDS Charities have a Humanitarian Aid Fund that helps millions of people in the world who suffer from natural disasters, like the people of Moore, Oklahoma currently suffering from the recent tornado. So if you're looking for a way to help monetarily, this is one way.

Donate online to the Humanitarian Aid Fund

Humanitarian Aid Fund

Millions of people in the world suffer from natural disasters every year. When disasters occur, LDS Charities sends food, clothing, medical supplies, and other emergency relief assistance to bless the lives of those with urgent needs.

Last year, LDS Charities responded to 111 requests in 50 countries. They included response to earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, relief to 55,000 refugees in Libya, and emergency aid to mudslide victims in El Salvador.

One hundred percent of every dollar donated is used to help those in need without regard to race, religion, or ethnic origin.

Note: Dark areas on the map represent those countries receiving aid. To allow for maximum flexibility in responding to emergencies, donations to LDS Charities (Humanitarian Services) are not earmarked for specific projects but are distributed where the need is greatest.

To learn about the humanitarian aid being given at this time to the victims of the tornados, follow this link:
Church Working With Oklahoma Officials to Provide Support in Wake of Tornadoes

With love,
Maria

An afternoon in Paris with my old college roommates

We were roomies at the Foreign Language Student Residence at Brigham Young University in the French house! Students of French and lovers of Paris! So it was only appropriate our reunion take place in Paris!

Now Christy I've seen several times here in France. Her doctoral thesis has brought her over this way several times over the past few years and we always manage to get together.

Here, here and here.

But Carrie, I hadn't seen since we parted ways not long before I married Sam over 12 years ago! It was so fun to see her again. She looks fantastic! And we had so much catching up to do and just spent the day gabbing away!

The day started out with decent weather, meaning some sunshine, some clouds, but no rain! ;)
And the Eiffel Tower was splendid and exciting, just like she always is!

I love the lacework on the Eiffel Tower!

We found a spot not far from the Eiffel Tower where we shared goodies that Carrie and Christy picked up at the marché earlier that morning. Cherry tomatoes, fresh charcuterie, tome de chèvre, warm baguette and fabulous conversation....

Natives? Nah!
Your guess is as good as mine, but they were too funny-looking to not sneak-snap a picture of them.

We then followed one of these free guided tours.

Téléchargez le programme : Parcours de l’eau à Paris 2013 - Mars à août 2013

And learned that Christy had the best listening comprehension in French out of all three of us. :) (Ahem! Never mind that I've lived in France for over 7 years now...)

Our tour guide was this adorable, little opinionated man who divulged the secrets and mysteries of the architecture in the 15th arrondissement.

This is our tour group standing on the Pont Rouelle, learning the mysteries of the Isle of the Swans, but we also enjoyed...

...a beautiful monument erected in memory of the Jews who were persecuted and killed in the early 20th century...

 

...chic Parisian buildings in the 15th arrondissement...

...the Pont Rouelle with more beautiful architecture in the background...

...and quaint houseboats floating lazily on the Seine...

And then...

Raindrops were falling on our head...

...but our spirits were not dampened.

...and three American girls admired the small replica of the Empire State Building from under the protection of  their umbrellas.

We walked
and we strolled
and we laughed
and we talked.

And the hours passed quickly without us ever noticing...

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

And so what better way to end a perfect afternoon?

Sipping a Paris-renowned chocolat chaud at

La Petite Maison dans la Cour...

Warm and rich and oh so lovely.

Just like spending time with dear old friends.

How about you? Do you keep in touch with your college day roomies? Your high school buddies?

Bisous,
-The Paris Busy Bee

P.S. These two are still wandering the streets of Paris, having a blast. Can't say I'm not a wee bit jealous, but alas! My domestic duties were calling!