Carnivore

For the second time now my computer has shut down Word and lost all my work! I am so frustrated I could spit. On a lighter note, this morning Luke was chomping away on a stuffed giraffe and looked just like a lion with slobber all down his chin. In the picture he’s done with the giraffe and shouting at his stuffed cow. He enjoys shouting at the cow…no other animals get this kind of attention, just the cow. In fact he often gets quite angry at the cow and has even launched him across the room in frustration. Last night Derek told Luke, “Someday you will get to eat real cow instead of chewing on a stuffed cow” and I said, “You don’t know, he may want to be a vegetarian”. “Oh no,” Derek said, “Our son will be a carnivore.”

You may also notice that he’s wearing Halloween jammies (thanks Deegan!). We’ve gotta wear them while they’re in season, don-cha-know.

Since we had such fun with the cow, I decided we would read, “The Cow That Went Oink”. It’s all about this cow that doesn’t know how to Moo, instead she goes Oink. The other animals all laugh at her, “Neigh-ha, Bow-wow-ha, Cockadoodle-ha”. Then one day she meets a friendly pig. The pig is sad too, because she has also been laughed at since she cannot say Oink. Instead she says Moo. Then the cow has a brilliant idea. She will teach the pig how to oink. The pig learns slowly, “Mook, mooonk, mooink” Until finally she says, “Oink!” Then the pig teaches the cow how to Moo. “Oinkoo, oinoo, oimoo” Until finally the cow can say “Moo!” All the other animals are dumbfounded because now the cow and pig can say both Moo and Oink, and they have the last laugh, “Moo-ha, Oink-ha”. They are bilingual farm animals!

I absolutely love this book. It’s more than a book in support of bilingual-ism (is this a word?). It’s a testament to friendship, the benefits of hard work, overcoming obstacles and cultivating understanding and a helpful spirit. We want to teach Luke more than one language while he’s still young. Obviously the first language he’s learning is English. I already know some Spanish, and Derek needs to learn French and/or German for a PhD, so we are debating between these three. Like the cow and pig, our son will be a bilingual animal, with the exception that he’s very definitely a carnivore.