Poopin'

We were reminded today of how much certain German words and expressions used to make us laugh. Before we left Basel, we bought a Holzvelo--a wooden bike without pedals that we used to see kids in Europe using all the time--for Mädchen when she got older. Now that she's probably old enough to try it out, I recently got it out of the box to put it together, and inside the box was a catalog featuring page after page of the wooden toys that we loved so much over there (and that cost even more of a fortune here than in Europe). Towards the end, there was a page of Puppenstuben-Puppen, which I suppose translates most directly as "dollhouse dolls." What we really liked about it wasn't the little wooden figures--it was trying to get Mädchen to say "POOP-in-SHTOO-bin-POOP-in" (which is how it's pronounced). After trying it a few times, she finally just said "poopy diaper!" instead and giggled a lot. There's nothing more worldly than teaching your daughter at an early age that foreign languages can be a great source of amusement...