Austrian Elizabeth update

Finally I was able to introduce Elizabeth to Kamilla as she and her parents had been on a short trip to Tyrol. The first thing she said "She is so beautiful - so gorgeous!" Kamilla was intrigued with the fan, the dress with its beautiful lace and of course all her earrings. Elizabeth also brought Kamilla a little present: the new tote bag and also the little carrier bag with the sampler from Bath & Body Works that came in her box.

After all the excitement Kirsten decided to have a welcome tea in honor of Elizabeth arrival, which the girls enjoyed very much.

I have to add here that Kamilla and I had a great time playing and I was so proud of Kamilla as she spoke in English the whole time. Well, Kirsten showed off a couple of Swedish words to her friends too and had asked Felicity if she spoke any other languages besides English and German and she answered that she's also learning French. Kirsten then wanted her to say something in French and Felicity said 'Je suis tr?s heureux ?tre invit? au th? chez vous pour dire bien venu ? Elizabeth.' (I'm very happy to be invited by you for tea to welcome Elizabeth)

My sister also liked Elizabeth very much and said I should open an AG franchise here in Austria. We would go to NY frequently to get the new AG products - I'm going to be in charge for the girls prior to 1900 - she'll handle the ones after 1900 and Kamilla will be the all dolls and products tester.

Kamilla told me also that her wish list has changed slightly now - first on the list is still Marisol, followed by Kaya and now Elizabeth before Nellie.

That sounds like so much fun! I want a little girl around too!
Kamilla sounds like such a sweetheart, it must be fun giving dolls to someone who enjoys them so much.
-Kathrine

PS: Just out of curiosity, are you teaching Kamilla English just because it will be nice for her to know it, or is there a more personal reason like English-speaking family?

The tea looks so sweet, and Elizabeth is looking gorgeous, of course. The folks at AG are making it hard to keep those wish lists straight, aren't they? My DDs just don't know what to do about asking for Marisol: they don't want to miss out on her, but she would have to *bump* someone or something out of line in order to come for Christmas this year!

Shawn

Wonderful album. The girls all look so proper
and ladylike enjoying their tea. Elizabeth is sooo...beautiful! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for sharing Bridgette! Kamilla is very lucky to have an Aunt like you!!

Thanks for sharing those wonderful pictures!!! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Darling pictures Brigitte! Loved the story of Kamilla too. That is so neat she is learning different languages so well.

Shelly

Darling pictures Brigitte! Loved the story of Kamilla too. That is so neat she is learning different languages so well.

Shelly

Quote:

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Originally posted by Kathrine:

PS: Just out of curiosity, are you teaching Kamilla English just because it will be nice for her to know it, or is there a more personal reason like English-speaking family?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The main reason is that it's easiest for children to learn it in a playful way from a young age. As I love English a lot and have spent 2 years living in England, we just said lets teach her from the start and give her sort of a bilingual education. So from the very first day I started to only speak in English to her, reading English stories, singing English nursery rhymes etc.

Although she might not necessarily reply in English, we do know she understands all of it and when she asked for the meaning of a specific word I will first explain it in English and as a last resort say the German word. Often she will give the translation herself before I even have the chance to start explaining. It's also very funny to see her use an 'English' word in the middle of a German sentence, like 'Mama, haben wir das schon gepayed?' (Mama, did we pay this already?) - yesterday she used one too the whole time and but I don't remember which one it was.

Kamilla has also attended a Kindergarten which had a bilingual group with one of her teachers being an native speaker. At the beginning she had problems with Tammie's American accent, but soon she was the one translating for the other children. Now in primary school they have one hour of English once a week, where she's also the one translating and helping the teacher.

We have this cute story when Kamilla was only 2. My BIL took her into Vienna - it was at Christmas - and they took the subway. While waiting at the station for the train, Kamilla was running in circles around my BIL counting up to 10 in German. A lady standing nearby commented how great it was that she could count already. Kamilla just looked at her, turned around running the other direction and counting up to 10 in English. My BIL said it was so funny to see the lady's face - her jaw just dropped.

Oh, how beautiful your girls all look, Brigitte! What a fun tea party. I just love Kirsten's purple dotted dress. I hope my dd asks for that for her Kirsten soon. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The picture of Addy with the comment of the elderflower juice made me so homesick for Germany. [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img] I want to go back to Bayern.

What a nice tea time you had! [img]graemlins/star.gif[/img] I wish I was there. The elderflower juice sounds delightful. Everytime I see your Addy in photos, I think she is more beautiful than ever. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Julia

Cute pics!!!!!!!!!!!! [img]smile.gif[/img] You need more guests, lol

Brigitte...I have been meaning to tell you...I love your Avatar! You are very beautiful!

My husband taught our daughter the greek alphabet when she was 18-mos. old. It was hilarious when she would start reciting it in public!

I love the album.Kamilla is lucky to have an aunt like you!

zap_sea you can make your own elderflower cordial next spring with this recipe. My aunt used to make it. We can also buy it at every supermarket though. To help you come over the 'home-sickness' for Germany, I found a link where you can buy it in the US: <a href="http://www.britishdelights.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamTxt=elderflower&t xtsearchParamCat=ALL&txtsearchParamType=ALL&txtsea rchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearc h=fromSearch" target="_blank">
British Delights</a>

Thanks Ria, I'm working on that [img]wink.gif[/img] and the girl hiding in the closet for the past 2 months will soon be released for good. Only one more week to go!

Thank you so much Jenny!

Danielle, I have the best niece an auntie can have. I just can't help spoiling her.


Have to tell you all another cute story of Kamilla. Happened actually yesterday while I was at work, my sister and Kamilla showed our mum the photos from the trip to Tyrol, where they'd also visited an Alpine Zoo. They had various deer there, lynxes, marmots, capricorns, eagle, owls, falcon - just to name a few. Kamilla was explaining all the animals to my muma and when they came to the picture of the racoon she said "Das ist ein Racoon - ich wei? den deutschen Namen nicht." (This is a racoon, I don't know the German name.)
When I first saw the picture of the racoon I laughed and said that's a typical Austrian animal, checking the homepage of the zoo it actually says that the racoon 'emmigrated' to Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and was first seen in Austria in 1974. Unfortunately the homepage is only in German, but if you click on the button labelled 'Fotogalerie' you can see some pictures of the animals (Tiere).