Greetings

Coming into our house these days is a little like entering a foreign land. With Genevieve around we have adopted all sorts of strange customs: hermetically sealed toilet seats, cabinets with nothing in them and chairs inexplicably on their sides or facing walls. Though strange, these customs are not nearly so daunting as the language of our land… Evienglish. Now Evienglish resembles your standard English in many respects, it is just pronounced a little odd in patches and has a tendency to take phrases and turn them into one gargantuan word. Although quite well versed in Evienglish even her fellow citizens (i.e., Mom and Dad) sometimes have a bit of a communication gap.

For example, earlier this week as I was putting Genevieve to sleep she stopped me from reading her story, gave me a very serious look and then grabbed my hand and said “gaicetoeatyou mommy” I gave her a puzzled look and then she emphatically did this again, shaking my hand and saying “gaicetoeatyou mommy”. Then, frustrated with me, Evie walked to the door and said “gaicetoeatyou daddy?” so I let her out the door to see her dad. Who, being a better Evienglish interpreter than I, shook her hand and said “Nice to meet you too, Evie.” Ohh of course! Silly mommy, the handshake should have been a dead give away!


Now the key to Evienglish acquisition is repeat, repeat and repeat. So, like any new phrase Genevieve is not happy just to “meet you” once. Oh no, she meets just about all of us about three or four times a day now. And let me tell ya, meeting people is pretty exciting. So exciting that she will even jump up and down as she shakes your hand (thus the blurry photos). But really why just meet people? Shouldn’t dogs and cats be met as well? Genevieve, being an equal opportunity meeter, also frequently goes up to Kita and Whiskers to shake their paws and say “Nice to meet you Kita”. Whiskers, being the more tolerant of the two, bears the brunt of the pleasantries…. Occasionally getting not just his front paws but back paws shook too.

So there you have it, your Evienglish lesson, not to mention a bit of insight into one of our customs, for the week.