das Dreieck / the triangle

Nikolas has had a wonderful week at school, once he has gotten over saying goodbye to us. Each morning has been a tearful one, no matter how we try to prep him and how excited he is when we leave for school. The tears don't last for long, however, and when we pick him up, he is always racing around the playground with other kids, hot and sweaty and happily exhausted from a very busy morning.

It is an Austrian kindergarten, so almost all the children and all the teachers are native German speakers. Nikolas has been resistant to speaking German at school, even telling us after school that he spoke English all day. The teachers speak German to Nikolas, even when he speaks English to them, just as Peter has done since Nikolas was born. Peter has wondered, half jokingly, if, at the end of the year, Nikolas would still be speaking English at school even though he's completely immersed in German.

The other night, Nikolas was lying in our bed for story time, playing with his fingers. He wasn't listening to the story, so completely distracted with playing with his fingers, but it wasn't obvious what he was doing. Finally, he got the fingers right - tips of his thumbs touching and tips of his pointer fingers touching - in the shape of a triangle.

"Look!" he said proudly. "A Dreieck!"
"A Dreieck?" I asked.
"It is a Dreieck!" said Peter. "How do you say that in English, Nikolas?"
"I don't know," Nikolas said, shaking his head. "It's a Dreieck."

The German is starting to creep in...