The Sayings of Emma and Eva as Recorded by Their Father
An excerpt

The baby finally has an official name and it’s Eva, middle name Livia. Emma, who was ecstatic, suddenly became jealous and asked ‘Why does she have two names and I have only one?’ She wept bitterly.


‘Babushka says she hopes you have a happy birthday tomorrow and get a lot of presents.’ ‘Did she say how much?’

Babushka = grandmother, Russian.


Emma turns six.

Emma wants to live in a house that is ‘so beautiful’. Beautiful in what way? ‘It has so much decoration you can’t see the house.’


Face painting at a Christmas party. Emma: ‘Ich möchte Maria sein! Ich möchte Maria sein!’ To Manfredi: ‘Magst du Josef sein?’ Manfredi: ‘Ich möchte ein Tiger sein!’

Ich möchte Maria sein = I want to be Maria, German.

Magst du Josef sein? = Do you want to be Joseph?

Ich möchte ein Tiger sein! = I want to be
a tiger.


‘Can you stop talking about kaka all the time. All the time, kaka. Stop!’ ‘But I like it.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because at six you’re supposed to do stuff like that!’


Me to Eva: ‘Hi, medvezhònok!’ Emma: ‘What’s medvezhonok?’ Me: ‘You forgot what a medvezhonok is? Baby bear.’ Emma: ‘Then what’s medvezhòn? Big bear?’

(Medvezhòn in Russian is a morphologically plausible but inexistent ...