How to tell grandkids 'I love you' in another language

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I tell my grandsons I love you a lot. Returning the sentiment to those who say it to them was one of the first phrases they learned, though it did sound a bit like a foreign language at first, one only family members understood. Phonetic translation of Mac’s first utterance of it: Wuh woo!

Such I love yous in a language foreign to all but family members can become a shared sweetness, carried on through the years. But have you ever said I love you in Finnish? Swahili? Russian? Or even Spanish, for those of you who—like me—have not even the most basic of foreign language skills?

While I love you sounds the very same in some languages—think Malaysian and Maltese—there’s a whole world of ways it can be pronounced in other languages. The great thing is, you don’t need to know another language in order to learn how to say sweet somethings to your grandchildren (and others) in more ways than one, thanks to the Translate application from Google.

In the Google Translate app, simply type in a word or phrase you want to translate to another language, choose the language you’d like to convert it to, and hit enter. You then not only see how it is written, you have the ability (in most languages) to hear it pronounced.

Here are a few examples of I love you in various languages:

Swahili — Nakupenda

Dutch — Ik hou van je

Afrikaans — Ek is lief vir jou

Latin — Te amo

Czech — Miluji tě

Vietnamese — Tôi yêu các bạn

French — Je t'aime

German — Ich liebe dich

Filipino — Mahal kita

Irish — Is breá liom tú

Choose from one of those or perhaps one that’s part of your family heritage. Better yet, visit Google Translate with your grandchild to choose another. The phrase you choose and learn can then be your special love language, at least when it comes to saying I love you.

You also can type in a phrase you typically say to your grandchildren—such as the one I often say to my grandsons to make them giggle: Grandma loves you soooooo much!—and find another language in which to say it. It’s a great way to create a special code word or phrase just for you and your loved ones to share throughout the years.

My special phrase for my two grandsons in Swahili? Grandma anakupenda sana! And I do. Soooooo much!

Happy Valentine's Day! Or as they say in Azerbaijani: MüqəddəsValentin günü!

Today's question:

What special twist do you put on your I love yous, to kids or other loved ones?

Many word Wednesday: Grandma's Valentines

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I recently succumbed to the One-word Wednesday meme. Once in a while, I must make it a Three-word Wednesday. Today, though, I pull out all stops and count not a word, for it will take far more than one and many, many more than three to explain this photo. Here are my many words:

All about Pinterest are cute crafts in which kids use their hands, feet, toes, thumbs to create mementos for Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, anyone who's into saving funny shaped ghosts, reindeer and more featuring an adored kiddo's paw print. I love these things, have made such things with my grandsons, even created a board in which I collect the ideas.

While perusing my Pinterest boards for ideas for Valentine's Day, I came across that board and decided to turn such handprints on their head, so to speak. I enlisted PawDad's help, and together we painted our hands to create a Valentine's Day masterpiece for our grandsons. Here's what we came up with (do note that the names inside the hand hearts are the boys' real names, changed here via Picasa magic to Bubby and Mac as that's they're assumed names on my blog):

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Along with packages of M&Ms and a few deflated balloons on which I wrote messages o' love for each boy to appreciate once the balloon is inflated, this is what they get from Gramma and PawDad for Valentine's Day. I hope our grandsons love them as much as we love them—the boys, that is.

Full disclosure: I hung our first practice handprint—with J + L written in the center—on my refrigerator. I love not only my grandsons, but PawDad, too.

Today's question:

What are you sharing with your loved ones for Valentine's Day?

Ivory Soap + microwave + kids = unexpected fun

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More than six months ago, I pinned this interesting pin on Pinterest, figuring I'd one day try it with my grandsons—crafting with Ivory soap that had been heated in the microwave. It may sound odd, but it looked like good, clean (plus cheap and easy) fun.

I decided we'd finally give it a shot during my recent stay with Bubby and Mac, so I packed several bars of Ivory Soap for the trip. I was right about it being good, cheap, easy fun. The clean? Well, surprising as it may seem, this was one of the messier projects I'd done with the boys. More on that later, though, after you see how much fun we had, regardless of the mess.

What you need:

• One bar of Ivory Soap

• A microwave

• A smidgen of water

• Cookie cutters (optional)

What you do:

Unwrap the bar of soap and place on as large a microwavable platter or paper plate as will fit in your microwave.

Put the plate with soap in the microwave, turn the timer to about 5 minutes (knowing you'll likely stop it before time's up), hit Start, then watch the magic!

The bar of soap will expand and puff up into a nearly basketball-sized chunk of fun. As it gets bigger and bigger, stop the microwave as the soap becomes large enough to soon touch the walls or top of the microwave interior. (This is about 3-5 minutes, depending on your microwave.)

Using hot pads, remove the soap from the microwave. It will be hot but cools quickly.

Allow the kids to marvel at it.

Once the soap has cooled completely (beware the center as unpuffed remains of the bar of soap will be hot), have the kids tear it into pieces and place in a large bowl.

Add a small amount of water—about 1/8 cup, a little at a time—then mix and mix and mix with a wooden spoon until the chunks are relatively smooth and about the consistency of Play-Doh.

Divide the mixture between the kids (I put it on paper plates in hopes of containing the mess). Let them have at it, enjoying the texture and shaping as desired.

Bubby loved the soapy surprise:

Mac loved it, too (though I did have to make sure he didn't taste it):

Pressing the mixture into cookie cutters is an option, too, one we opted for the second time we did this, when we just had to show Mommy and Daddy how cool it was.

Whether made free form or pressed into cookie cutters, let the shapes dry and harden for about a day. Once hard and dry, they provide another round of fun at bath time.

As I mentioned at the outset, you may think this would be a clean project, considering it's just soap. It is...until you start breaking the chunk of soap apart and it flakes and creates white soap specks everywhere.

The first time I did this with my grandsons, it was a pretty big mess. Washing up the soap flakes turned them into lathery streaks that took several washings. Plus, spots the boys touched were marked with hard chunks of soap—chair backs, their clothes, even Mac's ear that he had scratched mid-molding.

The second time we did this, though, I was more determined to contain the flakes and powder from the soap. It made for a cheap, easy, relatively clean, and unexpectedly good time.

This post linked to Grandparents Say It Saturday.

Today's question:

What did you most recently use your microwave for?