I have no idea what ‘Gymboree’ is. I thought it was a place that you took your little ones to burn off some energy? Then I thought it was a children’s clothing store? I’m still not entirely certain of what it is, but the ‘Gymboree’ name is on the spine of three books that Coco received as a gift over the weekend, and she’s nothing short of obsessed. Me, too.

Shapes.

Colors.

Numbers.

Over-sized board books with vibrant and simple illustrations to accompany the text. The books are written in English, and translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish. And additionally, the words are then spelled out phonetically in their foreign language translation.

Coco has been asking me to read them to her, again and again, for the better part of the afternoon. And while I know my colors, numbers and shapes in 4 of the languages, I do not know any of those words in German, so I’m not rolling my eyes at the monotony of the same three books, over and over. On the contrary, I’m pointing out everything in the house that I can in German. Awesome. Well, except for the eye roll that I’m pretty sure I saw Coco give me, after the myriad of random requests I’d put out there for her, such as: “please bring me the blau plate in the shape of a quadrat with the zwei butterflies painted on it.”

I just hope that Coco doesn’t do to me what I do to her when she gets hung up on one book for weeks on end. That would be to hide it. In the far and dark reaches of our home. Never to be seen again. That would be a real bummer.