"Ya 'ta"...All Done!

This is an exciting time with AR. Actually, every living, waking and sleeping moment with him has been exciting...But now we are in communication mode and it is fascinating to watch him pick up two languages simultaneously. This is the extent of his vocabulary so far (at least what we can understand of it):

English
ma-ma (mommy, of course)
da-da (daddy)
duh (duck)

Spanish
gua gua (agua)
Papá
ya 'ta! (ya está -- all done!)

Mommy has been really good about following the OPOL (one parent, one language) method. Papá, on the other hand, will find himself in hot water one day. The theory is that if the parents follow the OPOL method, the child will learn to separate the two languages and know who he should speak which language to. So in my case, if the theory is right, AR will always speak to me in English (at least intially).

However, since Papá speaks to him in both English and Spanish, AR will grow up thinking that Papá really speaks both languages. In reality, Papá just picks up on a few key sentences he hears me say ("give me a kiss", "pick it up", "mmmmmm yummy apple", etc.) and when he sees that I get a positive response, he also uses them! He gets frustrated at times because he feels that AR understands English much better than Spanish which is why he reverts to the simple English sentences. I have to laugh when Angel tells me that AR brings him books to read...but they are all in English!

I highly doubt that AR understands English better than Spanish. I am the only one who really speaks it to him on a consistent basis and we are only together in the mornings. Then he heads off to his daycare, which is all in Spanish, until his father or his abuelos pick him up around 7pm and continue communicating to AR in Spanish. Next year the daycare has programmed to change their curriculum to bilingual instruction...or at the very least, will have some English incorporated into the day's activities.

It is never to early to start worrying about the education of your child here in Spain, and especially if you want to raise him bilingually. We just learned that the public school in our neighborhood started bilingual education with this year's (Sept. 06) entering class. By the time AR is ready to go (Sept. '09) they will have had a couple of years under their belts to get the wrinkles out of the program. I am breathing a big sigh of relief because the only other option would be to send him to a private English school...to the tune of 700-800€ per month ($953-$1,090) ouch. We had already pulled him out of his English speaking daycare when the director announced that the rates were going to increase to $680 per month next year (with the surcharges for extra hours, snack, etc). Actually, our reasons for pulling him out were others, but the money factor certainly did not help the situation.

We are not completely out of the woods since spaces in the public school system are limited and with the boom in immigration lately -- both legal and illegal, the competition has become fierce. Of course the spaces in the public schools are awarded on a point-based system with those having the highest number of points the greater advantage. Points are awarded on the basis of your income (the lower the better), siblings (if you already have a child enrolled in the public school), where you live (your proximity to the school...the closer, the better), etc. Someone told me that with me being a native English speaker, AR will stand a better chance of getting into the public bilingual school. I have yet to confirm the rumor.

Anyway, for now we will continue our language development at home and with his friends through the Northern Stars Playgroup!

Score (another) one for the cooking club!

I have been feeling really domestic lately. My friends in the States wouldn't recognize me, the girl who used to dine out almost 3 times a week!

I scored points with Ángel and surprisingly with AR when I gave Dad's pancit recipe a test run. Not bad first time out of the box. In fact, Ángel liked it so much that he asked me to make a second batch of it. I willingly complied, happy that I found an appreciative audience. Pancit. The Filipino national dish. Yum!

Next came Dad's recipe for beef with broccoli. The trick of this recipe is to add just the right amount of fresh ginger and to not overcook the broccoli. After making a trip to a local Chinese food supermarket to get the ginger (something so "exotic" is nearly impossible to find in the neighborhood supermarket and when I asked at the hypermarket they didn't even know what jengibre was!) I once again donned my apron and Asian cooking cap (well, not really) and whipped up a batch of this yummy dish that Dad makes so well. Scored points (AGAIN) with the hubby and my little pumpkin delighted in sucking on a garlic and ginger laced broccoli stalk. No wonder his breath is a bit powerful at times!

However, the icing on the cake (pun completely intended) was when my suegra gave me the most flattering of piropos. The other day I had made a batch of simple butter cookies and then went off to work. Later that night my suegra and cuñada Cristina came over for a visit. Ángel took out the cookies and served them up with a nice cup of café con leche. My suegra was convinced that he had purchased them at the local pastelería. She said that while I made a great banana bread there was no way I made these cookies so light and flaky. :) Didn't that make my day! Now, she doesn't ask me to make her banana bread anymore because I gave her the recipe. However, she has already put her order in for another batch of butter cookies. I think this recipe will be kept a secret. You never know when a little soborno will come in handy!

Pancit, Baby! The Joy of Feeding AR...

Raising a bicultural/bilingual baby is more challenging than I originally thought. Heck, raising a kid is challenging enough without adding more ingredients to the mix.

One of the best words of advice that I recieved when I was pregnant with AR came from a dear high school friend who has 3 of his own. He must know what he's talking about. I have these words permanently engraved in my head: "You will receive a lot of advice from a lot of people. The only advice that I will give you is to follow your instincts and you will be fine".

Since then, I have listened to advice from my American friends, Spanish friends, my mother, my suegra, a couple of pediatricians, lab technicians etc. Sometimes I wonder if my instincts are right!

If that weren't enough, we have this wonderful invention called the internet which allows me to see what the trends are in the States as far as feeding baby and can compare them to trends here in Spain.

Mom was really surprised when AR's first solid meal (after cereal) was a puree of carrots, potatoes, leeks, zucchini, pumpkin and chicken. Here they follow the sink or swim protocol of feeding baby. All or nothing. None of this test each food separately, keeping a diary. After reading so many (American) magazines and websites, you can bet that I was just a bit uncertain. Heck this is all new to me. What do I know? I really wanted to follow the American trends, but then decided on the Spanish since our pediatrician is Spanish.

Moving to the solid food stage has been a real trial. And, as some of you know, there are the ongoing digestive/growth concerns as AR is very small for his age (yet very agile). We are currently undergoing many different tests and analyses to check for intolerance to gluten and/or lactose. Cereal still remains one of the most challenging foods to give him.

However, we are pleased to see that our little guy eats just about everything else! His initial favorites were chicken and rice and peas and ham. He has now matured to more complex tastes such as mommy's lentils with garlic and chorizo or hake with bechamel sauce (all purees, of course).

The other day when I was feeding him lunch, a puree of chicken and rice, he seemed far more interested with what was on my plate. I had just gotten ahold of Dad's pancit recipe the night before and had made batch of it that morning. Why not? I thought. I mean, what do babies in the Philippines eat, if not one of their national dishes?? So, I gave AR a long noodle appropriately seasoned with a bit of green onion, garlic and fish sauce. He didn't know what to do with it at first, but then copied me as I showed him how to shove it in his mouth. After that he continued to ask for more noodles!

Last week was full of new tastes for our growing explorer. First, papá Angel took him to a restaurant and invited him to a squid ring while he had a cup of coffee. Apparently AR loved gnoshing on that squid ring. Then, last weekend Angel made a rice curry with chicken and I pureed some of it a blender. AR scarfed that down as well!

Well, now it seems to be it was a lost cause. No going back to plain old chicken and rice for him! We have unintentionally converted him into a bonafide sybarite! What next? Bento boxes for daycare?

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

Well, it seems that this was not my year for introducing Easter egg dyeing to AR. Yesterday we took a jaunt up to San Sebastian de Los Reyes to visit one of our favorite stores, IKEA! As some of you know, my entire office was practically furnished at IKEA and a good percentage of our home has been too.

After IKEA, it was time to do our weekly shopping and this time I won out. We avoided the hypermarkets and went to a traditional supermarket. Bad move. They were completely sold out of eggs. I don't even know what color eggs they had. All I knew is that there were none left to buy. The only other time that that had happened to me was right around Christmas time in the States when it was time to bake the Christmas cookies and ACME had it's famous BOGO (buy one get one) offers on a dozen eggs.

Seeing as we went to the supermarket right before 2pm (and everything closes from 2-4pm for the siesta time) there was no chance of making it to another one. Besides, we had to get home to prepare lunch for Angel's mother and sister who were coming over for lunch. So, unfortunately AR will have to wait another year to break in Dudley and the egg coloring kit!

When in Rome...

With Easter right around the corner I thought it would be fun to dye Easter eggs with AR and possibly with all his friends in Northern Stars. His ever-doting grandparents* lovingly sent him an Easter package which contained a Dudley the Rabbit Egg Coloring kit....certainly brought back childhood memories!

Last week just prior to our weekly marathon food shopping trip I made sure to include an extra dozen eggs on the list. What was I thinking? Have I really been living here so long that I have forgotten some of the basic differences in the food category? We went to one of the overrated hypermarkets which I so completely despise. You need two hours to walk 5 kilometers down immense aisles of products just to finish your weekly grocery shopping which would have taken all of half an hour in a conventional supermarket. One would think that with such variety and choice it would have been no problem to find a dozen white eggs. Well, no such luck. Eggs here are brown. Once in a very great while you can find a dozen white eggs. Last weekend was not one of those great whiles. No problem finding small, medium, large and extra-large brown eggs... in half dozen, 10-egg, dozen and 18-egg and 3 dozen flats. Even quail eggs abounded. But no white eggs. It would have been really cool to find white quail eggs...that way they would be baby-sized to color for Easter. I know, I am asking for the impossible.

So, I am holding out for tomorrow when we brave the crowds and do our weekly shopping yet again. Maybe I can convince Angel that it really is worth it to go to a normal supermarket...maybe just maybe they will have white eggs...

*his grandparents are, of course, my parents. His abuelos are Ángel´s parents. The change in language is an easy way to distiguish the two sets of proud grandparents! :)

Tales of An Immigrant Mother

So...on February 17th, my residency expired and I had to renew my status here.

Thinking that Spain is pretty modern (which it is...and surprisingly fast in some things)..and generally distracted by other things in life, I didn't start getting the paperwork together until a week before the expiration date...I started on February 10th. The only thing that I had to really make an effort to get was a copy of my inscription/registration in the neighborhood where we live (certificado de empadronamiento) and a recently certified copy of our marriage certificate (the Spanish version). Usually to get the neighborhood registration, it's a question of walking into the local government office, standing in line (only about 45 minutes or so depending on the amount of people there) and they should give it to you. Shouldn't it be my luck that they told me to come back 5 days later to pick it up.!!!!

Ok, with the deadline drawing closer, Angel went to the central registry office in center city Madrid to get a certified copy of our marriage certificate on February 13th. After waiting in line for an hour and a half, filling out the due forms, etc...they told him the certificate would be available for pick up from March 8th onward!!!

So much for getting my renewal done on time....Now that makes me an illegal immigrant! Or in more diplomatic terms, an immigrant in an irregular situation.

Anyway...finally having all the documents together, Angel took me to the immigration office this past Friday morning at 9:15 am. Keep in mind the office opens at 9am. Well, much to my dismay there was a line of at least 800 people wrapping around the next block. My first class on Fridays is at 12 noon on the other side of town. Needless to say, I did not get in line. Angel parked the car and went inside to talk to one of the government workers who assured him that although I have "comunitario status" (pertaining to the European Union, not "just an immigrant fron a non European Union country") I had to wait in line and chances are that they wouldn't get to me until 5pm....this at 9:15 am (the offices close from 2-4pm for lunch)! They then told him that a good number of people start lining up at 5am. Viva bureacracy!

So, Monday morning bright and early, my alarm went off at 6am. "This is so unreal" I thought and grumbled about in the dark. After getting it together (baby and all) I arrived at the immigration office at 7:15 am. There were already almost 500 people in line in front of me. And a steady stream of immigrants arriving by the second to line up. Unbelieveable. So, Angel with a chuckle and a smile dropped me off and very sweetly offered to come back with a folding chair and thermos of coffee. Grrrr..

After 5 hours of waiting in line, I finally completed the process of presenting all the paperwork (the abovementioned documents, proof that Angel lives in the country, a copy of my now-expired residency card, a copy of Angel's ID card, a complete copy of my whole passport, and 3 passport sized photos). Lovely. I don't know why I was surprised when the woman told me that I would receive a letter in the mail in approximately 3 months to inform me that my new residency card would be available for pick-up. And yes, I will have to wait in that same *damned* line in front of immigration to pick up my card. GRRRRR!!!

On another note, AR continues to grow slowly. He now weighs 8.5 kilos (approx. 18lbs) at almost 14 months of age. In the 3rd percentile. We have taken him to see another pediatrician for a second opinion. He basically confirmed everything that our current pediatrician has told us and sent AR for a battery of tests to check for some kind of intolerance. The results are back and they indicate that he is partially celiac (allergic to gluten which is found in wheat) and possibly lactose intolerant. We have to re-do his urine analysis and run through the battery of tests that the first pediatrician has sent us to do as well. Certainly by the time we come to the USA at the end of next month, AR will be on a special diet. Poor thing.

Despite all that, he is thriving...and very very active. He loves to play chase with papá and peek-a-boo (cúcu-tras) with both of his parents. If we hum the William Tell overture he goes over to his rocking reindeer and starts to rock it back and forth. He settles down nicely when mommy reads to him and generally loves going to his toy box and systematically pull all his toys out one by one and throw them over his shoulder. His vocabulary consists of mama, dada and duck. :). He understands many more words but hasn't started saying them himself yet...

My Bilingual Baby

So, I am deep in the throes of motherhood, and very much intrigued by the concept of being "bilingual from birth". For me, speaking only English to AR is simply the most natural thing in the world to me. It's like we have our own secret language that we communicate in when we are out and about (even though he isn't yet talking).

At home we use the OPOL (one parent, one language) method. Ángel naturally speaks to AR in Spanish, and I speak to him in English. Our dinnertime conversations are always very interesting. Daddy will say something to AR in Spanish and I will say the same thing to him in English. It's interesting to see how he responds equally well to both languages. His verbal communication is still limited to mama and what we think is dada. However with his gestures and babbles he certainly makes us know what he wants!

It's fun to see people's reactions on the street as they do a double take when they hear us (well, me) chattering in English. The most interesting time is when we go to the playground. Mothers and their babies will come up to us and ask what his name is, how old he is, etc...in Spanish. So I tell AR to tell them how old he is ... our (my) conversation sounds something like this:

me to AR: Look Ángel, you have a new friend! Tell him your name. Go on! Say "Me llamo Ángel Rubén. ¿Cómo te llamas?". Tell him how old you are. Go on! Say "tengo un añito".

The reactions after that bit are very interesting. One day, the father of a child, after a similar exchange asked me, in English, where I was from. Something that I was totally not expecting (the in English part, that is).

Anyway, Mommy, in her anxiousness that her son learn English as well as he will learn Spanish, has started up an English speaking playgroup in the northern part of Madrid...hence the name...Northern Stars. I have been doing some real life networking as well as some virtual networking on a very interesting website dedicated to raising your children bi/multi-lingually: Bilingual Babies.

This past Sunday we had our first get together at an indoor baby gym... 10 families came out with a total of 14 children! Wow! Now Angel Ruben will have lots of English speaking (bilingual) friends!