Umbrella, car, bus, OK! And the words come tumbling out!

AR is at an age where the experts say that the words come tumbling out for monolingual kids.

Since he is being raised bilingually, he has twice the amount of words to process and learn as a monolingual child. Needless to say his linguistic production is a bit behind the monolingual kids his age. However, being a first time mom, I can't help being a little over anxious about the situation, worried that he will get left behind (but intellectually knowing that he won't). Fortunately, through conversations with friends of bilingual children, I see that he really is on track. Added to the complication of being bilingual, according to his pediatrician, it's quite normal for celiac children to lag behind other non-celiac children their age. Should I breathe a sigh of relief or just worry some more??

How many of you understand baby talk? You know, the unique way toddlers have of expressing their wants, needs and desires (between emotional meltdowns). Sometimes real words, sometimes their own words. Difficult huh? Especially if it isn't your child. Now try understanding baby talk from a child who speaks a different language. Ha!

How many of you understand Spanglish? You know, that unique way that some (U.S.) Latinos speak among themselves effortlessly blending English and Spanish in the same sentence. Now try understanding Spanglish baby talk!

That's the language of AR! It really is quite amusing and you need to be a cryptologist to figure out what he is saying at times. For the most part I understand him because I have the advantage of understanding Spanish and being his mother.

His word for train is "tah-tah". We don't know if it is Spanish or English. One day we were waiting for the surface level metro when he suddenly said "ahí tah tah tah ahí ahí tah"! He was clearly excited as the train came slowly to a stop. To others it might have sounded like babble, but his mother clearly understood his Spanish/English/babytalk. Of course he was saying "Ahí está el tren/the train. There! There it is!"

This really is a fascinating ride!

Five Trips

Five trips. Five magical trips. What can you do in five trips? Five was the average number of trips I made to Spain each year when DH and I were "dating". Five also represents the number of trips I usually make back and forth to the car when I return from grocery shopping alone.

But now five trips means something else for me. Five trips means irreplaceable tenderness. The other night DH and I were sleeping soundly in bed. I was dreaming, but don't recall what I was dreaming about. All of a sudden I felt a soft "plop" between my hubby and I. I was stirred from my sleep as I heard the pitter patter of little feet run up then back down the hallway. Then, another soft "plop"....then more pitter patter of little feet. This situation repeated itself five times. After the fifth soft "plop" and pitter patter of little feet I felt the covers of the bed slowly slide down from my shoulders. There was a bit of a struggle and then there he was... our little guy snuggled between DH and I along with Elmo, Bear, Doggie, Perro and Carlos the Caballo (we weren't very original in the names department) and of course his nana (blankie). He has taken to sneaking to our room in the middle of the night lately. But this was the first time he made so many trips to bring all of his little friends with him. It's a good thing he didn't decide to lob his large plastic truck that he likes to sleep with over the side of the bed as well. Five marvelous trips.

my little guy

Who needs a dog when you have a burro??

AR's playgroup (Northern Stars) took a trip to Burrolandia, an animal sanctuary dedicated to saving the Spanish burro which is running into danger of extinction. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!