I am here in Portland because of my wonderful grandson, Wesley. When I visited last June, Stephanie suggested I ask Wesley what noise an elephant makes. I asked and he responded by holding his wrist in front of his mouth with his fingers dangling down. Then he drew his head back, his wrist went up, and he let out a ROAR - the hand being the elephant's trunk. I was enchanted. That night, when thinking about it again, I had one of those epiphanies (like when I decided very suddenly to retire 10 years early). What if I had not been here and known the right question to ask? What other things have I missed between visits? Yes, I fly up every 2 months but a lot happens in that time. Am I a fool to stay in Pacific Grove? Although I truly love living on the Monterey Peninsula, in a wonderful house, with many friends and activities, would my life be enriched if I moved to Portland?
I talked with Stephanie and Dan. Would they mind if I moved here? (No, it was a great idea, they said). How near to them could I live? (They were very polite when I looked at one place a few houses down - and maybe they were thankful that it didn't work out!) How could I help? (Babysitting? Pick him up at preschool? Date nights?). The end result was that I flew back to California, started the process of undoing my current life, flew back to Portland a month later to find a rental, flew back to California to pack up the house, flew back to Portland to meet the moving van, flew back to California to finalize renting my PG house and then drove my car to Oregon. Phew. It was a somewhat chaotic summer.
But now I am here and am so in love with the wee one. Right now we are in the middle of the introduction of Big Boy Pants. Stephanie would have preferred to wait until later (he is 2 1/2) but preschool wanted it. All his classmates are somewhere in the process. He got his big boy pants last month. He told me that he wanted purple undies - his favorite color right now. I wondered what he would end up choosing knowing that the stores would have many options. I happened to call right when the 3 of them were at Kohl's helping him make the big decision. He ended up with one packet of Thomas the Tank Engine undies and one with his beloved Mater and other Pixar cars. We are now in that stage of asking frequently, "Do you have to go potty?" He almost always answers, "No," even when his answer is accompanied by that universal potty dance. It is best when he announces, "I have to go" but it can also be too late at that point. There have been some accidents but, on the whole, the process is moving forward.
This momentous development aside, what has most fascinated me is his language development. All of us with children remember how geometric the progression is. They know 1 word, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 25, then 60, then 150 and so on. It is amazing to witness this acquisition. But Wesley has an additional challenge. His preschool is taught in Spanish and he has been attending since he was about 6 months old. This has made it doubly interesting to watch. In the first months of speech most words came out in English but water was always AGUA. We all went along with it. As he learned more words, Spanish and English were sometimes mixed together. He had to "wash his manos", "Bye, Gramma, hasta la vista", his shoes were "zapatos," grapes were "uvas," if we talked about animals it was "horse, cow, chicken, elefante, horse." I suspect that 97% of what he said to me was English, 3% Spanish and I found the mixture charming.
Today, 7 months into year 2, he rarely uses Spanish when speaking to me. The two languages seem entirely separate in his mind. However, when we are flipping through videos on You Tube (do you know how many versions there are of Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Five Little Monkeys?), he will sometimes ask for a Spanish version of the song. When he sings the alphabet he does it first in English and then follows it with the Spanish pronunciation of the letters. At preschool, they rattle off instructions to Wesley in Spanish and I see him respond appropriately. He listens to stories in Spanish. What I have not heard is him speaking Spanish in sentences. He will tell me the Spanish equivalent of a single word but not a whole sentence. I find it absolutely fascinating. It seems as if he, and all his classmates, have completely compartmentalized the two languages. English at home; Spanish at school.
What I now notice is the beginning of his understanding of grammar. If I ask him something about himself, "Who was the helper at school today?" he answers in the third person, "Wesley was." Only occasionally have I heard him use the first person, "I was." Today he said, "They is there," but again, I have heard him use "are" in other sentences. I assume the same thing is happening with Spanish grammar.
My only fear in all of this is that I have taught teenagers and I know what they can do. I suspect that, in the future, when Wesley is upset, we might get an earful of Spanish and will have no idea of what he is saying. Ah, what power!
All in all, I am amazed at our brain's capabilities. These little ones are learning so much each and every day. Their brains just keep chugging along noticing, absorbing, categorizing, understanding. Phenomenal. I am so glad I am here to witness it.
I talked with Stephanie and Dan. Would they mind if I moved here? (No, it was a great idea, they said). How near to them could I live? (They were very polite when I looked at one place a few houses down - and maybe they were thankful that it didn't work out!) How could I help? (Babysitting? Pick him up at preschool? Date nights?). The end result was that I flew back to California, started the process of undoing my current life, flew back to Portland a month later to find a rental, flew back to California to pack up the house, flew back to Portland to meet the moving van, flew back to California to finalize renting my PG house and then drove my car to Oregon. Phew. It was a somewhat chaotic summer.
But now I am here and am so in love with the wee one. Right now we are in the middle of the introduction of Big Boy Pants. Stephanie would have preferred to wait until later (he is 2 1/2) but preschool wanted it. All his classmates are somewhere in the process. He got his big boy pants last month. He told me that he wanted purple undies - his favorite color right now. I wondered what he would end up choosing knowing that the stores would have many options. I happened to call right when the 3 of them were at Kohl's helping him make the big decision. He ended up with one packet of Thomas the Tank Engine undies and one with his beloved Mater and other Pixar cars. We are now in that stage of asking frequently, "Do you have to go potty?" He almost always answers, "No," even when his answer is accompanied by that universal potty dance. It is best when he announces, "I have to go" but it can also be too late at that point. There have been some accidents but, on the whole, the process is moving forward.
This momentous development aside, what has most fascinated me is his language development. All of us with children remember how geometric the progression is. They know 1 word, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 25, then 60, then 150 and so on. It is amazing to witness this acquisition. But Wesley has an additional challenge. His preschool is taught in Spanish and he has been attending since he was about 6 months old. This has made it doubly interesting to watch. In the first months of speech most words came out in English but water was always AGUA. We all went along with it. As he learned more words, Spanish and English were sometimes mixed together. He had to "wash his manos", "Bye, Gramma, hasta la vista", his shoes were "zapatos," grapes were "uvas," if we talked about animals it was "horse, cow, chicken, elefante, horse." I suspect that 97% of what he said to me was English, 3% Spanish and I found the mixture charming.
Today, 7 months into year 2, he rarely uses Spanish when speaking to me. The two languages seem entirely separate in his mind. However, when we are flipping through videos on You Tube (do you know how many versions there are of Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Five Little Monkeys?), he will sometimes ask for a Spanish version of the song. When he sings the alphabet he does it first in English and then follows it with the Spanish pronunciation of the letters. At preschool, they rattle off instructions to Wesley in Spanish and I see him respond appropriately. He listens to stories in Spanish. What I have not heard is him speaking Spanish in sentences. He will tell me the Spanish equivalent of a single word but not a whole sentence. I find it absolutely fascinating. It seems as if he, and all his classmates, have completely compartmentalized the two languages. English at home; Spanish at school.
What I now notice is the beginning of his understanding of grammar. If I ask him something about himself, "Who was the helper at school today?" he answers in the third person, "Wesley was." Only occasionally have I heard him use the first person, "I was." Today he said, "They is there," but again, I have heard him use "are" in other sentences. I assume the same thing is happening with Spanish grammar.
My only fear in all of this is that I have taught teenagers and I know what they can do. I suspect that, in the future, when Wesley is upset, we might get an earful of Spanish and will have no idea of what he is saying. Ah, what power!
All in all, I am amazed at our brain's capabilities. These little ones are learning so much each and every day. Their brains just keep chugging along noticing, absorbing, categorizing, understanding. Phenomenal. I am so glad I am here to witness it.
So sweet! And he and Brinn are in the same language stage! It is so fun hearing all the funny, well thought out things they have to say! Give that sweet boy a squeeze for all of us!
ReplyDeleteShall do, Anissa. I so enjoyed seeing both of your beautiful daughters at Elaine's party. Give them both a kiss for me.
ReplyDelete