whatMsg?

My youngest at 2 and a half years old doesn’t speak any Estonian despite my best efforts.  I can’t tell you how difficult it is to keep going, me speaking in Estonian and A only speaking in English.  She clearly understands everything I am saying in Estonian which is something.  Where I find it difficult is when trying to correct or chastise her.  Logically I know she understand Estonian and what I am saying to her, but emotionally I can’t help but think I need to speak to her in English as an additional option to further her understanding.  I am trying to stay true to my commitment to Estonian only, but it is increasingly challenging personally.

As to why A only speaks in English I can but venture a guesses.  I think the only difference is that K, my oldest child at almost 4 years old, is probably the person who interacts the most with A, and K speaks in English with A.  I don’t believe I am doing anything differently.  Now my only hope is that though there is very little Estonian spoken by A, her obvious comprehension of everything I say will be enough of a start to help her out later when I am able to send her to Estonian camps and Estonia.

Otherwise, my parents were visiting for a total of 3 weeks and K was doing wonderfully with her Estonian speaking.  I must be doing something right despite the challenges.  I can already tell that the net challenge will be maintaining my commitment to only speaking in Estonian with my kids when so many other kids are around or over for playdates.  I always make sure to translate what I am saying for any other children present, but again, an added commitment on my part.

This isn’t easy, but I’m still going strong.

An anecdote from K at the West Coast Estonian Festival that we attended two weeks ago in reference to another Festival attendee, “He speaks in a funny language too!”

First of all, my apologies to all the readers, especially those who have made comments, that this blog has gotten so out of date.  I intend to remedy that here and now!

Not that apologies make up for the absence, but basically I started a home-based business in March that together with my 2 and 3 year old have taken all of my time.  I must be having a particularly efficient day today as here I am, as busy as ever and yet have found time today to update Facebook, and two of my other blogs not to mention preparing for a sales event for MyLittlePillowStore.com which is the my business I mentioned.

First, some news to share.  Starting tomorrow and running through August 29th is the West Coast Estonian Days in Seattle, WA.  I’ll be there selling My Little Pillows as well as a fabulous new book, When The Noise Had Ended: Geislingen DP Children Remember Here’s the synopsis: The youngest victims of WWII search their memories to tell how they and their families escaped the Red Army to find refuge in a displaced persons’ camp in post-war Germany – more than 60 years ago.

Now, down to the business of this blog!  K is almost 4 and is clearly the social butterfly/artist of the family.  Based on the observations of others who say she speaks so well that they would guess her to be 5 years old instead of just almost 4, I can’t help but wonder if this is due to her bilingualism.  Having to master the sounds required for two different languages perhaps helps with enunciation?   Either way, I am proud of K!  She also speaks Estonian fairly well with me and other Estonian speakers though not with her little sister.  She continues to reserve speaking in Estonian with me primarily for those topics which she is most serious or fells most personally about.  Most daily conversations occur in English on her part, Estonian for my part.  I am strenuously resisting the urge to ask K to speak more n Estonian as I don;t want to nag and don’t want to introduce any impediments to open communications between myself and my 3 year old as open communication, in my opinion, is much more important that the language it occurs in.  I am also trying to stave off any rebellion causing the unintended consequence of even less Estonian being spoken.  For the time being I will content myself with the knowledge that my children understand everything perfectly that I communicate to them in Estonian despite the English responses.  As the kids are so young, I have plenty of opportunities in the future to introduce them to Estonian summer camps in the US, Canada and even Estonian.

Thank you again to my readers and especially for those who have made comments!   I’m back and look forward to updating you next on A’s progress.

Despite my best efforts of consistency in only speaking Estonian with my children, translating every picture book I read into Estonian on the fly, or reading Estonian stories, and playing many fun Estonian DVDs, I would estimate that my 3 year old speaks 70% English and 30% Estonian with me.  The 23 month old speaks Estonian even less, perhaps 90% English and 10% Estonian and then it is mostly just nouns that are in Estonian with a few demands here and there as well.  The girls play together very nicely and converse, though almost entirely in English with each other.  I’m sticking to my Estonian however because they have 100% comprehension of everything I tell them at t least that is something.  I’m just going to keep doing what I have been doing and have been careful not to nag at all about speaking in Estonian, though if they forget saying “please” or “thank you” then I give them the Estonian phrase they should be using to politely ask me for whatever it is that they wanted.  That’s the extent of my pushing for Estonian.

What has given me new hope for the future is that a family friend with two daughters about 10 years older than mine has gone through this all already and what did the trick for her was spending a summer in Estonia with the girls when they were still in the single digit ages.  So, that is what I will look forward to!  In the meantime, I’ll keep up my Estonian-only conversation and will try to be content with my children’s comprehension and occassional Estonian words and phrases as I figure it is better than nothing.

A friend of mine is involved in a themed blogging even, topic “Simplicity” and it just so happens that it fit so well with what I was already considering writing here anyhow.  Here’s my story…

On Saturday, My sister, Daddy and I took K and A snowshoeing.  We have always been very active participants in winter sports and it has been more than a little complicated trying to do things like downhill or nordic ski or snowshoe since my children were born.  So, as we drove past the perfect conditions on the ski slopes while drooling on our way to the snowshow trail, we embarked on many hours of unbelievable strenuous work to go perhaps half a mile.  Here’s how it went down…

Leave the house at 10 am and drive 30 minutes to the Cascades.  Get two toddlers in snowsuits as it was just 24 degrees out.  Put the 20 month old in a backpack and get the 3 year old on her own snowshoes.  Grab sleds in case of sledding opportunity.  After 30 minutes 3 year old wants to get in the other backpack which we of course always carry along.  Get snowshoes off, put her in backpack, walk 50 yards, she wants down.  She’s almost perfectly contect to run on the packed train, except when she wants to test the depth of the snow…very deep…and always in the boots and up the snowpants and very cold, but fun that must be repeated many times.  Then, K decides she needs to go poopie.  Oh yes, I kid you not.  So we unzip the jacket, pull down the snowpants, fleece, thermals and underwear, I have the paper ready to go and a nice deep hole dug in the snow (K’s first “natural” toilet and I had to make it good), I hold her over the snow-potty for a good 2-3 minutes at great pains to my lower back and we have….nothing!  Not even a trace of yellow snow for my efforts.  We reassemble and move on.   We finally get to a sledding place and go sledding down a very bumpy, curvy hill.  A gets a face full of snow and doesn’t stop crying until we are back at the car, but K says, “I want to do it again!”  though we both have a face full of snow and snow up the snowpants.  So we “do it again” 3 more times until Daddy can’t take A’s crying anymore.  We hike the quarter mile back to the car and it takes us 1 HOUR to get de-geared and situated.  Snow suits off, hot chocolate in the kids, gear stowed and everyone content. Drive back home and arrive at 4 pm.

This story sums up just about everything in my life these days.  Nothing is simple and I miss the freedom to pursue my own interests (and skiing!) more than I can express without feeling terrible guilt and everything is unbelievably hard work.  I don’t want to wish away my children’s  early years and love so much about this time, but boy am I ready for them to be big enough to join me in particpating in the things that I love to do.  It sure would be nice to snowshoe more than a couple of yards again someday.

But, to sum it all up, 6 hours of snow and cold and constant work…exhausting.  Seeing K’s exultant face as she climbs up a huge mound of 7 foot deep snow without sinking during her first time on snowhoes, priceless.   Yes, we’ll do it all again on another weekend real soon!