whatMsg?

Today is my birthday and it was marked with my 3 year old coming into the bathroom while I showered to present me with a 5-balloon bouquet followed by her 22 month old sister dragging a single half deflated Hallmark Store balloon from a week ago and holding out the string to me in her chubby little toddler hand. The gifts were so special and obviously the most exciting things for toddlers to give in their minds.  But the deflated balloon was beyond touching and a very obvious indicator that gifts that tug on the heart strings aren’t necessarily the newest and most wonderful and a deflated balloon means just as a much as a shiny, buoyant one when it comes held out in a tiny hand.

Well, we have run into an interesting little language situation that I can’t help but think has something to do with my kids speaking two languages.  But maybe I’m just sensitive to that and it might happen anyway.  Personal and possessive gender specific pronouns are proving to be an amusing stumbling block for my 3-year old in English.  She is always very friendly with other kids on the playground, and I can’t help but be a little embarrassed for K, especially when she is speaking with older children and confuses he/she and his/her.   She is such a bright little girl and has no trouble conversing with adults and older children, but gets this one thing wrong.  Could it have to do with that in Estonian there are no gender specific pronouns and everything is neutral?  Either way, when I hear it I correct her with  a friendly “Uh oh, you said the wrong word!”  The funny part about this is that she says the same thing to me when I occasionally have a brain-glitch and say the wrong word accidentally.  We have fun correcting each other.  Hopefully the pronouns will work themselves out soon as it’s been a few months now.  I’m not really concerned and am sure we’ll get past this quickly!

It finally happened, and very quickly after the “double” talk, A made a distinction between English and Estonian on Monday, Nov. 3rd!  A and I were in the kitchen talking about her stuffed “karu” (bear) for about 10 minutes.  The little pink stuffy was her friend of the moment and she kept showing it to me and saying “karu.”  Then she wanted to go and show Daddy in the other room, and so off we go to find Daddy and when we do, she say, “Daddy, bear!”  The word bear had not been mentioned once by me or A until we saw Daddy.  I was so excited that she made the distinction for the first time.  It is still so amazing to me that at just 20 months old, children can make such a sophisticated distinction that they speak two different languages and what to say to who.

Today for the first time I noticed my youngest, A, at 20 months old, speaking in doubles.  By this, I mean she is grasping that there are two words for everything.  One in English and one in Estonian.  K did the same thing when she started speaking!  Today A was climbing on a pillow and jumping off saying, “Padi,” “Pillow,” “ettevaatlik,” “careful” over and over again.  She was having a great time and was saying these words all on her own as I hadn’t said a word as she started jumping and was just working on a Halloween costume repair nearby and listening in unobtrusively.

That means that separating out the languages isn’t too far off.  I just have to keep up the with the consistency of only speaking in Estonian with the girls and things should be right on track!  Very exciting stuff.  Now if only I could get K to speak in Estonian with A.  So far, she just speaks in English with her little sister.  I still think K needs to notice A speaking in Estonian and perhaps then the Estonian will come.