[Wessy crying in his room at 6:15am]
Me: Wessy, it's not time to get up yet. It's still dark. Go back to sleep.
Wessy: QUIERO HUEVOS! QUIERO DESPERTARME! [I WANT EGGS, I WANT TO GET UP!]
Monday, December 18, 2017
Monday, November 13, 2017
Wessy says..
[Facetiming with Pops]
Wessy: Donde está Nana?
Pops: She's asleep.
Wessy: Despierta a Nana!
[later]
Wessy: Nana está durmiendo en su cuna.
Wessy: Donde está Nana?
Pops: She's asleep.
Wessy: Despierta a Nana!
[later]
Wessy: Nana está durmiendo en su cuna.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Wessy says
Me: Wessy, today is Halloween. That means later we are going to go walk down the street and ask for candy. Do you know what you say when you ask for candy?
Wessy: Pleeeeease!
Wessy: Pleeeeease!
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Bilingual Baby
As you probably already know, we are trying to raise Wessy as an English/Spanish bilingual. For these first two years of his life, we have had a Spanish-speaking au pair and have also mostly spoken to Wessy in Spanish ourselves. Just recently, he also started a Spanish-immersion preschool. All of that effort is paying off, as Wessy now speaks at least as much Spanish as English and seems to prefer it.
Watching his language acquisition brought me back to my own days of learning Spanish--except that while I was doing it all at age 18, he was doing it at age 18 months. Like mine, his language started with emphatic, common nouns. MAMA! PAPA! LECHE! GATO! Over time, he began to add verbs, mainly in the infinitive and gerund forms (IR, COMER, CORRER). Slowly, he began to conjugate the verbs--though he has gotten a little stuck in a phase where he uses the correct tense but refers to himself in the second person (I assume this is a quirk of being almost exclusively spoken TO in Spanish but mostly hearing ambient English.). This is slowly correcting itself, though.
One by one, he has added articles, pronouns, possessives and direct and indirect objects. His speech seems to grow in nuance and complexity daily. Basically, he advances through the equivalent of a semester of high school Spanishevery 2-3 weeks. This all happened in the last 6-8 months. It took me, oh, I don't know, 6-8 YEARS. Literacy and some more complex vocabulary withstanding, he has already zoomed past me.
As an additional trick, he can translate English into Spanish and vice versa. He is able to innately sense (or observe?) to whom he should be speaking each language and he will adjust accordingly. If you look like a gringo, he will start with English. Sometimes he will say something in Spanish to someone who does not speak Spanish and then, if met with confusion, he will, unbidden, quickly provide a translation.
An example: Yesterday we were climbing the steps to our house. He grabbed the handrail and said BARANDAL (bannister). I looked at him, confused (I didn't know that word.). "Que es esto, Wessy?," I asked. He looked at me, put his hand back on the railing and gently explained, "BARANDAL, MAMA. ES ESPANOL." Good thing he doesn't know how to roll his eyes yet-- though given Daddy's impressive skillz in this regard, it can't be long.
Being schooled about my vocabulary notwithstanding, I'm so thrilled he is learning Spanish as a child. His ability to shock people by being a very Anglo-looking child who speaks perfect unaccented Spanish is priceless. More importantly, I hope that it will open up new worlds and all kinds of opportunities for him like it has for us.
Watching his language acquisition brought me back to my own days of learning Spanish--except that while I was doing it all at age 18, he was doing it at age 18 months. Like mine, his language started with emphatic, common nouns. MAMA! PAPA! LECHE! GATO! Over time, he began to add verbs, mainly in the infinitive and gerund forms (IR, COMER, CORRER). Slowly, he began to conjugate the verbs--though he has gotten a little stuck in a phase where he uses the correct tense but refers to himself in the second person (I assume this is a quirk of being almost exclusively spoken TO in Spanish but mostly hearing ambient English.). This is slowly correcting itself, though.
One by one, he has added articles, pronouns, possessives and direct and indirect objects. His speech seems to grow in nuance and complexity daily. Basically, he advances through the equivalent of a semester of high school Spanishevery 2-3 weeks. This all happened in the last 6-8 months. It took me, oh, I don't know, 6-8 YEARS. Literacy and some more complex vocabulary withstanding, he has already zoomed past me.
As an additional trick, he can translate English into Spanish and vice versa. He is able to innately sense (or observe?) to whom he should be speaking each language and he will adjust accordingly. If you look like a gringo, he will start with English. Sometimes he will say something in Spanish to someone who does not speak Spanish and then, if met with confusion, he will, unbidden, quickly provide a translation.
An example: Yesterday we were climbing the steps to our house. He grabbed the handrail and said BARANDAL (bannister). I looked at him, confused (I didn't know that word.). "Que es esto, Wessy?," I asked. He looked at me, put his hand back on the railing and gently explained, "BARANDAL, MAMA. ES ESPANOL." Good thing he doesn't know how to roll his eyes yet-- though given Daddy's impressive skillz in this regard, it can't be long.
Being schooled about my vocabulary notwithstanding, I'm so thrilled he is learning Spanish as a child. His ability to shock people by being a very Anglo-looking child who speaks perfect unaccented Spanish is priceless. More importantly, I hope that it will open up new worlds and all kinds of opportunities for him like it has for us.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
a weekend away
Montse offered to watch wessy this weekend solo while we went on a "getaway." montse is no ordinary au pair. since she offered, we were in no position to decline.
Something very special happened last winter. well, for most residents of big sur, it was just a big pain. the pfeiffer creek bridge that borders the north of the big sur coast developed a crack that made it structurally unsound. to the south, a landslide blocked entrance to the coast from the los angeles side. so the big sur coast was cut off from the rest of california, save fergusen nacimeinto road, which is windy, one lane road that connects the central valley with the big sur coast. the road is so windy and slow, that it makes access to this part of the coast completely impractical. except by bicycle. for most folks, big sur was completely inaccessible.
if you've every been to big sur in the summer, you'll readily concede that California highway 1 is akin to a parking lot. tourists from all over the world line up on the road to gawk at the admittedly beautiful scenery.
the confluence of events described above have made for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the big sur coastline in quiet and solitude. you'll notice that in these photos there are no cars. as cyclists, we had the entire road to ourselves. when we stopped to watch the whales or listen to the sea lions barking, all we heard was silence. (except for the sea lions)
we stayed at the big sur lodge, which is part of pfeiffer big sur state park. the lodge is usually reserved months in advance and, despite its modest accommodations, usually demands a higher price than you'd expect. however, with traffic to big sur so inconvenient, they were offering screaming deals with availability even at the last minute.
we didn't make it to esalen, as buzz and i had done in 2006; however, we hit just about all the other highlights. nepenthe's parking lot was empty, but the deck was bursting with bicycles, and the bar was fully occupied. we ended up finding a seat at the bar, because, despite no car traffic, the wait for a table was 45 minutes! out back, the views didn't disappoint, with grey whales breaching and the green flash of the pacific sunset (ok, we never saw the green flash).
olivia and i had one of our first dates on the big sur coast at deetjen's big sur inn. unfortunately, deetjen's was closed secondary to the dearth of traffic, but i was very grateful to re-visit this very special place with mama livvie.
Something very special happened last winter. well, for most residents of big sur, it was just a big pain. the pfeiffer creek bridge that borders the north of the big sur coast developed a crack that made it structurally unsound. to the south, a landslide blocked entrance to the coast from the los angeles side. so the big sur coast was cut off from the rest of california, save fergusen nacimeinto road, which is windy, one lane road that connects the central valley with the big sur coast. the road is so windy and slow, that it makes access to this part of the coast completely impractical. except by bicycle. for most folks, big sur was completely inaccessible.
if you've every been to big sur in the summer, you'll readily concede that California highway 1 is akin to a parking lot. tourists from all over the world line up on the road to gawk at the admittedly beautiful scenery.
the confluence of events described above have made for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the big sur coastline in quiet and solitude. you'll notice that in these photos there are no cars. as cyclists, we had the entire road to ourselves. when we stopped to watch the whales or listen to the sea lions barking, all we heard was silence. (except for the sea lions)
we stayed at the big sur lodge, which is part of pfeiffer big sur state park. the lodge is usually reserved months in advance and, despite its modest accommodations, usually demands a higher price than you'd expect. however, with traffic to big sur so inconvenient, they were offering screaming deals with availability even at the last minute.
we didn't make it to esalen, as buzz and i had done in 2006; however, we hit just about all the other highlights. nepenthe's parking lot was empty, but the deck was bursting with bicycles, and the bar was fully occupied. we ended up finding a seat at the bar, because, despite no car traffic, the wait for a table was 45 minutes! out back, the views didn't disappoint, with grey whales breaching and the green flash of the pacific sunset (ok, we never saw the green flash).
olivia and i had one of our first dates on the big sur coast at deetjen's big sur inn. unfortunately, deetjen's was closed secondary to the dearth of traffic, but i was very grateful to re-visit this very special place with mama livvie.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
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