She struggles with some longer words but has always been confident about "marmalade". When putting on her winter coat she will request "Hood up!" Her favourite dessert is rice pudding which she calls "ri puddi" but better pronunciation is gradually coming together now.
"Drawing!" means she wants to sit at the dining table with me to do some drawing in one of her big drawing pads. I bought her dry wipe pens in case she got colour on her hands, clothes or the table itself. I am quite happy to giver her time just swishing the pen around, getting control of it but sometimes she will hold the pen gently as I manipulate her hand to create simple drawings like the little girl in the top picture.
Mum and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa all try to limit Phoebe's screen time but she can be very insistent. "Tubbies" is short for "Telly Tubbies" but she easily says "Peppa Pig", "Gruffalo's Child" and "Twirly Woos". She is also quite fond of "Mr Tumble" who she refers to simply as "Tumble".
Being a little girl, she is clearly bemused by the cultural necessity to add "please" to any request she makes and is often required to say that word. Currently, it arrives as a prompted afterthought. It's funny how saying "please" and "thank you" have become the very emblems of politeness in English speaking countries.
As I witness Phoebe's escalating language skills I am reminded that I have almost no memory whatsoever of how my own children's language evolution happened. They were helpless babes who couldn't say a thing and then, as if by magic, they became proficient users of English. It is as if I blinked and missed it all. This blogpost will help me to remember how Phoebe grew and learnt to master our language.
In due course "getti" will become "spaghetti" and "Wickbix" will become "Weetabix" as "cuppatea" will become three separate words.
My first husband was French so we met and married speaking French. Then he moved to the US and I was fascinated watching him acquire English. I remember two things especially: Early on, when he was somewhat flustered in telling me something that happened while I was out of the house, he explained it: "You didn't was there!" I was impressed with how he engineered an irregular past tense verb using his limited vocab. Secondly, he thought the most hilarious thing he'd ever heard was the word "teapot". He used to say it to himself and be highly amused. And, if you think about it, it IS an odd, short, sound to make with three very explosive consonants, one right after the other. I know Phoebe will get a kick out of finding her own "teapot".
ReplyDeleteHello VIvian! Thanks for dropping by again. I am gratified that this blogpost stirred some nice memories for you even if the marriage reached an ending for whatever reason. By the way, I enjoyed that e-mail you sent me about your trip to The Yorkshire Dales. I was thinking of using it in a blogpost. Would you mind?
DeleteSure, you can use whatever you'd like. We have such fond memories of the Dales. I wouldn't be surprised if we went back this year. You live in gorgeous country!
DeleteIf I were taking a bath and you came up behind me to pour water over my backside, I too would be wondering what you were up to!
ReplyDeleteI don't wish to cause offence Ed but I sincerely hope that I never find myself in that situation with you!
DeleteIt will be lovely for you and for Phoebe and her parents to have this record.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest, Liam, was such a late talker that people were telling me he may be deaf. He's still not a talker.
I don't remember much else from those early years. The days are long but the years are short with little ones
I appreciate that last sentence. It is so true.
DeleteIt is one of the most incredible things about grandparenting--watching the little ones acquire language and show us how their fascinating brains work.
ReplyDeleteWe can absorb it and notice it much more than we ourselves were parents.
DeleteLittle kids say far more than we recognize. They sometime get very frustrated with us when we don't understand them. I believe that many kids come to school already knowing how to read. Teachers pat themselves on the back for doing such a great job to teach these little guys to read.
ReplyDeleteI could read before I went to school. Here I sometimes see teacher union car stickers... "If you can read this thank a teacher" but for me it was not true.
DeleteHey, I have the same sticker in my house.
DeleteI can imagine how fascinating you are finding the process, having such a mastery of language yourself. It sounds like Phoebe is going to be a prolific talker. Do you suppose you can't recall your own children's acquisition of language because you worked full-time when they were little? (if you did, that is) I know my husband missed so many little things of interest because he worked long hours and I was the child-raiser.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you are right Jenny or could it be that 35 years will wash away more than we imagine.
DeleteThen when she visits Australia, she will have to learn Weet Bix and a cup of double shot almond milk decaf instead of cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteWhen she is old enough to visit independently, Australia will have been evacuated because of lack of water. All current Australians will have been relocated to The Congo region of Africa where there is plenty of water.
DeleteWe are flooded with water. Our desalination plants are expensive to maintain but they will be needed one day. Congo, aggressive short black men who can be physically disproportionate to their height in a certain kind of way. Life could be worse than the Congo.
DeleteForget the Congo, I think we should take over Yorkshire.
DeleteThere would be a great battle and we would repel the invasion. Try the island of St KIlda instead. There would be just enough room for all of you as long as you didn't try to lie down.
DeleteThe acquisition of language is amazing, especially in young children. I learned a lot about language, studying online. When I was in my thirties, I learned ASL, American Sign Language, and then taught it to Katie. Katie has only ever spoken one word, mum, but even that is gone now, but she never stops signing.
ReplyDeleteWatching Jack learn to talk has been amazing as well. I'm the same and remember very little of my own children learning to talk. They are sponges at this age and the progress is amazing to watch.
You are right. At that age the graph of learning shoots up like a rocket whereas our learning graphs are almost horizontal.
DeleteI have only vague memories of my firstborn learning to talk, she made small mistakes such as "noom" for moon and "bum" for bun, but I don't remember much else. I'm pretty sure the next three just absorbed the skills and spoke without actual learning. I'll pay more attention when the twins start talking.
ReplyDeleteTwins sometimes develop their own ways of communicating with each other.
DeleteI may have mentioned it before, but my first words in English were "please a drink", taught by the lovely Australian couple living in the basement flat of our house. Ours was the attic flat, and when my sister and I played in the garden, we often couldn't be bothered to climb up all those stairs only for a drink of water, and so the Australian lady (who was just married and was looking forward to children of her own) helped out, teaching us how to say in English what we wanted. I was three and my sister four years old.
ReplyDeletePhoebe will keep you entertained with tales from her days at the kindergarden soon! Not sure how much truth there is in that, but I have often heard that girls are generally quicker to develop language skills, and early childhood is the best time to learn more than one.
"Please a drink!" probably still serves you well in the Irish bar!
DeleteI wrote down some of my sons' early words. Oddly, I was only talking about this one on Sunday......." Giggle bill dum ploh in adua". A perfect sentence for a 3 yr old? Middle son had great vocabulary and sentence making. He got all the right letters, but not necessarily in the right place...to quote the great Eric Morecambe. It meant " little boy jumped ,splash in the water", which is what he had just witnessed so we ( his older brother and I were the only ones who could understand him at all) knew what he meant. Dill was toy, adua could be anything from tractor to orange depending on the context. He went to speech therapy soon after and improved rapidly.
ReplyDeletePS I was once walking along a quiet footpath in Harpenden and realised that Eric was walking towards me......do I speak, smile, what? He nodded and smiled as he went past and I did the same!
You missed your chance to become Eric's secret lover! His glasses would have steamed up.
DeleteAren't human beings incredible with our understanding and being able to communicate to one another?
ReplyDeleteMost of us are but not Boris Johnson.
DeleteIt's a good age to learn a foreign language too as kids soak these things up. A neighbour's grandchild was half Italian and could speak proficiently in both Italian and English by the age of 5. Kay used to say besgetti (for spaghetti) and garnden (for garden) when she was tiny. Now she comes out with these long medical words that I have no idea what she is talking about!!
ReplyDeleteWith you being proficient in languages, I am surprised that you didn't teach Gladys (Kay) German when she was little.
DeleteWe did try, but it 's not the same when it's not your mother tongue. Even so, she can speak German reasonably well.
DeleteBy the time children are four I find that I can have truly good conversations with them. It's just incredible how quickly they achieve language skills AND the concepts of life that they can discuss with those skills. Or maybe it's just that my grandchildren are brilliant! Ha- they are all brilliant.
ReplyDeleteYes your grandchildren do seem brilliant Mary. Maybe they will make America great again.
Delete*What's he doing ?*
ReplyDeleteNo wonder you were astonished. Wonder is the key word.
How do babies learn to talk ? They are born knowing.
Studies have found that parents are not talking enough to infants.
Everything can be turned into a story with words, even giving the child a meal of rice and apple sauce. Turn it into a story that the child will love.
G.K. Chesterton said only a small child could truly enjoy a realistic novel because only infants are interested in everything.
As long as they are loved and cared for.
You are right about language and stories. I will make up a story for her about a big ogre who lives deep in a mythical city called Glasgae and devours books like Ritz crackers at a party in Lenzie. He will be hairy like a yeti and will smell like a chicken farm
DeleteIt's funny how even very young children are so attracted to screens. And it's amazing how quickly they gather knowledge to function and communicate in the world. What a piece of work is man! (And woman!)
ReplyDeleteIt is like they are programmed to advance. It's not choice. Nature has already decided that they must advance.
DeleteIt is nice to have these blog posts to look back on. Time moves so very quickly
ReplyDeleteNo matter how sweetly Phoebe asks, she should not be given a cuppatea.