Bilinguism.

I adored your reactions to my first "I love you" from little big L. It truly was one of the most magical moments in my short life as a mum. In fact, this whole new talking phase is ridiculously cute. Our little fella's vocabulary is getting richer by the day, I feel like I'll barely have time to blink  before he starts chatting away with us. To be honest, I had no idea that he'd be talking and understanding so soon. I thought it was something kiddies did when they were much older. I remember realising how much he actually understood when a few months ago I asked him if he wanted to read the Hungry Caterpillar and he went to his bookshelf and picked the right book. I don't know about you, but there are actually heaps of things I had no idea about when it comes to babies and which I am learning about along the way. I find it great to discover these new steps as we go along rather than read about them in advance and then be worried that L. is has not reached this or that milestone "on time".

What I am most fascinated about at the moment is to watch his little bilingual brain develop. For now, he speaks a mix of English and French, using whatever word is the easiest to pronounce in either language. He'll say "apple", "ball", "cheese", "oh dear" but "tiens" [here you go], "ca" [this/that], "c'est quoi?" [what's that]; and sometimes he'll speak franglais like when we says doudou (a mix between dog and toutou). He can distinguish the difference between both languages but is still unsure which one to actually speak. The other day when we were walking in the forest he was calling for me in French and since we speak English at home, we explained to him that I am "mummy, not maman" and he got really affirmative, repeating " noooon, maman!". It was so cute.

We would really like for L. to be bilingual like us. So many people around us tell us different stories about the best way around it, but it is seems impossible to really know what the best approach is. For now, we both speak English to him and he learns French with the childminder. The only thing we are trying to change is to switch from French to English between Mr. Franglais and me. We feel that L. might otherwise be confused as to why we speak to him in English, and French to each other. It has been really hard to for us switch but little by little we are managing.

Do you have bilingual kids or are you bilingual yourself? I'd be very interested to hear about your personal experiences.

{photo by akynou, taken at the Wall of I love you's near the Place des Abbesses, Paris 18th}