Speaking in Tongues
I am pretty sure my daughter is speaking in tongues these days since the majority of the time I do not understand what she is saying. For all those parents who have been through this stage, it's a funny time and for those who have never been there, just imagine being in a foreign country where the other person tries to use English but they only know about 4 words and use their own language in between.
There will be intelligible words dispersed in there so I want to believe she is attempting to formulate a sentence. "dubba dubba dubba car dubba dubba cow". And then there are these brief moments where she spits out a complete sentence "I didn't mean to break it mommy" and we all dance in happy amazement.
However, at her age apparently she should be able to speak some thousands of words and be able to recite short excerpts of Shakespeare. Thus, just like all moms who hope her child is normal/borderline prodigy I begin to be concerned. Now I am sure at the age of 13 I will be writing in this very same blog how I can't get her to Shut Up (I mean let's face it, her father AND mother are talkers) but although I try to exude an outward attitude of laissez faire, inwardly I am wondering if she needs speech therapy, if signing with her has inhibited her speech development, if using English, Japanese, Spanish, French, and Finnish in the house has basically stunted her speech growth and how in the world can you count if your child knows 1000 words??
She is part of a school also that moves kids forward as they show the signs of next stage development and her class has started off with one set and ended with a completely different one. Granted she's the youngest in the class but of course the Japanese side of me feels like "she needs to be pushed or she will never progress". In case anyone is wondering she is 2 going on 3 and not 16 going on 17 and trying to get high scores on her SATs.
So seeing these other kids come and go also makes you feel as a parent 'what's wrong with my kid' but in a normal environment, she would be in the same class for a year so I am not sure why I can't just let this all go.
So instead of dwelling on what she is Not saying I have been focusing more on what she IS saying, and quite frankly this is probably a good lesson in life in general. If we listened a little more for the positive than the negative, it would be a happier place.
Plus, the things she Does say are remarkable and quite fun- "octagon - stop!" is one of my favorites. She is not really telling you to stop but she gets so excited that she has not only found an octagon but another one of those octagon stop signs!
And the one I mentioned earlier really blew me away "I didn't mean to break it mommy" which I have no clue where it came from.
Her favorite seems to be "oh my goodness' which seems so grown up for her age but she uses it on everything along with the "yes please" and "no thank you", I really can't complain.
But of course the favorite is when she quietly leans over and says 'I lub you mama'. I know what it means and that is all that matters.
So sometimes a zen moment is not really needed but just a quiet moment trying to translate my daughter's speech to everyone else is all the meditative practice I need.
There will be intelligible words dispersed in there so I want to believe she is attempting to formulate a sentence. "dubba dubba dubba car dubba dubba cow". And then there are these brief moments where she spits out a complete sentence "I didn't mean to break it mommy" and we all dance in happy amazement.
However, at her age apparently she should be able to speak some thousands of words and be able to recite short excerpts of Shakespeare. Thus, just like all moms who hope her child is normal/borderline prodigy I begin to be concerned. Now I am sure at the age of 13 I will be writing in this very same blog how I can't get her to Shut Up (I mean let's face it, her father AND mother are talkers) but although I try to exude an outward attitude of laissez faire, inwardly I am wondering if she needs speech therapy, if signing with her has inhibited her speech development, if using English, Japanese, Spanish, French, and Finnish in the house has basically stunted her speech growth and how in the world can you count if your child knows 1000 words??
She is part of a school also that moves kids forward as they show the signs of next stage development and her class has started off with one set and ended with a completely different one. Granted she's the youngest in the class but of course the Japanese side of me feels like "she needs to be pushed or she will never progress". In case anyone is wondering she is 2 going on 3 and not 16 going on 17 and trying to get high scores on her SATs.
So seeing these other kids come and go also makes you feel as a parent 'what's wrong with my kid' but in a normal environment, she would be in the same class for a year so I am not sure why I can't just let this all go.
So instead of dwelling on what she is Not saying I have been focusing more on what she IS saying, and quite frankly this is probably a good lesson in life in general. If we listened a little more for the positive than the negative, it would be a happier place.
Plus, the things she Does say are remarkable and quite fun- "octagon - stop!" is one of my favorites. She is not really telling you to stop but she gets so excited that she has not only found an octagon but another one of those octagon stop signs!
And the one I mentioned earlier really blew me away "I didn't mean to break it mommy" which I have no clue where it came from.
Her favorite seems to be "oh my goodness' which seems so grown up for her age but she uses it on everything along with the "yes please" and "no thank you", I really can't complain.
But of course the favorite is when she quietly leans over and says 'I lub you mama'. I know what it means and that is all that matters.
So sometimes a zen moment is not really needed but just a quiet moment trying to translate my daughter's speech to everyone else is all the meditative practice I need.
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