Hannah's code switching practices

Last Thursday, when Hannah returned from school, I noticed that she spoke to Marta (her baby sitter, or I should say her sitter since Hannah is not a baby any longer) in English and Marta answered in Spanish. She said something like: Apple Marta? And Marta said: Si ya te doy una manzana. This was the first time that I became aware of this pattern (though probably this had been happening for some time already).

I became concerned that if we allowed Hannah to continue doing what she was doing, that is use English to communicate with us and us respond in Spanish), she would become one of those children who have listening (and hopefully reading) skills in Spanish only, with her speaking skills in English. Not that there is anything wrong with this, but I want to make sure that Hannah becomes bilingual and biliterate (for many different reasons).

So what did I decide to do to "solve" the problem? (And of course, I told Marta that we both have to use the same strategy): When I hear Hannah speak to me in English, I tell her: Mami, tu ingles es mucho mejor que el mio y el de Marta, nosotras no te endemos bien asi que hablanos en castellano (Mami, your English is much better than Marta's and mine, we can't understand what you are saying, so please speak to us in Spanish). Of course, she still speaks to us in ENglish, ONLY when she has just gotten back from school. So we will have to keep working on this.

Is it appropriate to bring a child to a business meeting?

Rofucious raised the following questions: "...if I consider something a business meeting, I would not bring my 2-year old toddler to the event. On the other hand, if most parents on the board consider this an informal get-together to simultaneously take care of some business at hand for the preschool, it wouldn't be totally out of context to bring one's child. But then again, if EVERYONE brought their child to the meeting, don't you think there would be quite a bit of distractions and it would take longer to finish the meeting?"



In the past, before I had children, I was critical of colleagues who brought their toddlers to business meeting. Aya Matsuda was the first TESOLer who brought her toddler to committee meetings. Her husband, Paul, was the first man to bring their daughter to TESOL Quarterly editorial meetings. Now, Kana is 5 years old and she attends meetings (of course we are talking about selected meetings).



When I first heard of Kana attending a TQ meeting, I was highly critical: "How could anyone do that? That is so unprofessional." But with time I came to the understanding that in this society, we separate our "private" life from our "professional" life so much that end up by becoming lesser professionals. After all, our personal lives, especially in our field, enhance our professional lives. I am not saying that everyone should bring their children to meetings. What I AM saying is that sometimes there are people whose ONLY way of contributing to an association (or a board in this case) is by bringing a child.

At the same time, bring the child to a meeting give the child an excellent picture of who his or her parent is outside the "mommy" sphere. I think this gives a child an opportunity to see what mommy does outside the "mommy" circle. This is important for me.

Selfish? It could be. But unfortunately the changes I have experienced have not been positive. In the past, I would have brought Hannah to one meeting so that she could see what her mami did. I was PRIVILEGED! And, more importantly, I thought: You know, if you are not priviledged, then it's your problem. Now, I agree with Hillary Clinton: It takes a village to bring up a children. And many of us are NOT privileged. So what should we do? Not contribute?

I have chosen to do the following. Choose activities that : 1. allow me to work from home (like the Eskey award in CATESOL or the TQ Editorial board), 2. allow me to bring my daughter to the meeting (e.g., the Hebrew classes that I wanted to take-the students and the teacher said Bring Hannah, why would that be a problem?), or 3. work to change the system (organize a session in TESOL looking at Rocifuis point--the division between the private and public spheres OR lobby to have TESOL offer child services at the conference--which they will do!).

I want to thank Rofucious for bringing up the question that people who disagree with me will raise! Cheers, Kuki

BITCHING AROUND

I am so pissed off! I volunteered to serve as webmaster for my daughter's school. But I explained that I would have to bring Hannah to the Board meetings because I don't have a baby-sitter at night and I am a single parent.

What is the response of the President of the Board? "Ideally, we don't want kiddos there; makes it harder to get through the business at hand :)" Give ME a break! This is a Board of a Community Pre-School. I have served on the Board of TESOL, I have been President of CATESOL. I serve on the Editorial Board of TQ. I teach at the university. And I would have never EVER told another woman that it's harder to get through business when you have children at hand!

So here was my response to this person: ... unfortunately, I don't have an alternative arrangement for my family situation. So unfortunately, I won't be able to help. Something to consider in a distant future: It could be that as (or if) the school demographics or parents' work schedules change, there might be a need for changes in the policy... (This is actually happening in my professional association where bringing children to our committee meetings was not acceptable in the past and now there has been a change.)In any case, again, thank you to all the parents on the board. You do so much work on behalf of our children!

As I wrote my message, I kept wondering whether it was a good idea to send it out. But I said to myself: YOU HAVE TO! One of the things that I learned from my friend Aya Matsuda is thatyou have to educate people about what it means to be a professional woman or a single parent.

What do YOU think? I'd love to get your comments! Be blunt! Be truthful! Kuki

I'm back.... at least for a while

I'll blog for a couple of weeks and see if I can get back to it.... Too much has happened in these two years but I want to keep focusing on Hannah's language development skills....Cheers, Kuki

Hannah's words....

I am back after taking some time off! I wanted to report on Hannah's speech pattern. Hannah is 16 months old now. She understand everything we say to her in Spanish and English. It's very interesting to see her respond to my commands in Spanish and to Alan's commands in English.

Hannah is also producing words... in Spanish! So we are very happy about this. One of the first words she produced, after mama y papa, was "agua." Water. And now she is saying "aca" (here) and "esto" (this). These are words that we often use with her. When she plays with the magnets, we tell her "ponelos aca" (put them here) and we ask her "queres esto?" (do you want this)? So it's natural that she produces these words and not others.

I will continue posting regularly! Cheers, Kuki

The Year Has Gone Bye Too Fast

Last Saturday was Hannah's birthday. I can remember the day she was born, all the preparations.... How we went to Glendale Memorial Hospital... The anticipation, the nervousness, the excitement! Looking at her for the first time and not believing that she was born! And that she was so small and so big at the same time! And the fear of picking her up and feeding her. So many things happening at the same time...

And now, here we are! One year later. And once again, Hannah seems big at times and so tiny at other times. It's really scary... Especially when things happen and you are so concerned about her well-being... Like now, we lost the post of one of her earings, one more time. And Alan is desperately looking for it because we are afraid that something may happen to her... These earings...But then she tries to do things that make you believe that she is really big and strong. Like when she gets into every basket in the house, regardless of whether the baskets are small or big... She will try and she will manage... And she does great!

But last Saturday was a special day. We went to the mommy and me class in the morning. Donna, Alan's friend from Denver, came with us. Hannah was very active. She became the Andy Warhol of the Kid's Museum. She did some painting! But in reality she painted herself!

Then in the afternoon, we prepared for the party. I gave her a good bath and she slept for an hour or so. And then she was ready to go... Running throughout the house, from one corner to the other, in the backyard, in the family room. She was so excited! And she crushed like a baby!

Reading and Walking....

One of Hannah's favorite past-times is going to the bookcase she has in her room and taking the books out while she looks at their cover. She also has books in the baskets on the floor in her bedroom, so everything is within her reach. So she is always grabbing books off the shelves, even in my office, putting them on the floor and then going through the pages in them.

Today, we went to Kids Space, to participate in the Mommy and me course. She liked it a lot. But what was interesting to see was that when the two workshop leaders picked up a book and started reading, she was the first kid in the room to immediately tune to the books. This was interesting because when it came to games she was not the first one to catch on to them. She would do her own thing for a couple of minutes. But when she heard the teachers reading, she immediately approached them and tried to touch the book. The books were in English, and although she is not used to hearing books in English, she did not reach negatively to them! And she was tired when we left the Kids Space!

Taking these classes is a learning experience for me since I don't have the education in English. So when parents sing the songs, the song about the spider, etc., I never know the words. And I am a little self-conscious. But I say to myself: Well, they don't know the Spanish songs I know! Just kidding... But what is interesting is that if I feel in the minority because I don't know the songs in English, one can only begin to imagine how a child who does not speak English or does not have references in English can feel in the classroom... Not a good feeling!

We had a wonderful time today!!! Kuki
P.S: She also did some artwork.... Well, I did it.... It'

Hannah is learning to say Chau Chau

Hannah has been hearing us say Chau Chau since she was born. Whenever someone leaves the house, we say: Chau Chau. And when I say goodbye to her, I usually say: Chau, Chau, Chauuuu! I also sing a song to her that goes: Chau Chau Adios....And this morning, when I started singing the song, Hannah said: Tau tau, a... I guess this was her attempt at saying Chau, Chau, adios....And the T sound was like the Spanish t....Very interesting.....I tried to record her as she said tau tau, but I did her by putting her in front of the computer and opening audacity..... Not the best way to do it....I will need to find a more naturalistic way to do it! Saludillos, Kuki

Hannah claps her hands!

On Wednesday, May 2, I had to go to Old Town to get estimates about a dinner we want to organize to thank the mentor teachers in the practicum course. So I went to several restaurants...though this is not the story.

What IS the story is that I went into Barnes and Noble and Hannah, for some reason, must have liked the place. She started laughing non-stop! And the more she laughed, the more she got tempted! And she laughed even harder! You could hear her laugh from a distance!

It was incredible... To the point that a woman looked at her and said to me: My God! I can't stop looking at her. Is she always like this? And I said: She is a happy baby but I have to say that she is very excited.... There was a young guy sitting on the floor and reading a book. He kept turning over to look at Hannah. And he smiled and smiled. But he did not say anything....

Then, we went to an Argentine restaurant, Il Capo, and Hannah suddenly started clapping and clapping. She had clapped before. But this time she did it for several seconds. And when I celebrated what she did, she kept doing it.... It was a wonderful day! Kuki

Hannah is walking!

Hannah is walking! Last week, it was only three or four steps at a time. Now, it's non stop! She can walk long distances, like 3-4 meters. And she reminds me of La Momia, a famous wrestler in Argentina, who was part of Martin Karadagian's Titanes en el Ring. For those of you who read Spanish, here is a link to a page that has some info on Titanes en el Ring. http://memorias.todouy.com/memmasinfo9.htm

Also, here is the song that accompanied La Momia as he walked toward the ring:
La Momia, luchador sordo mudo,
es mas fuerte que el acero,es el paladín de la justicia,
La Momia, protege a los buenos, castiga a los malos, y quiere a los niños muy tiernamente,
La Momia es justiciera, La Momia, La Momia,La Momia, La Momia, La Momia... Música aquí.

Hannita reminds me of La Momia because she keeps her body straight and tries to balance her walk with her arms, which are firm. She is so funny! Me hace derretir el corazon cuando la veo caminar! So whenever I see her walking, I start singing the Momia song.

We will be celebrating her first birthday on the 19th! A year has gone by too fast!!! Kuki

The Incredible World of Technology

Today, I participated in an all-day workshop organized by Coastline CC. The objective of the meeting was to help design multimedia materials for EFL students in China. After the Chinese materials have been published, then they will publish materials for Spanish speakers in the US.Why was the meeting so interesting?

The people attending were TESOL faculty members, faculty members from Applied Linguistics programs, the USC people who are doing the work on gaming, people from MIT, and people from Berkely.To hear these people talk about gaming and education was incredible! One of them said that now teenagers use email for "formal" communication purposes. And they use email to send thank you notes to their friends' parents.

So the disconnect between what we, adults do and what teenagers do with technology is incredible!Hannah will experience this incredible and challenging world! Scary but true! Kuki

....And she is trying to walk

Hannah is trying to walk... She is holding me from one hand and she tries to take steps. She has given two or three steps with one of us holding her from one hand. And she is having a lot of fun! She clearly wants to be independent. She is feeding herself and now she is learning how to walk.... She seems so small and in need of protection and then she turns around and she is taking risks! But she is having a lot of fun... She is laughing and enjoying life! Cheers, Kuki

Hannah is feeding herself

How exciting! Hannah wants to feed herself and I have noticed that when she does, she eats more.

I have learned to place the food, cut in relatively big pieces (underline relatively) on her tray. And she starts picking up the food. Of course, I also want her to eat vegetables that I put in a spoon. She will eat them, but she eats a lot more when the food is on the tray. And she has a lot of fun!

Now, I have to convince myself that the area around her chair is going to be full of leftover food. Boy do I love the dustbuster! I used to have it in the garage. Now I have it in the kitchen all the time. It has become another kitchen utensile!

Hannah and dirt....

I should say that besides food, Hannah wants to eat the dirt in the pots. Alan came up with a creative solution. He found the boppy that we used to use when Hannah was born and he put it around Hannah's favorite plant. Of course, she is very frustrated now. She is trying to find an opening to put her hand in... She has not been able to find one but she is still trying.

She has also tried to "attacked" another plant. To my surprise, she has not realized that there is an area where she can reach the plant from.... Thank God for this small favor!

If anyone has any advice, I will welcome it! Cheers,
Kuki

Hannah says Mamá for the first time

On Tuesday, March 20 and Wednesday, May 21, Hannah clearly said Mamá looking at me. On Wednesday we were walking in the parking lot of the Home Expo and Hanni looked at me and very calmly said: Mamá. I got so emotional! It was wonderful!

Hannah's eating habits!

Hannah is going through a phase when she wants to eat everything we eat. For example, if I am eating LaCreme by Dannon, she will want it. I gave her a little to taste and she loved it! SHe was making lots of sounds indicative that she liked what she was eating. She said mah mah mah. And movia la lengua y se relamia los labios! Y se reia como loca!

She did the same with the pizza, and of course, my dad and I felt that the pizza is too spicy for her. So we gave her a little bit of the crust. And she loved it.

And again, she did the same thing with croissants... What can we do? She loves to eat... And she is having fun experimenting....And we are always there to protect her and support her...

Hannah is climbing the stairs!

Tomorrow, February 19, Hannah will turn 9 months. This past week, besides babbling, Hannita has begun to climb the stairs, with us behind her of course. But it's incredible to see how she climbed all of the steps, on her own, without any problems or doubts. When she had three steps left, at the top, she stopped, turned over, and looked at me. So I picked her up and we stopped there.

Hannah is growing so fast! Saludos! Kuki

Hannah's "Babbling"

Hannah is making new sounds. She made the first distinguishable sounds yesterday, the 15, for the first time. And these sounds are beginning to sound like words. She is saying bah bah bah, mah mah mah, and the first one she made was: pah pah pah. She is making sounds non-stop and these sounds are very different from the sounds she made last week. She is a lot more advanced. She is clearer and the sounds are stronger.

There are a lot of people who are afraid that bilingual children's speech will be delayed. In Hannah's case, this does not seem to be the case. It could be because this is her developmental pattern. In fact, so far she has been doing everything "early." SHe began teething when she was three months old. She turned over on her own the day she turned 4 months, she began crawling, with difficulty though, when she was 5 months. So it could be that she will start talking early. However, it could be that my dad's presence, with all the input he gives her, may be helping her. One of the good things about my dad (and there are a lot!) is that he repeats whatever he says to Hannah many times. He also adjusts his speech to meet Hannah's level of understanding. So this is great for Hannah since she hears the same words many times.

The other thing that is happening is that Hannah began to crawl up the stairs! This is scary! But she can do it alone. I think that having the carpet helps. If it were up to hear, she would climb the 18 or 17 steps, with us behind her of course. But we don't let her do it.

It's wonderful to see her grow, healthy and happy! Kuki

Hannah ya esta crawling y trata de pararse

Como pasa el tiempo! Hannah ya crawlea! She is a most confident crawler and she tries to chew on whatever is at hand: paper, toys, trash bags. Just anything! So we are after her all the time....

At the same time, Hannah is trying to stand up. She still does not have balance because she stands on the tip of her feet. But I am sure that she will soon start standing up on her own.

She is using the CD player as a walker. But she learner (how???) to open up the player and tries to get the CD out....Ay Hannita Hannita!

It's wonderful to see her react to new experiences, new noises, new toys, new things that she discovers in the house. I am looking at the world in a whole new different way, because of Hannah. And it't not that I am only talking about a figurative way of looking at the world. Nope. I am lying on the floor with her, so I am at floor level, so I can see things from a different angle!!! Cheers, Kuki

Hannah se da vuelta y esta crawling

Hannah empezo a darse vuelta en la cama, en la crib, en donde sea! Esta semana, la semana de Octubre 2, Hannah empezo a tratar de darse vuelta y daba un 90 degree turn, pero le costaba darse vuelta porque el brazo se la atoraba. Pero en un par de dias, Hannah le gano al brazo! Y empezo a darse vuelta, cada vez mas rapido.

La otra cosa que Hannah esta haciendo es esta empezando a crawlear. Esta crawleando con la cola, como si nadara de espaldas. Y tambien es rapida mi nena! Pero tambien esta luchando para crawlear para abajo. Claro esto le cuesta porque requiere mucha coordinacion. Tiene que empujar con la rodilla y la cola, y tiene que estar para abajo. Pero ya me la veo crawleando en un par de dias.

Ahora, Sabado 7 de octubre, Hanni me esta mirando desde el bouncer mientras yo escribo este texto. Esta muerta de risa, porque el vibrador del bouncy le mueve el culito. Asi que de a ratitos, me mira y dice algo y se rie. Le gusta que la cola se le mueva! Y me mira con cara picara y se rie.... Esta tan linda la gordita! Saludos, Kuki