it happened

When we decided to have children, we also decided that we wanted our children to be bilingual and speak Spanish. D is fluent, with a Ph.D. in Spanish. I took Spanish through high school and a semester in college. We considered many different methods for teaching our children another language and ended up deciding to only speak Spanish with them at home since we knew they would get plenty of English living here. We also heard how difficult it is to get the kids to stick with Spanish when they go to school and all their friends speak English.  D knew that my Spanish is good, but far from perfect, but he agreed that even my making mistakes from time to time was better than my not speaking Spanish with them at all. 

When we started, I only had to speak a few words to the babies. And I got to practice the few phrases over and over. It was great for my ease of speaking because I got really comfortable and started thinking in Spanish as I spoke. But, by age 2, Sylvia was already helping correct my mistakes. Which, is great for me to have a tutor!  I didn't make a whole lot then, because I could still keep the language fairly basic to express what I needed. As the kids have grown, though, I need more and more vocabulary words and still make grammar mistakes. But, so far it has worked. The children all speak beautiful Spanish and still prefer it to English. Their English is also just where it needs to be (say their preschool teachers who hear more of it than we do).

Then yesterday, it happened. After spending a week with an English speaking family for vacation, we were in the car for the long drive home. Sylvia was chatting away with me and at one point I couldn't hear what she said. I'm sure it was in part from the road noise and in part because my Spanish brain doesn't fill in the blanks as easily as my English brain. I asked Sylvia what she said. Sylvia paused, got really pensive, thought for a minute, then asked me in English!  She looked a little uncomfortable doing so, but she knew that I would understand it more easily.

So far, I've been able to say that while I make more grammar mistakes (it's so darn natural for my kids and I still sometimes have to think the rule as I speak), my vocabulary is still stronger. I fear, though, I'm now at the point where the twins have a better ear for Spanish, nearly equivalent vocabulary, and better grammar. And so begins the rest of my life of my children outdoing me. Of course I'm proud of them. So long as they still clean their plates from the table when I ask them to. I'm still the mami!