Bilingual Max at 20 months

Once again, I have They Might be Giants to thank for my child's introduction to numbers and letters. Max, an avid fan of the very appropriately chosen song "E Eats Everything", has been pointing to letters and numbers saying "E" in his little man voice which sounds very much like Bobby Brady in the episode where his voice changes.

Max still hasn't made a complete English sentence yet so I can let my guard down just yet. But, he is making a lot of progress speaking in both English...and French. It's all normal, I keep reminding myself.

Just yesterday, he pointed to the sky and said blue (more like bleu), said "airplane sky" and then pointed to the beater I'd used to make whip cream and said , "Mommy whisk!" He is also able to name more animals and vehicules. He is favoring French for many things but for others, he seems to have understood that there are 2 words.

Last week as I was getting him ready for bed, I turned on the tub and he said "hot....chaud...hot...chaud". Unlike Suzanne, he's not making franglais words but seems to choose one language or the other. He says "milk" but prefers "eau" (Suzanne made up waleau). He says "pain" but prefers "apple" (where Suzanne said bapomme). He will only say "oui" and "pas" but will also only say "read", "car" and "truck" so I think it's a good sign that his English is strong. My theory is that Suzanne was less socialized than Max, being at the nanny's with limited contact to other adults and children and therefore chose English because she heard it more at home. Max, on the other hand, is extremely socialized at the crèche with 20 kids and 5 care givers at any given time. That aside, his English is still progressing well because at home he hears a lot of English because Suzanne and I have constant chatter going on.

There is a lot of mimicking going on which is great. Just this morning, I caught him counting to three just like his sister. His comprehension is great in both languages, which is to be expected. And, besides being incredibly loud and extremely bullheaded, I think I like him...Everything my dear friend E told me about boys is true: they grunt, they climb on everything and they are very very loud. The loud part is a discussion for another post ie loud American genes...

For an idea of what Suzanne was saying at the same age, there is this post from Jan 2008 and this one from Feb 2008.

I'm not really sure how we've done it, but it seems we have made 2 loquacious, language sensitive, intelligent Franco-American beings. Actually, I do know how we did it and I can't attribute it all to good gene pool. I have to pat myself - and my husband - on the back for sticking with it. I honestly think that being rigid and strict with the language system (OPOL) has been the key...Go us!